A growing number of AI agents skip the app entirely. You text them like a person, and they remember context, connect to your calendar and email, and get things done: booking a table, setting reminders, researching a trip or cancelling a subscription. TechCrunch rounded up the most notable ones. Here is what each offers and, where the company has said, what it costs.
For everyday life
- Ask Proxy: a chatbot you text like a friend for gift ideas, event planning and reminders. It also messages you first when it thinks you have forgotten something. Price: $1 a day for the personal version. Business plans start at $15 per employee per month, or $23 for teams under 49 people.
- Caddy: lives in iMessage on iPhone and RCS on Android. It scans your calendars and conversations for things that need action, then adds events, sets reminders and tracks follow-ups. Price: not stated.
- Maverick: an “AI companion who lives in your texts” that fixes typos, cancels subscriptions and helps group chats agree on a date. It asks permission before acting. Price: free in beta on iMessage; Pro is €27 a month (about $30) for 500 tasks, 20 connected apps and memory.
- Fambot: a family organiser that turns school emails, sports schedules and meal plans into a nightly summary by text. Works with Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook and WhatsApp. Price: free during beta, with plans to charge roughly the cost of a Netflix subscription later.
General-purpose agents
- Folk: reachable on iMessage, WhatsApp and Telegram. Runs on its own private cloud computer, so it can run code and handle multi-step tasks such as reservations and flight tracking. Price: free, with a Pro plan at $8.33 a month for unlimited background tasks.
- Instinct: the best-funded of the group, valued at $10 billion after a $1 billion round. It takes actions by text or voice, from groceries to cancelling subscriptions, and now gives each assistant its own email address. TechCrunch notes this level of autonomy has raised privacy and security concerns. Price: not stated.
- Martin: works over SMS, phone, WhatsApp, email, Slack and its own iOS app, and can send messages or make calls for you. Price: not stated.
- Iris: an iMessage agent built on Hermes Agent that works through multi-step tasks and follows up on its own. Price: not stated.
- Comma: handles tasks across your browser, computer and files, reachable through Signal, Telegram and WeChat, with daily briefings and call summaries. Price: not stated.
Which ones can you try for free?
Based on TechCrunch’s roundup, Folk has a free plan, while Maverick and Fambot are free during their beta periods. Beta pricing usually does not last, so treat those as free trials rather than free forever. Ask Proxy works out to around $30 a month at $1 a day.
Before you hand over your accounts
These agents are useful because they can reach your email, calendar and sometimes your payment details. Before you connect one, check what it can do without asking you first, and prefer the ones that ask for approval before acting, as Maverick does. Never text an agent your passwords.
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