For more than a decade, Amino was home to fandom communities, public roleplay chats and character wikis built from templates people passed around. In December 2025 the app stopped loading and never came back. There was no announcement, no export tool and no archive from the company.
Ten months later, the same question keeps appearing in the same places: where did everyone go? We read the answers people got, checked each replacement against its own pages and store listings, and put it all in one place.
The short answer
No single app replaced Amino. Its roleplayers scattered by what they needed:
- Group roleplay and chat: Discord, where many communities rebuilt.
- An app that looks like Amino: Kyodo, the closest copy and the most mentioned, though in our sample it drew more complaints than recommendations. Aminoka and a few newer clones are smaller still.
- Character wikis: Toyhouse, World Anvil, Tumblr or plain documents you control.
- Finding a partner: Reddit partner-search boards and Discord hubs.
- In Russian: Telegram chats, VK and Worols.
- Partner search and character profiles in one app: FictionCore, our app for adult roleplayers, available on Google Play for Android.
In 22 public Reddit threads where people asked where to go next, Kyodo came up in 88 comments and Discord in 60. No other platform appeared in more than 12.
What happened to Amino
Amino never published a shutdown notice, so the record is pieced together from archives and support replies:
- 2012–2025. Narvii launched Amino in the early 2010s: interest communities with chats, posts and wiki pages. MediaLab AI bought it around 2020–21; Amino’s founders later said in a lawsuit that the deal was agreed in January 2020. The Android app’s store page last showed an update on 21 July 2025.
- Early December 2025. The app and website stopped loading for everyone.
- 12 December 2025. Archive Team recorded that the domain’s address record was removed and the app had gone from the stores. From 16 December, volunteers saved part of the public content.
- 19 December 2025. The date Amino’s support later gave for ceasing operations. In January 2026 support told users that personal data was no longer kept and that no copy could be provided.
- 19 October 2026. When we checked, aminoapps.com still didn’t resolve and the app’s Google Play page returned “not found”.
The contrast with Guilded, a chat platform some groups had also used, is telling. It also closed on 19 December 2025, but Roblox announced the closure on 29 September almost three months ahead. Amino’s users got no warning at all.
What roleplayers lost
When an r/amino thread asked what people liked about the app, the answers were roleplay, OC wikis and templates, chats including voice, and how easy it was to find people who wrote the way you did. Two commenters compared that last point directly with Discord, where a message in a busy server is easy to miss.
That is why there’s no clean replacement. Amino bundled four jobs into one app, and each now lives somewhere different:
| What Amino did | Where it lives now | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Fandom communities | Kyodo, Aminoka, Reddit, Tumblr | Kyodo is closest but far smaller |
| Roleplay chats | Discord; Telegram in Russian | Each server is an island, so finding one is work |
| Character wikis | Toyhouse, World Anvil, Tumblr, docs | Toyhouse needs an invite; World Anvil’s free plan is public |
| Finding a partner | Reddit boards, Discord hubs | Ads sink quickly in busy feeds |
Discord: where many groups rebuilt
Discord was already familiar, free and good at chat, so many groups rebuilt there. A roleplay community on Discord is a server with channels for scenes, out-of-character talk and character sheets, and a bot such as Tupperbox can post messages as your characters.
What it doesn’t have is Amino’s front door, where every fandom had its own community one tap away. Roleplay servers are found through directories such as Disboard, Reddit or word of mouth, and each server sets its own rules and age limit. Since September 2026, Discord also sorts accounts into adult, teen and unconfirmed groups, and age-restricted spaces need the adult group. Discord has been blocked in Russia since 2024.
If you’re looking for a group rather than a server to run, our study of 294 group ads covers what to ask before you join.
Kyodo: the closest copy, with mixed reviews
Kyodo organises its communities into “circles” around fandoms, games and roleplay, with chats, customisable layouts and moderator tools. That makes it the closest thing to Amino’s structure, and the platform the threads mention most. On 19 October 2026 it had more than 100,000 installs on Google Play, a score of 3.8 from 2,639 reviews and a Teen age rating. On the US App Store it scored 4.2 from 193 ratings, with a 17+ age rating. Both versions were updated in September 2026, and its App Store listing names only English.
We read 40 randomly chosen comments and posts that mentioned Kyodo. Twenty were complaints, twelve recommended it and eight were neutral. The same complaints kept coming up: few active people, roleplay requests that go unanswered, bugs that stay open for weeks, and moderation that feels arbitrary. The recommendations were usually some version of “it’s the closest thing we have”. Four of the 22 threads had titles criticising Kyodo, so the sample leans negative, but the same complaints appear across threads.
Aminoka and the newer clones
Aminoka is a web app with iPhone and Android apps, built by former Amino users in Paris. It offers communities, chat, a separate persona for each community and an OC library. It’s free, funded by ads and an optional subscription, and meant for ages 13 and up. It says it isn’t affiliated with Amino and can’t import anything, because Amino never offered an export. Its App Store page went live on 10 December 2025 and had a 2.1 rating from 29 ratings on 19 October 2026.
Other apps came up in no more than 12 comments each. Treat any app that promises to bring your Amino community back with caution: none of them can. Personal data is gone, though some public posts and images survive in fan archives such as amino.rip.
For characters and wikis
If what you miss is the wiki where your OCs lived, you don’t need a community app at all. Toyhouse is built around character profiles and galleries but still requires an invite code. World Anvil works as a public wiki for worlds, with private pages on paid plans. Tumblr still hosts roleplay blogs and OC posts. Our comparison of where to keep OCs and worldbuilding checks each of them, including what happens to your work if the service closes. If your old OC profiles need a refresh, our character sheet templates are a good place to start.
For finding a partner
Amino’s communities doubled as partner search: you posted in your fandom’s community and someone who liked the same characters answered. That job has moved to Reddit boards such as r/RoleplayPartnerSearch and to partner-search hubs on Discord. Our guide to where to find a roleplay partner compares the main options and their rules.
If you roleplay in Russian
The Russian-language posts we found about the closure point to two places: roleplay chats on Telegram, and Worols, a Russian platform for text roleplay with quick anonymous games, longer games with locations and dice, and ads for finding partners. Its blog suggests tags for finding people you knew on Amino. We found no data on how many people actually moved to either. Kyodo’s and Aminoka’s App Store listings name only English.
Don’t lose everything twice
Amino’s real lesson is that a platform can take your characters with it. A few habits protect you on any service:
- Keep a master copy of every character and world in a file you own. A document or a notes app on your own device outlives any community.
- Know what an export actually saves. Discord’s data package includes the messages you sent, not your partner’s replies, so it won’t preserve a scene. Tumblr exports a whole blog from its website.
- Copy finished scenes into a document when a story arc ends, while both of you can still read them.
- Swap a second contact with the people you’d hate to lose.
FictionCore: partner search and characters in one app
FictionCore is our app for text roleplay: adult roleplayers use it to find partners and groups, share plots and build characters and worlds. It isn’t a community app with chats, so it won’t replace Amino’s chat rooms. Instead, it takes on two of the other jobs in the table above:
- Finding a partner. On the Find boards, one for partners and one for groups, fandom or original setting, genre, post length and reply pace have their own fields and filters. An ad stays up for 24 hours at most, so the feed holds no month-old requests.
- Character wikis. Worldbuilding holds characters, places, factions and lore, linked to each other. Only you can see them until you choose to publish, and finished characters can go on your profile.
After Amino, what happens to your work matters too. Under FictionCore’s Terms, you keep the rights to what you write. There’s no export button yet, but you can request a copy of your data by email: the Privacy Policy follows the EU’s GDPR.
FictionCore is available on Google Play for Android. The roleplay itself happens on a service you and your partner choose. And FictionCore is for adults only, which rules out Amino’s younger users.
How we checked
- Facts about Amino and Guilded come from Archive Team’s project page, Wikipedia’s account of Amino support’s statements (and Guilded’s closing date), Forbes on the founders’ lawsuit, an archived copy of Amino’s Google Play page from 4 December 2025, the amino.rip about page and Roblox’s developer forum announcement, read on 19 October 2026. We checked the domain and the current Google Play page ourselves that day.
- Store figures come from the US App Store, through Apple’s public lookup, and from Google Play’s US pages on 19 October 2026. Ratings and install counts change daily.
- Reddit threads. We read 22 public threads from December 2025 to October 2026 that asked where to go after Amino or discussed replacements, most from r/amino and three from other communities, and counted how many of the 441 loaded comments named each platform. A comment that names a platform isn’t proof that its author moved there. We also hand-coded 40 random comments that mentioned Kyodo.
- Privacy. We publish only counts, without quotes or usernames.
Questions people ask
When did Amino shut down?
The app and website stopped working in early December 2025. Archive Team recorded the domain and store listings disappearing on 12 December, and Amino support later gave 19 December 2025 as the date operations ceased.
Why did Amino shut down?
Nobody official has said. Its owner, MediaLab AI, made no public statement, and support replies only confirmed that operations had ended.
Can I get my Amino data back?
Not from Amino. Support told users in January 2026 that personal data was no longer kept and that no copy could be provided. Archive Team volunteers saved part of the public content in December 2025, but the archive is incomplete; fan-run indexes such as amino.rip let you search some of it.
Is Kyodo the same as Amino?
No. Kyodo is a separate app built on the same idea of interest communities, which it calls circles. It isn’t run by Amino’s owners, has none of Amino’s data and is much smaller.
What is the best Amino alternative for roleplay?
It depends on the part you miss. For group roleplay and chat, many communities chose Discord. For an app that feels like Amino, Kyodo is the one named most often. For character wikis, use Toyhouse, World Anvil or documents you control, and for one-on-one partners, Reddit boards and Discord hubs. If you want partner search and a home for your characters in one app, FictionCore, our app for adult roleplayers, is available on Google Play for Android.
Where do I find roleplay partners now that Amino is gone?
On Reddit’s partner-search boards, in Discord hubs, and on FictionCore, an app for finding roleplay partners and groups where fandom, genre, post length and reply pace have their own fields and filters. Our guide to where to find a roleplay partner compares them all.
Is Amino coming back?
There’s no sign of it. No revival has been announced, and personal data is gone, so even a new app called Amino couldn’t restore old communities.
Before you rebuild anywhere, save one copy of your characters where no company can switch it off.