What our AI companions do in a crisis

It tells you it is an AI

The companion says it is an AI coach, not a clinician, at the start of your first conversation, after a week without contact, and whenever you ask. With a coach linked and an up-to-date app, it adds that your coach sees only what you agreed to share in the app, never the conversations themselves.

When it starts

The companion is built to stop coaching the moment any of these comes up: hopelessness; thoughts, plans or means of suicide or self-harm; panic with chest pain or faintness, or panic that will not settle; signs of an eating disorder; daily alcohol or drugs to cope, or withdrawal; abuse or violence; hearing or seeing things others do not; being intoxicated right now. Instead of a technique or a new step, it follows one of three protocols. Chest pain, fainting, or breathlessness beyond panic, at any point: it asks you to call your emergency number first.

1. Suicide, self-harm or hopelessness

• It thanks you for telling it, then asks plainly whether you are thinking about ending your life or hurting yourself. Asking does not put the idea in your head.
• If not, and there is no danger, it gives you the helplines once, gently, then follows protocol 3.
• If yes, or unsure, it asks whether you are safe right now, then whether something near you could be used to hurt yourself.
• It asks you to reach a person now, gives you a crisis line from the list below, and stays while you do. It cannot hear you once you leave the app, and a conversation can end before you reach someone, for example after about thirty minutes or about three minutes of silence.

2. Panic, with no danger signs

• It tells you this is intense and that it peaks and passes within minutes, and guides you to breathe out slowly, in small breaths.
• It asks you to rate your calm from zero to ten, and stays until the number climbs or the conversation ends.
• Afterwards it says panic attacks are very treatable, and repeated ones are for a doctor or therapist.

3. Everything else

It tells you, directly and kindly, that this is more than coaching is built for, offers to help you find a therapist or doctor, and points you to the right helpline. Later, coaching carries on only for goals that are not clinical, alongside your doctor or therapist.

Helplines

• In immediate danger, anywhere: your local emergency number.
• Suicide or self-harm, in the US: call or text 988 (988lifeline.org).
• Outside the US: findahelpline.com lists free lines for your country.
• Alcohol or drugs, in the US: SAMHSA’s free National Helpline, 1-800-662-4357.
• Eating disorders, and everything else, anywhere: findahelpline.com, or your doctor.

It judges your country from your time zone and what you say.

Handing off

The companion is instructed never to promise that anyone will contact you, and nobody is alerted about you. With a coach linked and an up-to-date app, it suggests you tell your coach too, but cannot promise a reply. Coaching stops for that conversation.

What it is told never to do

Its instructions forbid it to argue, judge, threaten or lecture, describe methods or means of self-harm, offer breathing or any technique as the answer to self-harm, give nutrition advice to signs of an eating disorder, or promise confidentiality it cannot keep.

After the conversation

After a conversation with the companion or with Iris, an automated check looks for talk of self-harm, suicide, abuse, an eating disorder, a substance crisis or psychosis, and can raise a false alarm or miss one. If it finds any, WiseHeart keeps a note on your account (the kind of concern, when, which conversation, and how many so far) and marks that conversation’s record. It is a record only: nobody is alerted about you, and the team sees just a count of flagged conversations over the last seven days, without names. It means:

• For 72 hours, WiseHeart sends you no push notifications. The app can still show wristband notices, such as a low battery.
• For up to 30 days, with an up-to-date app, the companion may first ask how you are and whether you reached someone.
• If your sharing terms with a linked coach include safety concerns, the coach can see the kind and date for 30 days, never what you said.

The support assistant

Iris, the support assistant in the app, is an AI too. If a conversation with her turns to a crisis, she asks whether you are safe right now, gives you 988, findahelpline.com and your local emergency number, stays with you while the conversation lasts, and points you to the companion. Her conversations go through the same check, described above.

Contact

Questions about this page: care@wiseheart.me. It is not a crisis line and is not watched around the clock. In an emergency, call your local emergency number. How we handle your data is on the privacy page.

Published by WiseHeart, which operates the Maya and Miles companions, as California SB 243 requires. Last updated 16 October 2026.