Sesame launches its iOS app: four voice agents with memory that want to replace the chatbot

Sesame—the conversational AI startup co-founded by Brendan Iribe, former CEO of Oculus, and Ankit Kumar, former CTO of Ubiquity6—published on May 28, 2026the preview of its app for iOS. It is not another text chatbot: it is a commitment to voice as the main interface, with four agents – Maya, Miles, Simone and Charlie – who remember past conversations, search the web while they speak and pivot mid-sentence if new information appears. The web experience on app.sesame.com is still active; The mobile app expands the reach with text, notes and incognito mode.

From app.sesame.com to iPhone

Sesame came out of stealth in February 2025 with a Research Preview website where millions of people tested Maya and Miles. According to Sequoia, more than one million users generated five million minutes of conversation in the first weeks—before even having a native app. The conversational layer does not convert text to speech with a generic TTS: it generates speech directly, with rhythm, emotion and pauses that mimic human dialogue.

With the Sesame: Personal Agents app (App Store), the startup adds Simone and Charlie to Maya and Miles. Each agent has a different official description, according to the Getting started guide:

• Maya — warm and creative; narrator and companion of ideas.
• Miles — relaxed and direct; the ally that tells you what you need to hear.
• Simone — curious and intellectual; turns any topic into an expedition.
• Charlie — witty and approachable; the friend with whom you share obsessions.

Think-aloud conversation

The challenge that Sesame poses in its official announcement is well known: responding quickly often sacrifices precision, and thinking more slowly breaks the natural flow. The company's solution combines low latency, parallel search and a model that can weave results as you speak, even changing direction mid-sentence — as a person would do when remembering a new piece of information. TechCrunch sums it up: it's not rigid ChatGPT-style turn-taking, but continuous dialogue.

In the iOS app, Sesame internally calls this layer the "curiosity engine": agents for learning, discovering and reflecting in the in-between moments of the day—the commute to work, a walk in the park—without requiring a perfect prompt.

Mobile preview functions

During the beta, Sesame incorporated tools that enrich the voice without forcing you to look at the screen:

• Search cards — results with images to visualize concepts instantly.
• Notes — automatic notes with the key points of the conversation.
• Texting — text mode when speaking out loud is not practical.
• Deep Dives — longer, more detailed answers on a topic.
• Incognito Mode — the agent uses previous context, but does not store anything new in memory.

Memory, privacy and limits

Memory is by agent: what you tell Miles is not shared by Maya. This separation reinforces the feeling of relationship with a specific character, not with a generic assistant. According to the App Store listing, Sesame promises no ads, no data sales, and on-demand deletion. Calls last up to 30 minutes with a session logged in (5 minutes without web login), instantly restartable.

«Today our agents can think with you; We will soon share more about what they can do for you. This iOS preview is an important step towards smart glasses (2027) and more. »

The model behind: CSM and the B Series

In March 2025, Sesame opened the base model CSM-1B (Conversational Speech Model) under Apache 2.0 license in Hugging Face. It uses a backbone from the Llama de Meta family plus an audio decoder with RVQ (residual vector quantization). The tuned variant drives Maya. TechCrunch then pointed out the absence of robust safeguards in the open model — a risk that the company mitigates in the product with security policies. use.

In October 2025, Sesame closed a $250 million Series B led by Sequoia, with participation from Spark and other investors. The capital finances both the conversational software and the hardware: smart glasses with quality audio and integrated agent, planned for 2027. Iribe has described the goal as bringing AI to everyday life in an environmental way—first in your pocket, then on your face.

How to try Sesame

To get started, download the app or go to app.sesame.com, choose an agent from the selector above and place a call or text message. Sesame recommends open-ended questions: a pending project, a difficult decision, or a topic you've been thinking about for days. If the conversational agents category confirms its traction – as the million users of the web preview suggested –, 2026 may be the year in which voice stops being an accessory for Siri or ChatGPT and becomes the main product.