FAQ.
Short answers, with links.
The questions buyers ask most often before and after installing.
01General
Does it work without my own AI key?
Only in demo mode, with labelled demo replies. For real answers you need an account and key with at least one chat provider, billed to you (Costs).
Which AI providers can I use?
Chat: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint (OpenRouter, Groq, DeepSeek, Together, Mistral, a self-hosted Ollama reachable from the internet). Images: OpenAI, Google Imagen, fal.ai, Stability AI; image edit: OpenAI, fal.ai; remove background and upscale: fal.ai. Video: fal.ai, Replicate. Natural voices: OpenAI, ElevenLabs, Gemini. Transcription: OpenAI, Deepgram, Gemini (AI providers). Each one is your own account, and you pay your own usage.
Can I mix providers?
Yes. Each model in the catalog points at one provider, so the app can offer, for example, an Anthropic model to free users and a Gemini model to users of one of your plans.
Do my users' conversations go to my server?
They pass through your backend to the provider and are not stored there. Chats are saved on the device; the optional backup is the user's choice (Privacy).
Is there a web version?
The web build is for demos (simulated ads and purchases, no video export). The product targets Android and iOS (Deployment).
Does the video editor work in the browser?
The editor opens in the web demo with a labelled sample clip, but export runs only in the Android and iOS apps (Video Studio).
Can I show news from any website in Discover?
Only from feeds whose publishers allow it. Every default feed ships off; read each publisher's terms before you switch one on (Discover).
Does the age check verify the user's age?
No. It is a self-confirmation checkbox ("I am 17 or older"). It does not check documents or estimate age (Security).
Can I rename and rebrand it?
Yes: name, tagline, colour and texts in the console, the name under the icon, the icon and the app id in the code (Customization). Do not use another company's trademark as the name.
02Money
How does the app make money?
Up to four subscription plans (with lifetime options), credit packs, Remove ads, and ads with optional rewarded unlocks, all off by default and sold only through Google Play and App Store in-app purchase (Monetisation). Income depends on your users, prices and costs, and there is no promise of any amount.
Where do I set the prices of my plans?
In Google Play Console and App Store Connect. The console has no price field; the app shows the stores' prices and computes the yearly discount ribbon from them (Plans).
Can a user share one subscription across accounts?
No. One purchase entitles one account at a time; restoring it on another account moves it (In-app purchases).
Does the author take a share?
No. The code pays and reports nothing to the author. Stores and ad networks take their own commission or share.
How do I stop provider costs from running away?
Allowances per user and per plan, global daily caps (AI calls, images, video jobs, voice characters, transcription minutes), credit costs per model and max output tokens in the console, plus spending limits at the provider and a Google Cloud budget alert (Keep the bill predictable).
03Ads
Ads do not show, although everything looks set up. Why?
Most often: a placement is off, the app was not restarted after saving, the test user is on a plan with "No ads", a unit id is empty in a release build, or the network has no fill yet for a new unit. Console → Status, check "Ad ids set for what is switched on", names missing ids. Full checklist: Ads → common problems.
How do I make sure no test ids go into my store build?
Run tool/check_ad_ids.sh --release in app/; it fails while the AdMob app id is still Google's test id. Test unit ids are only used in debug builds, never in release builds (Ads → test ids).
Rewarded ads with SSV: the callback never arrives.
Check the callback URL <API_BASE_URL>/v1/rewarded/ssv on the right AdMob rewarded unit, the console switch, and that only AdMob serves rewarded ads (Ads → SSV callbacks).
Which names can I write in a waterfall?
admob, unity and ironsource, one per line. Anything else is skipped and shown on the Status page (Ads → waterfall).
Does the app contain the author's ad ids?
No. Only Google's public test ids ship; every unit id is empty until you enter yours (Ads → credentials).
04Technical
Can I run the backend somewhere other than Firebase?
The API is a portable Hono app (firebase/functions/src/api) with no Firebase imports; the shipped deployment is Cloud Functions with Firestore, Storage, Auth and FCM. Another host means writing your own adapters for those ports (ports.ts), which is outside item support.
Do I need to change code when I add a model?
No. Add it on Console → Chat models (Put a model in the app).
Why does a change in the console not show in the app?
The app loads the configuration when it starts, and the API caches it for 60 seconds. Close and reopen the app.
Why do I need a terminal on Windows?
The commands in these pages are written for macOS and Linux. On Windows run them in WSL or Git Bash (Using a terminal).
Why is there a "Sample" label everywhere in the console?
ADMIN_DATA=sample is set. Leave it empty on your install (Configuration).