Did Limitless go out of business?

No. The company was acquired, not shut down. Limitless was the AI pendant brand that originated from Rewind (the desktop memory product); both came from the same team. They didn't fail commercially — they accepted a Meta acquisition. The standalone pendant product line was wound down as part of that deal, but the team and the underlying work continue inside Meta.

Why did Meta buy Limitless?

Meta wanted the team, the AI memory work, and the multi-year dataset that came with the pendant program. Meta's own AI wearables strategy is centered on AR/AI glasses (Ray-Ban Meta, Oakley Meta, Meta Ray-Ban Display), not on a neck-worn pendant, so the standalone hardware was wound down. The acquisition fits Meta's broader 'personal superintelligence' positioning.

Will my Limitless pendant keep working?

Yes, for now. The hardware itself works indefinitely — Bluetooth, mic, battery. Limitless's cloud sync is committed for at least a year post-acquisition. The risk is on the software side after that commitment expires. The hedge is to pair your pendant with an independent software layer (like Fluent) so your transcripts and insights don't depend on Meta keeping the Limitless backend running.

What's the alternative to a Limitless pendant in 2026?

Omi ($89, open-source firmware, self-hostable backend) is the closest hardware replacement. For existing Limitless owners, the recommendation isn't 'replace the hardware' — it's 'replace the software around the hardware you already have.' Fluent ingests Limitless audio directly and gives you transcripts, daily insights, and person profiles without depending on Meta.

What Happened to the Limitless Pendant?

Q: What happened to the Limitless pendant?

Meta acquired Limitless in December 2025. The deal halted new pendant sales immediately, ended the older 'Rewind' Mac/web product in stages, and folded the team into Meta's broader AI wearables work. Existing pendants still pair and capture, and Limitless committed to a year of backend support for current customers. Subscriptions were waived and existing users were moved to the Unlimited Plan.

Short answer: Meta acquired Limitless in December 2025. Pendant sales halted immediately. The Mac and web "Rewind" product is being sunset. Existing pendants still work, with backend support committed for at least a year. The team was folded into Meta's AI wearables work, which is now glasses-shaped, not pendant-shaped.

That's what happened. Below: the timeline, what it means for owners, and what to do next.

The timeline

2014–2023: Rewind ships as a Mac desktop memory product from a team led by Dan Siroker (founder of Optimizely).
2024: The team pivots to AI wearables. The Limitless pendant launches at $99.
2025 (early–mid): Limitless becomes the most popular AI pendant by a wide margin. Rewind continues in parallel as the desktop product.
July 2025: Amazon acquires Bee, another AI pendant company. The category-consolidation trend becomes obvious.
December 2025: Meta acquires Limitless. Pendant sales halt the same day. Rewind sunset begins. Existing customers move to the Unlimited Plan with no subscription. Backend support committed for one year minimum.
Today (May 2026): Pendants still work. The roadmap is opaque. Most active users are pairing their pendant with independent software layers and waiting to see what Meta announces.

What it means if you own one

The hardware is fine. The hardware has always been the strongest piece of Limitless. The risk is on the software side, after the one-year backend commitment expires and Meta decides what (if anything) to do with the standalone product.

Three things to do, in order:

Export your data now. While the export endpoints still work. We're sunsetting in 90 days and the endpoint just started returning 500s are two very different situations.
Keep wearing the pendant. The hardware works. There's no rush to replace it.
Pair it with software that doesn't depend on Meta. Fluent (iOS) ingests Limitless audio directly and produces transcripts, daily insights, meeting summaries, and person profiles built from cited evidence — none of it tied to the Limitless backend.

Full playbook: What to Do With the AI Pendant You Bought.

What it means if you were thinking about buying one

You can't. The pendant isn't for sale, and tracking down a secondhand unit is a poor idea in a category where the data plumbing matters more than the hardware spec.

The 2026 answer is Omi ($89, open-source, firmware on GitHub). It's the only mainstream pendant whose business model doesn't have get acquired by Meta or Amazon as the implicit exit. Hardware is rougher than Limitless. Software is rougher than Limitless. But the acquisition story is fundamentally different — if Based Hardware sells, the code is forkable.

If you want the head-to-head: Limitless vs Omi: Which Pendant Fits Your Life.

If you want the full landscape: Limitless Pendant Alternatives in 2026 and the complete comparison of AI conversation memory tools in 2026.

The bigger pattern

Three of the five major pendant brands have changed hands in the past twelve months. The pattern doesn't have an off-switch. If you want a daily-driver pendant that you can defend in an argument about who owns your conversations, the only durable answers are open-source hardware you can self-host (Omi) or any pendant paired with software whose company isn't the acquisition target (Fluent on top of Limitless or Omi).

Pick a setup whose worst-case is the company gets quiet — not the company gets bought and your conversation history becomes a training set.