Tech
Here are the top AI agents that can live in your text messages
Rather than downloading another app, a growing number of agents can simply be texted like an ordinary person.
You text it what you need, and it can remember context, connect to the apps and services you already use, and complete tasks on your behalf. That can mean scheduling an appointment, organizing a calendar, researching a trip, sending an email, making a reservation, shopping online, or reminding you about something days later.
While Instinct is one of the buzziest AI agents at present, thanks to its $10 billion valuation after its latest funding round of $1 billion, there are many others also making a play for this space.
Below are the most notable options so far, from general-purpose personal assistants to agents designed for families, travel, and work.
Caddy
Caddy is an AI assistant that turns the information scattered across your phone into things you can actually act on. It lives in iMessage for iPhone users and RCS for Android users, so there’s no separate app or inbox to constantly check.
For instance, an email contains an appointment that needs to be added to your calendar or a friend sends a list of things to pick up. Instead of worrying about all the details getting buried, Caddy connects to your calendars and conversations, then identifies things that may require action. It can add events to your calendar, set reminders, keep track of follow-ups, and even do research for you.
Caddy has been available in public beta since April 2026.
Comma
Comma is designed to manage tasks across both work and everyday life. Comma carries tasks through to completion, checking its own work and determining when a task is finished.
Completed work is surfaced for review when a decision or approval is needed. It also proactively notifies users and recommends the next steps.
It can work across a user’s browser, computer, and files, while remaining accessible remotely through messaging apps such as Signal, Telegram, and WeChat. Comma maintains context and memory across devices and conversations, and can deliver daily briefings, flag urgent matters, and summarize recorded calls.
Comma is free to start and open source.
Fambot
Fambot is an AI-powered “chief of staff” for families, designed to bring together the many moving parts of family life, including school communications, sports activities, meal planning, calendars, and other day-to-day responsibilities, and turn them into an organized plan.
The service is designed to work across both an app and text messages. Fambot is available on iOS devices, Android devices, and the web, and families can also interact with it directly over SMS. Every night, Fambot automatically sends a summary of the following day, including upcoming events, to-dos, and details such as school uniform or packing requirements. Parents can reply to those messages to ask questions, check information, or make changes to their calendar.
Fambot currently connects to Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook, and WhatsApp, with support for Apple Calendar planned for the future.
The company launched in beta in early September 2026 and has raised $3.5 million in pre-seed funding. The service is currently free during the beta period, but Fambot expects to eventually charge roughly the equivalent of a Netflix subscription.
Folk
Folk is designed to be an AI assistant you can reach through iMessage, WhatsApp, and Telegram. It can remember personal context, manage reminders, research topics, track flights, handle email, and perform real-world tasks such as restaurant reservations.
One distinction is that Folk runs on its own private cloud computer. It can also run code and execute multi-step tasks rather than merely responding conversationally.
Folk launched its beta in May 2026, and it’s available for free but also offers a Pro subscription for $8.33/month if you want unlimited tasks running in the background.
Instinct
Instinct first made headlines after raising $350 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. In September 2026, it raised $1 billion, valuing it at $10 billion.
The always-available agent can take actions on your behalf, rather than simply answer questions. Users can communicate with Instinct by text or voice and connect it to the apps and services they already use, such as email, calendar, Google Workspace, and more. The company says early users have used Instinct for tasks ranging from planning trips and buying groceries to booking tickets and canceling subscriptions.
In September, Instinct began giving users dedicated email addresses for their assistants. The idea is to let Instinct create and manage accounts on a user’s behalf without filling the user’s personal inbox. The agent can use its address to sign up for services, contact businesses, follow up on requests, and handle tasks that require an email account. (However, this level of autonomy has also raised concerns about privacy and security.) It’s also begun rolling out support for placing calls.
The company remains in private beta.
Iris
Powered by Hermes Agent, Iris is designed to let users delegate tasks to an AI assistant directly through iMessage. Users can connect the apps they use and hand over a task with a simple message. The agent then works through the required steps, while retaining relevant context from previous interactions. It’s also designed to follow up with users proactively rather than waiting for another request.
Martin
Martin is a general-purpose personal assistant reachable through SMS as well as phone, WhatsApp, email, Slack, and its own iOS app.
It can help manage calendars, email, reminders, tasks, notes, and communications. It can also act on behalf of users by sending messages or making phone calls, while providing daily summaries of what needs attention.
It’s a bit on the pricier side, with subscriptions starting at $21 per month.
Miso
Miso takes the personal-assistant concept and applies it specifically to travel.
It operates through iMessage and combines AI trip planning with support from a dedicated travel team. Users can arrange flights through messaging while Miso takes into account their travel preferences, loyalty points, and other priorities. Miso also gives travelers access to trip details and flight updates, along with personalized recommendations.
Ohai
Ohai is another family assistant focused on helping households manage the constant stream of information and tasks involved in everyday family life.
Users can send messages, forward emails, or make voice requests, and the assistant can transform them into schedules, reminders, and plans. It can also coordinate calendars, household chores, and meals across multiple members of a family.
It includes a free basic option, but also offers different subscriptions based on family size, starting at $9.99 per month.
Ollie
Similar to the other family-focused agents, the idea behind Ollie is that families already have the information they need, but it lives across school messages, calendars, task lists, and group chats. Ollie aims to bring those pieces together and keep them in sync. It can keep track of calendars, emails, reminders, tasks, and other household details, then deliver relevant information to users through text.
Its biggest differentiator from other agents is that Ollie is one of the first mainstream, family-focused AI assistants to achieve SOC 2 compliance, a widely used security standard.
Launched in June 2026, Ollie offers a free tier, as well as paid plans starting at $25 per month for 150 messages. A $100-per-month plan includes up to 1,000 messages.
Orbits
Orbits also has an AI assistant that is focused on the household.
It works through both the Orbits app and text messaging, and can bring together calendars, lists, and conversations while also carrying out tasks for you. That can include searching the web, making purchases, booking restaurants, changing appointments, and requesting quotes for household services.
Additionally, Orbits can remind family members about chores, communicate with service providers, and help coordinate responsibilities beyond the immediate household.
Orbits is backed by investors like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Speedrun fund, N49P, and Garage Capital.
Pally
Users can interact with Pally as they would with a friend while giving it access to the apps they already rely on. The assistant can connect information spread across services such as WhatsApp, Gmail, calendars, and Google Drive, helping users keep track of plans, receipts, dates, files, and other details.
There’s a free plan available, which offers features like 15 minutes of calls per month, or there are paid plans, including $25 per month for 30 minutes of calls and $100 per month for 60 minutes.
Poke
Poke launched in March 2026 as a general-purpose assistant that you can reach through text messaging. It can handle tasks involving calendars, planning, health and fitness, smart-home controls, photos, and other everyday activities.
Poke became particularly notable in June 2026 when Apple approved Poke as the first AI agent on the Apple Messages for Business platform. A month later, parent company The Interaction Company of California was acquired by AI coding startup Cognition in a deal valued in the low nine figures.
Rene
Rene is an AI personal assistant designed to be a user’s “best contact” rather than another productivity agent. It’s text-based and can turn natural-language conversations into tasks, reminders, summaries, and other follow-up actions. Rene also maintains context across conversations, allowing it to remember details and surface things that may need attention later.
Additionally, it has a browser, can write code, shop for you, as well as create slides and images.
Rene is currently available on iMessage, Telegram, and WhatsApp.
Skye
Instead of waiting for users to open an app, Skye is an “agentic homescreen” for the iPhone that analyzes information from connected services and surfaces what it thinks is relevant through contextual cards, suggestions, and daily briefings. The assistant can generate audio briefings, prepare information ahead of meetings, surface reminders, and identify potentially useful information.
The company, Signull Labs, raised about $3.6 million in seed funding in 2025. It entered private testing and beta in April 2026, and hasn’t yet announced a public release date.
Stanley
Stanley is an AI content assistant aimed at content creators rather than general personal productivity. Available through iMessage, Telegram, and the web, it acts as a kind of AI head of content, helping users come up with ideas, turn them into posts, and maintain a consistent publishing schedule.
For instance, Stanley can connect to a user’s Instagram account, using that context to suggest content based on what the user has actually been doing. Users can also send voice notes, which Stanley turns into scripts, captions, and other social assets. It includes a content calendar and can schedule posts, with the broader goal of making content creation a more continuous, automated process rather than something users have to sit down and plan from scratch.
Szn
Szn is designed to coordinate tasks and follow-ups through a single conversation thread. Users can send text messages, voice notes, photos, or forwarded emails, and the assistant takes action on their behalf, including making calls, sending emails, and managing follow-ups.
According to the company’s website, Szn has served more than 7,500 businesses across 16 countries, completed over 10,000 jobs, and handled 95 hours of calls.
Tab
Tab allows users to delegate everyday tasks through familiar messaging platforms. Users can send requests to the assistant via iMessage or WhatsApp, ranging from ordering groceries to finding birthday gifts, and Tab handles the process on their behalf.
The company emerged from stealth in early October with a valuation of $300 million. Its investors include SV Angel, Valar Ventures, and American Spirit.
Tomo
The biggest differentiator with Tomo’s personal assistant for iMessage is that, instead of being a private assistant that only you interact with, Tomo can become part of group conversations.
Also, like other agents, it’s designed to help with goals, accountability, scheduling, and everyday organization. It also has the ability to send reminders, search the web, work with calendars and email, watch videos, and edit photos.
The basic plan starts at $19.99 per month.
Town
Town is aimed more at professional life. It gives users a “Townie,” an AI assistant designed to learn how they work and handle recurring professional tasks. It can work with email, calendars, documents, Slack, and other platforms.
In June 2026, the company raised a $55 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz and Forerunner.
Underdog
Underdog is a privacy-focused AI assistant that launched an invite-only beta in early October 2026. Unlike cloud-based AI services, the model runs entirely on the user’s device, keeping personal data on hardware they already own. The initial release supports Mac and Windows computers, with Linux, iPhone, and Android versions planned for the future.
The company plans to offer the app for free initially and has stated that it will never include advertising.
Wajo
Wajo’s first consumer agent, Fo, can call businesses, send emails, join group chats, make bookings and purchases, and coordinate with people to complete everyday tasks.
A key part of Wajo’s approach is giving Fo its own identity. The agent has its own email address, phone number, and payment card, allowing it to interact with businesses without requiring users to hand over their own credentials.
Notably, when Fo encounters something it cannot handle on its own, Wajo says it can bring in a human assistant to finish the task.
Fo launched publicly in September 2026 with a free tier, while heavier workloads and custom agents are available through a paid Pro offering.
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As SpaceX struggles to launch Starlink in India, Elon Musk has stepped up his attack on billionaire Mukesh Ambani, mockingly calling him the country’s “prime minister” to suggest he wields outsized control over its government and accusing him of blocking the satellite internet service from competing.
On Friday, Musk continued his criticism of the famed Reliance Industries’ chairperson in a post on X, arguing that Starlink could bring internet access to areas that remain unconnected, giving children more opportunities to learn, and helping small businesses reach customers worldwide.
“Naturally, you would prefer to maintain your monopolistic exploitation of the great people of India, but would you nonetheless consider allowing Starlink to compete?” Musk wrote.
Reliance Jio, Reliance Industries’ telecom arm, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk’s latest comments follow his accusations earlier this week that unnamed “oligarchs” were blocking Starlink’s launch in India to protect their business interests. India’s Ministry of Communications rejected the allegations, saying the country’s regulatory framework for satellite communications is “fair and non-discriminatory.” Musk then went further on Thursday, questioning Ambani’s influence in a separate post on X. “Is Ambani the real boss of India?” he asked.
SpaceX has spent years trying to launch Starlink in India. Last year, it even struck distribution agreements with Ambani’s Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator, to offer the service once it received the necessary approvals. However, Starlink has not yet received the go-ahead from New Delhi to begin commercial operations, despite securing key regulatory clearances.
In its Thursday statement, the Indian communication ministry said Starlink and two other licensed satellite operators are undergoing security assessments that must be completed before they can receive satellite spectrum. The ministry said all three are at “broadly the same regulatory stage,” rejecting Musk’s suggestion that Starlink was being singled out.
Jio and Airtel are also seeking to launch their satellite internet services in India. Jio has a joint venture with Luxembourg-based SES, while Airtel is a major shareholder in Eutelsat OneWeb, which is striving to offer satellite connectivity in the country.
India, the world’s most populous country with over a billion internet users, is a major market for Musk. But expanding there also means dealing with powerful business figures such as Ambani, whose Reliance conglomerate owns India’s largest telecom operator and works with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on major projects.
Alongside Starlink’s delayed launch, Musk has also faced challenges expanding Tesla in India. The electric carmaker launched in the country last year after years of anticipation but registered just 699 vehicles in its first 12 months of deliveries, according to data cited by Electrek. Steep import duties pushed the Model Y’s launch price in India to nearly twice its U.S. price. Tesla lowered its prices earlier this year, but its cars remain considerably more expensive in India than in the U.S.
Before Musk’s latest attack, Starlink and Ambani’s Reliance Jio clashed over how to allocate satellite spectrum in India. Musk’s company wanted the spectrum to be assigned through an administrative process, while Jio pushed for an auction. Ultimately, New Delhi went ahead with Starlink and decided to allocate the spectrum administratively.
Starlink’s launch in India remains in limbo. India’s telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday pushed back against Musk’s allegations, saying the country “does not allow a monopoly in any sector.”
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Tech
Anthropic can’t reliably control its AI agents. It’s cutting off its internal evals from the live internet instead
Anthropic said its models exploited websites on the internet, including some run by U.S. government agencies, and it will turn off live internet access for all of its internal evaluations until the frontier lab is sure it can monitor and control its AI agents.
The incidents, disclosed in a blog post, involved AI agents tasked to solve problems seeking resources on the internet. In the process, they exploited software flaws, avoided paywalls and anti-bot restrictions, used URL shortening services to smuggle information pass restrictions, and even submitted a false murder tip to the Philadelphia police.
Anthropic said it discovered these new issues in a review of its model’s activities that began in July, underscoring the lab’s lack of awareness of its software’s behavior.
Notably, the company said that alignment training was not yet sufficient for skills like search and computer use that are central to its pitch that AI agents will be used by any professional who relies on digital tools.
The behaviors Anthropic disclosed are similar to incidents involving OpenAI agents that collaborated to break into various websites in search of information, including some run by the Australian government.
Anthropic previously disclosed that its models had broken into external systems. The frontier lab said it considered today’s disclosures “significantly less severe from an alignment and security perspective” than those it announced before.
However, the lab still said it had “turned off live internet access” for “all our internal evaluations” until it is certain it can monitor and control its agents.
It’s not clear what that means, but Sydney Von Arx, the founder of Nightingale AI safety, told TechCrunch in an interview before this disclosure that developing models on a data center cut off from the open internet would be very challenging for researchers to access, and for the progress of the models, which benefit from internet access.
“You have to align them at some point,” Von Arx said. “If the AIs are released to production and never have access to the internet, that’s not a very useful tool.”
Anthropic said the behavior was a result of flaws in the lab’s training environments, which led the models to believe they would be rewarded for finding loopholes or avoiding restrictions, a behavior called “reward hacking.”
The company said it would stop running some of its evaluations or move them offline, and has built tooling to detect and block this behavior. This tooling was tested against the kind of incidents disclosed today and blocked them; it’s not clear what evidence will prompt Anthropic to return live internet access to its internal evaluations.
Anthropic also said it would migrate its internal AI agents to “centrally managed infrastructure with strong containment,” and is beginning to using safety classifiers more frequently to monitor those agents.
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For a writer, the mechanical keyboard is a beautiful thing. They’re certainly not necessary for everyone, but a well designed mechanical keyboard can turn a tedious day of typing into an aesthetically pleasing experience.
Given that most of my days involve sitting at a desk for hours, having a keyboard that I enjoy using is a necessity. I first got a mechanical keyboard about two years ago — the Keychron K2 — and I’ve never looked back.
Keychron is one of the most prominent brands within the mechanical keyboard industry, having made a name for itself after initially launching via Kickstarter back in 2017. The company has since produced dozens of different keyboards (as well as keypads), and a variety of mouse models.
Unlike other electronics, there isn’t a whole lot to owning a mechanical keyboard. The simplicity is part of the appeal. You unbox them, set them up (the K2 comes with little tilt legs that give you a slightly better angle from which to type), and plug them in.
From here, you have a couple of different options. The K2 comes with a simple USB cable, but there’s also an option for Bluetooth connection. If you value a clean, minimalist workspace, Bluetooth is probably the way to go.
While I am loyal to my older Keychron K2, there are a few upgraded and newer versions to consider. Keychron has released a variety of new models over the past two years, with a broad range of features and price tags.
In many cases, the form factor is the draw. One of the more interesting releases, called the Keychron K8 HE Wireless Magnetic Switch Custom Keyboard, comes with an all-wood body and is equipped with an LED backlight. That one is substantially more expensive at around $200. The K2, meanwhile, costs $60. But if you’re into the look, maybe it’s worth it.
If you’re a gamer, there’s also Keychron’s C0 HE One-Handed 8K Keyboard, which is a keypad built for convenience and speed and has an industrial aesthetic to it. However, interested gamers will have to wait — as it’s currently sold out.
The company has also updated its K, Q, and V series keyboards, with many of those ranging in price from $100 to $200 depending on the features and model.
One of the appealing elements of owning a mechanical keyboards is the versatility. You can swap out the key caps for a wide variety of others (indeed, there’s a whole sub-market devoted to this) or make your own custom caps (I’ve never gone that overboard).
There is also the sound, of course. Some people balk at the accentuated noise of loudly clacking keys, but I’m a fan. In fact, the sound is one of the key selling points for a lot of consumers. The distinct auditory experience produced by said keyboards has even made its way into ASMR videos.
For me, the Keychron’s biggest selling point is its retro form factor. I get really nostalgic for old school electronics, and Keychron scratches this itch pretty well. It’s a beautiful looking device, that brings to mind a different era of computing, when the style was more workman-like, less minimalist.
As far as home office purchases go, you could do a lot worse than to pick yourself up a piece of hardware that makes your desk look like it just time-traveled from the 1990s.
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