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Talking Angela

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Where's that other one of you?
This article is about the app. You may be looking for the character.
Where can I find this?
The Chinese version of this game is not available on Google Play and App Store, due to it being the Chinese version. If you want to play the Chinese version of this game, you can find the APK here!



Talking Angela is an interactive-based game app created by Outfit7, and it was released on the 18th of December, 2012 for iOS devices. This app is preceded by I Want To Be Big and succeeded by My Learn Go.

It can be downloaded on the Play Store and the App Store.

Features[]

Talking[]

Screenshot 2024-03-05-18-23-42


This feature requires the microphone to be enabled on the device. When something is spoken into the microphone, Angela will repeat it back.

Gift box[]

The waiter will give Angela a gift wrapped in a box.

Drink[]

The waiter will give a different drink to Angela. Each drink creates side effects, such as seeing the world in a dizzy way.

Feed the birds[]

Angela will throw bird seeds and a flock of birds will come eat it.

  • Formerly, there were two buttons for four different animations, but in later versions, they were merged in one single button.

Fortune cookie[]

The waiter will give Angela a chocolate fortune cookie and it will reveal a paper with a quote. However, in old versions if Angela is angry, you won't get a fortune cookie which is a punishment for insulting Angela.

Clothes hanger[]

New clothes and accessories for Angela can be bought with coins. If the app is uninstalled and then reinstalled, all purchases will be automatically restored.

Eyewear[]

Headwear[]

Jewelry[]

Handbags[]

Makeup[]

Socks[]

Street[]

Camera/film[]

This button will record the screen. Unlike most video recording apps, outside sound can be easily heard if it is nearby the device. There is no option for it to only record internal sound.

Facecam[]

This former feature allowed the player to turn on their webcam and interact with angela for example angela could smile or stick out her tongue or even show emotions.

Info[]

The lowercase "i" button gives a page that reveals info about the app.

Chat[]

This former feature allowed Angela to have conversations with the player. Users could type in the chat box and Angela would respond back. The feature was removed from the app on March 8, 2016 in version 2.6. It was said to be due to the eyes rumors, but it turns out it may be also due to copyright infringement, as the chatbot mentions many brands, such as Apple products, YouTube and TiVo.

Commands (old versions only)[]

Sing to me[]

If you use this command, you will be able to see the That's Falling In Love teaser.

Tell me a joke[]

Using this command will have Angela tell a joke for you.

Buy drink[]

Using this command will have Angela say a list of drinks.

Development[]

Talking Angela was created in collaboration with Brillig Understanding, Inc., and was lead developed and designed by the founders of the company Bruce and Sue Wilcox, who had previous experience with AI. The chatbot used for the game was a program called "ChatScript", something Bruce Wilcox had designed himself. The app was targeted at teenagers, and was designed to touch on personality, backstory, and development. Angela herself was designed to be an 18-year old voice and capture the teenage personality by being all about her feelings, making her sometimes rude, selfish or sassy also having her react to your comments about her.[1]

The intent they strived for was having users emotionally attach to Angela. The chatbot itself was designed to understand the vagaries of language, and when put to the test by a judge at the 2012 Chatbot Battles, it came out second, only due to an error in interpreting what the judge meant.[1]

Characters[]

Controversy[]

HoaxImages2014

Widely circulated edited images of Angela's eye.

AngelaEyeBF2016

Angela's eye before 2015.

In early 2013, a hoax spread that the Talking Angela app was controlled by a ring of child predators that would track the user data and ask them for personal information, such as the user's name and age, the user would then be able to answer the questions using the chat feature. This was based on the fact that a man can be seen in the reflection of Angela's eyes. It has since been largely disproven,[3] as the app's Child Mode prevented children from using the chat feature. The hoax was revived in 2014, which led to the app making its way into the top 10 most downloaded iPhone apps. On the 8th of March, 2016, Outfit7 removed the app's chat feature because of this controversy. Despite the chat feature being deleted, many new reviews on the App Store and Google Play Store still bring up the hoax and claim that it still exists.

In truth, the reason there seems to be a "man" in Angela’s eyes is a combination of Pareidolia and how reflective surfaces are handled in video game creation. To make realistic reflections, objects like mirrors, bodies of water, and shiny objects require a base image to reflect off of. The reason why the the reflection looks like a room or human face is due to a phenomenon known as Pareidolia, which is when the mind perceives vague objects as something else, particularly faces.. In the case of Talking Angela, her eyes simply serve as a reflective surface, and due to the low quality of the base image for this reflection, the reflection was mistaken for a humanoid figure.

Trivia[]

  • Despite Angela getting a redesign in the app, you can still see her old design on the "My items" icon.
  • In old versions, there existed a face button. If you pressed the button, the app would open the devices camera and recognizes your facial expressions. If a valid expression was detected, Angela would imitate it. She was able to yawn, smile, signal "no" by nodding, and sticking out her -tongue. This was later removed in a 2016 update, likely due to the "predator in her eyes" rumors.
  • In old versions of the app, users were actually able to trigger Angela to swear by typing "Who is an idiot?", to which Angela would respond with "I choose" and say two random offensive insults. This also happened in Tom Loves Angela, as it also had a chat feature.
    • You could also make Angela swear by saying "Who is an emocurse?" or "Who be an emocurse?".
  • When the app had the chat feature, if you asked Angela if the waiter is Ben, Angela would respond by saying that she does not know his name and that it's not Ben.[4]
    • This is later contradicted by Outfit7's 10 Years of Fun! video, which labels the waiter as Talking Ben.[5]
  • In the app files, it is possible to find inappropriate names for the sound of Angela's tail touch, which are "pokeAss4.wav" and "pokeAss8.wav." A similar thing happens in Talking Santa and My Talking Tom.
  • When the chat feature was available, if the user asked about restaurants, or simply what's popular in France, Angela would mention the popular family diner McDonald's.
    • The same business would make crossovers with Talking Tom & Friends later on two occasions.
  • The Talking Friends Superstars made a cameo appearance in the old version of app as a street item. In the shop, they could be purchased for 490 coins. They have been removed since an unknown version, however.
  • On December 12, 2014, Angela was redesigned in version 2.4, after Angela's first design had begun using clothing.
  • The 2013-2016 icon is taken from Tom's Love Letters's oldest icon but Angela has different ears. Unlike the other icon, it also has a pink screen instead of light and dark purple and there's no border box.
  • Almost all street items in the app make sounds, but some don’t.
  • The street item, Tablet With My Talking Tom, used to take you to the App Store or Google Play Store if you want to install that app. But now in newer versions it will no longer take you to the App Store or Google Play Store if you want to install My Talking Tom.
  • Due to the server shutdown, you cannot access the old version of the wardrobe. The only way to access the wardrobe is to play one of the chat version mods.
  • In older versions, Angela used to have no clothes on, but it was later changed in version 2.4.
  • This is the last app to have Larry as a recurring character.
  • This is also the last app to have scoped storage. The next game, Angela's Valentine, didn't have scoped storage.
  • The chatbot in this game, alongside with the one in Tom Loves Angela, doesn't respond with phrases based on artificial intelligence. Instead, the developers added a list of phrases and words available in the game's files. The chatbot can only respond with those phrases, that are in the game's files.
    • This includes the profane words that Angela responds with when asked "Who is an idiot?". It is unknown as to why these phrases were added.

Bugs[]

  • As of Android 12, older versions of this app from 2014-2015 can not be played. If the app is opened, the app will crash. It is caused by scoped storage not allowing the app to create the folder for this app in the android/data directory. The solution to this problem is to manually create the folder with the app's package name in that directory, but the phone has to have root access.

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.cnet.com/science/talking-angela-programmer-talks-hoaxes-ai-mastery-q-a/
  2. ↑ In the game's files, the sound files for Larry are called pigeons_feed_loop, pigeons_flyAway, pigeons_intro and pigeons_lookatAngela
  3. ↑ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/talking-angela-warning/
  4. ↑ https://talkingfriends.fandom.com/wiki/File:Talking_Angela_WaiterisnotBen-screenshot.jpg
  5. ↑ https://talkingfriends.fandom.com/wiki/File:The_Waiter_Is-Ben.jpg
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