Instead of installing yet another application, an increasing number of AI agents can now be messaged just like a regular contact.
You simply text your request, and the agent remembers context, integrates with your existing apps and services, and performs tasks on your behalf. This could involve scheduling appointments, organizing your calendar, researching travel, sending emails, making reservations, online shopping, or reminding you of things days later.
While Instinct is currently a much-discussed AI agent, owing to its $10 billion valuation after its latest $1 billion funding round, numerous other platforms are also vying for prominence in this sector.
Below, we detail the most significant options available, encompassing everything from general-purpose personal assistants to those specifically designed for families, travel, and professional use.
Caddy
Caddy is an AI assistant that transforms disparate information on your phone into actionable insights. It operates within iMessage for iPhone users and RCS for Android users, eliminating the need for a separate app or inbox.
For example, if an email contains an appointment to be added to your calendar or a friend texts a shopping list. Instead of worrying about these details getting lost, Caddy connects to your calendars and conversations, identifying items that may require action. It can add events to your calendar, set reminders, track follow-ups, and even conduct research for you.
Caddy has been publicly available in beta since April 2026.
Comma
Comma is designed to manage tasks across both professional and personal spheres. Comma oversees tasks through to completion, self-verifying its work and determining when a task is finalized.
Completed tasks are presented for user review when a decision or approval is necessary. It also proactively alerts users and suggests subsequent actions.
It can operate across a user’s browser, computer, and files, while remaining accessible remotely through messaging applications like Signal, Telegram, and WeChat. Comma maintains context and memory across devices and conversations, and can provide daily briefings, highlight urgent matters, and summarize recorded calls.
Comma is free to begin using and is open source.
Fambot
Fambot acts as an AI-powered “chief of staff” for families, aiming to centralize and organize the various components of family life, such as school communications, sports schedules, meal planning, calendars, and other daily duties, into a coherent plan.
The service functions via both a dedicated app and text messages. Fambot is accessible on iOS, Android, and web platforms, and families can also communicate with it directly via SMS. Each evening, Fambot automatically dispatches a summary of the upcoming day, including events, to-dos, and specific requirements like school uniforms or packing lists. Parents can reply to these messages to ask questions, verify details, or modify their calendar.
Fambot currently integrates with Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook, and WhatsApp, with future support for Apple Calendar planned.
The company launched its beta in early September 2026 and has secured $3.5 million in pre-seed funding. The service is currently free during its beta phase, but Fambot anticipates eventually charging a fee comparable to a Netflix subscription.
Folk
Folk is envisioned as an AI assistant reachable through iMessage, WhatsApp, and Telegram. It can recall personal context, manage reminders, conduct research, track flights, handle emails, and execute real-world tasks like restaurant reservations.
A key differentiator is that Folk operates on its own private cloud computer. It can also execute code and perform multi-step tasks, rather than just engaging in conversational responses.
Folk launched its beta in May 2026 and is available for free, with a Pro subscription offered at $8.33/month for unlimited background tasks.
Instinct
Instinct first garnered attention after raising $350 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. In September 2026, it secured an additional $1 billion, elevating its valuation to $10 billion.
This always-available agent can execute actions on your behalf, moving beyond simple question answering. Users can interact with Instinct via text or voice and link it to their existing applications and services, such as email, calendar, Google Workspace, and more. The company reports that early adopters have utilized Instinct for tasks ranging from planning trips and grocery shopping to booking tickets and canceling subscriptions.
In September, Instinct began providing users with dedicated email addresses for their assistants. The concept is to enable Instinct to create and manage accounts on behalf of the user without cluttering the user’s personal inbox. The agent can use its address to register for services, contact businesses, follow up on requests, and manage tasks requiring an email account. (However, this level of autonomy has also prompted concerns regarding privacy and security.) It has also started implementing support for making calls.
The company remains in private beta.
Iris
Powered by Hermes Agent, Iris is designed to allow users to delegate tasks to an AI assistant directly through iMessage. Users can connect their applications and assign a task with a simple message. The agent then performs the necessary steps, retaining relevant context from previous interactions. It is also designed to proactively follow up with users rather than waiting for another request.
Martin
Martin is a versatile personal assistant accessible via SMS, phone, WhatsApp, email, Slack, and its dedicated iOS app.
It can assist with managing 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 pending items.
It is relatively premium, with subscriptions beginning at $21 per month.
Miso
Miso adapts the personal-assistant concept specifically for travel.
It operates via iMessage and combines AI-driven trip planning with support from a dedicated travel team. Users can arrange flights through messaging, with Miso considering their travel preferences, loyalty points, and other priorities. Miso also provides travelers with access to trip details and flight updates, along with personalized recommendations.
Ohai
Ohai is another family assistant focused on helping households manage the continuous flow of information and tasks inherent in daily family life.
Users can send messages, forward emails, or make voice requests, and the assistant can convert them into schedules, reminders, and plans. It can also synchronize calendars, household chores, and meals across multiple family members.
It offers a free basic option, alongside various subscriptions based on family size, starting at $9.99 per month.
Ollie
Similar to other family-oriented agents, the premise behind Ollie is that families already possess the necessary information, but it is dispersed across school messages, calendars, task lists, and group chats. Ollie aims to consolidate these elements and keep them synchronized. It can manage calendars, emails, reminders, tasks, and other household specifics, then deliver pertinent information to users via text.
Its most significant advantage over other agents is that Ollie is among the first mainstream, family-focused AI assistants to achieve SOC 2 compliance, a widely recognized security standard.
Launched in June 2026, Ollie provides a free tier, as well as paid plans beginning at $25 per month for 150 messages. A $100-per-month plan includes up to 1,000 messages.
Orbits
Orbits also features an AI assistant primarily focused on household management.
It functions through both the Orbits app and text messaging, capable of unifying calendars, lists, and conversations while also performing tasks for you. This can involve searching the web, making purchases, booking restaurants, modifying appointments, and requesting quotes for household services.
Additionally, Orbits can remind family members about chores, communicate with service providers, and help organize responsibilities beyond the immediate household.
Orbits is supported by investors such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Speedrun fund, N49P, and Garage Capital.
Pally
Users can interact with Pally as if conversing with a friend, while granting it access to their preferred applications. The assistant can link information scattered across services like WhatsApp, Gmail, calendars, and Google Drive, assisting users in keeping track of plans, receipts, dates, files, and other specifics.
A free plan is available, offering features such as 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 accessible via text messaging. It can manage tasks related to calendars, planning, health and fitness, smart-home controls, photos, and other daily activities.
Poke gained particular prominence in June 2026 when Apple approved it as the first AI agent on the Apple Messages for Business platform. A month later, its 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 just another productivity tool. It is text-based and can convert natural-language conversations into tasks, reminders, summaries, and other follow-up actions. Rene also maintains context across conversations, enabling it to recall details and highlight items that may require attention later.
Additionally, it features a browser, can write code, shop for you, and create slides and images.
Rene is currently available on iMessage, Telegram, and WhatsApp.
Skye
Rather than users actively opening an app, Skye acts as an “agentic homescreen” for the iPhone, analyzing data from connected services and presenting relevant information through contextual cards, suggestions, and daily briefings. The assistant can generate audio briefings, pre-prepare information for meetings, highlight reminders, and identify potentially useful data.
The company, Signull Labs, secured approximately $3.6 million in seed funding in 2025. It began private testing and beta in April 2026 and has not yet announced a public release date.
Stanley
Stanley is an AI content assistant aimed at content creators, rather than general personal productivity. Accessible via iMessage, Telegram, and the web, it functions as an AI head of content, helping users generate ideas, transform them into posts, and maintain a consistent publishing schedule.
For example, Stanley can connect to a user’s Instagram account, utilizing that context to suggest content based on the user’s recent activities. Users can also send voice notes, which Stanley converts into scripts, captions, and other social media assets. It includes a content calendar and can schedule posts, with the broader objective of making content creation a more continuous, automated process instead of something users must plan from scratch.
Szn
Szn is designed to coordinate tasks and follow-ups within a single conversation thread. Users can send text messages, voice notes, photos, or forwarded emails, and the assistant performs actions on their behalf, including making calls, sending emails, and managing follow-ups.
According to the company’s website, Szn has supported over 7,500 businesses across 16 countries, completed more than 10,000 jobs, and handled 95 hours of calls.
Tab
Tab enables users to delegate routine tasks through familiar messaging platforms. Users can send requests to the assistant via iMessage or WhatsApp, covering anything from ordering groceries to finding birthday gifts, and Tab manages the entire 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 primary distinguishing feature of Tomo’s personal assistant for iMessage is that, instead of being a private assistant for individual interaction, Tomo can integrate into group conversations.
Furthermore, like other agents, it is designed to aid with goals, accountability, scheduling, and daily organization. It also has the capability to send reminders, search the web, work with calendars and email, watch videos, and edit photos.
The basic plan begins at $19.99 per month.
Town
Town is geared more towards professional life. It provides users with a “Townie,” an AI assistant engineered to learn their work habits and manage recurring professional tasks. It can integrate with email, calendars, documents, Slack, and other platforms.
In June 2026, the company secured a $55 million Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Forerunner.
Underdog
Underdog is a privacy-focused AI assistant that initiated an invite-only beta in early October 2026. Unlike cloud-based AI services, its model operates entirely on the user’s device, ensuring personal data remains on hardware they already own. The initial release supports Mac and Windows computers, with future versions planned for Linux, iPhone, and Android.
The company intends to offer the app for free initially and has committed to never incorporating advertising.
Wajo
Wajo’s inaugural consumer agent, Fo, can contact businesses, send emails, participate in group chats, make bookings and purchases, and coordinate with individuals to complete daily tasks.
A core aspect of Wajo’s methodology is bestowing Fo with its own distinct identity. The agent possesses its own email address, phone number, and payment card, enabling it to interact with businesses without requiring users to disclose their personal credentials.
Notably, should Fo encounter a task it cannot manage autonomously, Wajo states that it can engage a human assistant to finalize the task.
Fo launched publicly in September 2026 with a free tier, while more demanding workloads and customized agents are available through a paid Pro offering.