---
title: "Character.AI"
description: "Growth and monetization features for a conversational AI platform with ~15.5M monthly active users, across mobile and web."
url: "https://ianbandeira.dev/projects/character-ai"
language: "en"
---

# Character.AI

Growth and monetization features for a conversational AI platform with ~15.5M monthly active users, across mobile and web.

- **Role:** Senior Product Engineer
- **Year:** 2026
- **Tech stack:** React Native, TypeScript, CI/CD, CodeQL
- [character.ai](https://character.ai)

![Character.AI screenshot](https://ianbandeira.dev/posters/character-ai.jpg)

## The work

I'm a full-stack and mobile product engineer at Character.AI, a leading conversational AI platform with roughly 15.5M monthly active users. I drive user-facing growth features and the monetization and platform infrastructure behind them.

## Highlights

- **CAI+ upsell in onboarding.** A subscription offer shown right after users finish onboarding. It drove thousands in additional monthly subscription revenue (+XX% gross)**, one of the biggest monetization wins of the year.
- **Following tab.** A dedicated discovery feed for the creators you follow: **+XX.XX%** following activity and **+XX.XX%** more users following creators.
- **Recent Chat Tabs**, **block/unblock**, **Character Boost** and **Character Preset Wallpapers**, across mobile and web.
- **CI/CD overhaul**, cutting build times by more than half.

### The numbers behind it

- **CAI+ upsell:** measured over a two-month experiment. Activation rates held steady and renewal and retention cohorts tracked in line with existing subscribers, for a negligible (-0.44%) DAU trade-off.
- **Following tab:** besides the engagement gains, active subscribers grew **XX.XX%**.
- **Recent Chat Tabs:** quick navigation between recent conversations, liked characters and owned characters. It set the pattern for tab-based navigation that later features follow.
- **Block/unblock:** built end to end: the backend integration, the full user path on mobile and web, and the analytics instrumentation.
- **Character Preset Wallpapers:** more personalization options, which increased user activation.
- **Build infrastructure:** cold-start builds are about **57%** faster and warm-start builds about **82%** faster. I also refactored the CodeQL security-scanning pipeline, cutting its runtime by **61%**.

## Stories

- [Taming the keyboard](https://ianbandeira.dev/projects/character-ai/stories/taming-the-keyboard.md): Joining an app with millions of users, and unifying keyboard handling as my first big contribution.

[All work](https://ianbandeira.dev/index.md)