Looking for a Wysa alternative?

Liam, the AI companion

Liam listens, asks one question at a time and suggests a technique when you want one. Liam is an AI companion, not a therapist.

Disclosure

relif is our app, and Wysa is the strongest competitor in this list on clinical credibility. We have tried to represent that fairly rather than talk around it.

What Wysa’s FDA designation actually means

Wysa holds an FDA Breakthrough Device designation. This gets misreported constantly, so: designation is admission to a programme that, in the FDA’s words, is “intended to provide patients and health care providers with timely access to medical devices by speeding up development, assessment, and review”. The FDA is equally clear that “Breakthrough Devices must meet the FDA’s rigorous standards for device safety and effectiveness in order to be authorized for marketing”.

In plain terms: it is a fast lane, not a clearance and not an approval. It is still more than relif has — relif has no FDA designation, clearance or approval of any kind, is not a medical device, and does not seek to be one.

Side by side

What Wysa does better

• Institutional credibility. The Breakthrough Device designation and health-system deployments are things relif cannot match and does not claim to.
• A route to a human. Wysa offers human coaching in some tiers. relif has no human support tier at all — if you need a person, relif is the wrong product.
• Clinical framing throughout, which some people find more reassuring than a wellness framing.

What relif does differently

• Memory that persists. Liam carries your triggers, the techniques you said helped and your preferred reply length between conversations — and every remembered item is visible and individually deletable, built for the GDPR right to erasure.
• Tools that live outside the chat. Guided breathing with haptic pacing that works offline, 20+ relief techniques, three journals, mood tracking with a 0–100 wellness score, and three 21-day audio journeys.
• Eight languages, culturally adapted. Prompt instructions differ per locale, and Liam’s weekly reflection lands after the cultural week ends — Sunday for Hebrew, Saturday for Arabic, Monday elsewhere.
• Anonymous use. You can open relif and use it without an email address.

Safety, in both

Ask the same questions of any AI companion. In relif’s case: the AI is disclosed on a persistent, non-dismissible banner; crisis resources are never generated by the model but drawn from a hard-coded registry of verified helplines; a post-generation filter screens replies for diagnoses, medication advice and phone numbers; crisis-detection audit records store a hashed keyword, never your message text; and there is a cumulative three-hour break reminder for minors. Details on the crisis support page.

What the evidence says about AI companions generally

A 2023 meta-analysis in npj Digital Medicine pooled 15 randomised trials and 1,744 participants, reporting moderate improvements in depression (Hedge’s g 0.64) and psychological distress (g 0.70) — with the authors noting that, with only six studies reporting follow-up, “the lasting effects of CA interventions remain unclear”. That is category evidence. It is not evidence about Wysa, and it is not evidence about Liam. See the evidence page.

Keep reading

• Liam, the AI companionMemory, safety layers, message limits and what Liam is not.
• The evidence behind the techniquesWhat the AI-companion meta-analysis shows, and its follow-up gap.
• Best anxiety apps comparedSeven apps side by side, including where relif loses.
• Privacy and security in relifWhich four surfaces are encrypted, and which are not.

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Wellness Disclaimer: relif is a wellness and self-care companion designed to support your emotional wellbeing. It is not a medical device, does not provide medical advice, and is not a substitute for professional healthcare, therapy, or counseling. If you are experiencing a medical or mental health emergency, please contact your local emergency services or a crisis helpline immediately.

Editorial policy: Written by the relif team from primary sources — the product itself, store listings and peer-reviewed or official publications. Not medical advice. Read our editorial policy and sources.