9 Best AI Assistants You Can Text (SMS and iMessage, 2026)
You already text all day. The best AI assistants now live in that same thread: you text, they do the work.
The catch is what happens after the text. Some only answer questions. Some draft and wait for you. A few book the meeting, send the email and update your apps across every account you have.
Short answer: Carly is the best AI assistant you can text when the text has to turn into real work. Text it by SMS from any phone and it books meetings, emails people from any of your accounts and runs workflows across all your Gmail and Outlook accounts and calendars. Pally is the strongest personal-life pick on iMessage, Martin is the easiest to reach (text, call, email or app), and Poke and Folk have the roomiest free tiers.
We checked nine assistants in October 2026, with prices read off each vendor’s own pages. The order comes down to three questions: does it act or only chat, does it reach your work email and calendars, and does it start work unasked. Want AI that answers your customers’ texts instead? See AI text messaging for business.
Quick comparison
| Assistant | Where you text it | What it does for you | Work email and calendar | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carly | SMS from any phone, plus web and its own email address | Books, emails people, runs workflows on triggers | All your Gmail and Outlook accounts and calendars | From $35/mo |
| Pally | iMessage, RCS, Telegram | Drafts and sends after you approve; calls and bookings | Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Google Calendar | Free; Pro $25/mo; Max $100/mo |
| Martin | SMS, WhatsApp, phone, email, Slack, iOS app | Replies to email; texts and calls places to book | Up to 5 Gmail and 5 Outlook accounts | $21/mo yearly, $35 monthly |
| Poke | Apple Messages, RCS, WhatsApp, Telegram | Searches, drafts and sends email; manages calendar | Gmail and Outlook | Free; Pro $19/mo; Ultra $199/mo |
| Arlo | iMessage, SMS, WhatsApp, Slack, Teams, phone | Calls, books, uses websites; asks before every send | Gmail and Google Calendar, plus thousands of tools | Credits; subscriptions from $20/mo |
| Instinct | Texts and calls (iMessage, WhatsApp, phone) | Runs errands on a phone and computer | Connects your email | Free, invite-only beta |
| Caddy | iMessage, RCS | Sends Gmail replies you approve; adds events | Gmail and Google Calendar | Free public beta |
| Folk | iMessage, Telegram, WhatsApp in some countries | Habit check-ins, reminders, email on request | Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook | Free; Pro $9.99/mo |
| Meta AI / ChatGPT | WhatsApp (ChatGPT in Europe only) | Chat only | No | Free |
1. Carly
Carly is an AI assistant you text by SMS, use on the web, or email at its own address (CC it on a thread or forward it anything). Plain SMS means it works from any phone, iPhone or Android, with nothing to install.
What sets it apart is where the work lands. Carly connects all your Gmail and Outlook accounts and all your Google and Outlook calendars at once, so one text covers all of them. And Carly connects to thousands of apps, so the text turns into the email, the meeting and the CRM update.
Josh Whitaker runs a small consultancy: client work in Microsoft 365, new business in Google Workspace, the family calendar on a personal Gmail. From a train seat he texts:
- “Find 30 minutes with Emily Parker at Shopify next week.” Carly checks all three calendars, emails Emily real openings from the address she wrote to, handles the back-and-forth, and texts Josh when it is booked.
- “Push everything after 2 tomorrow.” Carly moves the afternoon across every calendar and emails each attendee.
- A screenshot of a conference flyer. Carly pulls out the date, time and venue and puts it on the calendar.
- “Send Michael Bennett the Q3 deck and ask if Thursday works.” Carly finds the file in Drive or OneDrive and sends the email.
It also texts you first. Workflows start when a new email arrives, a meeting lands on a calendar, a form comes in or a schedule fires, and a text to Carly can start one too. You describe the job in plain English and Carly builds and runs it:
- When a client emails, text Josh a two-line summary with the reply already drafted.
- Every weekday at 7am, text the day’s meetings with a line on each person.
- When someone books through his booking page, text him the details and add the prep to his task list.
- Text “mileage 42 Henderson site” and a workflow logs it to a Google Sheet.
Most texting assistants watch your inbox and nudge you. Carly finishes the job while your phone stays in your pocket.
Set it up:
- Sign in to Carly and open the integrations page.
- Find Gmail and Google Calendar, click Connect and sign in. Do the same for Outlook and Outlook Calendar, and repeat for every account.
- Add your phone number in Carly’s settings. Carly texts you to confirm.
- Save the number and text Carly like you would a person. The full walkthrough is in how to use Carly over text.
- For standing jobs, set up an agent with instructions or start from a workflow template.
Running a business line too? Carly for teams puts an AI voice and text agent on your company number: it answers calls and texts around the clock, texts back missed calls, and you can run it from ChatGPT or Claude (how it works).
Best for: people who run their day from their phone between meetings and want each text to end with the email sent and the meeting booked, across every work and personal account.
Pricing: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month
Limitations: Carly lives on SMS and the web, with no native phone app to download. Each mailbox and calendar connects separately on day one, and a managed Workspace or Microsoft 365 account may need admin approval. Book a call if you want help setting it up for a team.
Why it wins: it is the only assistant here that turns one text into the calendar change, the email and the app update across all your Gmail and Outlook accounts, and keeps working on triggers when you are not texting. Get started.
2. Pally
Pally lives in iMessage, in RCS on Android and on Telegram, with no app or signup. It pulls context from WhatsApp, Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Google Calendar, Slack, Notion and Linear, sends a daily brief, and can place calls, book and buy with a single-use card capped at what you approved. It raised a $5.2 million seed led by Y Combinator and Cyber Fund in August.
Best for: personal life admin, especially if your plans live in WhatsApp group chats.
Pricing: Free with three connected apps, three automations and 15 minutes of calls a month. Pro is $25/month or $250/year. Max is $100/month or $1,000/year.
Limitations: Pally’s own FAQ says anything that leaves your world (a message, a purchase, an invite) is shown word for word and happens only after you say go. Its own phone number and email address come only with the $100 Max plan. More in our Pally review.
3. Martin
Martin, a Y Combinator company, is the easiest to reach: text, call, email or Slack it, or use its iOS app. It connects up to five Gmail and five Outlook accounts plus Google, iCloud and Outlook calendars, and its docs say it can text and call people on your behalf to book reservations.
Best for: people who want voice as well as text, and a native iPhone app.
Pricing: 7-day free trial. Basic is $21/month billed yearly or $35 monthly. Pro is $30/month billed yearly or $49 monthly.
Limitations: Basic limits proactive actions and lets Martin work on two tasks at a time. A Trustpilot reviewer reports an unexplained $251 charge and hundreds of re-authentication emails after disconnecting Gmail. See Martin alternatives.
4. Poke
Poke texts you first on Apple Messages, RCS, WhatsApp and Telegram, and connects Google and Microsoft accounts to search, draft and send email and manage calendar events. Apple verified it on Messages for Business in June. Cognition, the maker of Devin, acquired Poke’s parent company, The Interaction Company, on July 23, 2026, and Poke keeps running.
Best for: casual personal help in your chat app, starting free.
Pricing: Free. Pro is $19/month and Ultra $199/month, both billed monthly. Ultra adds pay-as-you-go usage and Poke Human, which sends a real person to make calls and reservations.
Limitations: calls and real-world errands go to a human operator, and only on the $199 plan. Poke’s release notes have logged nothing since the Cognition announcement, and the roadmap now sits with an enterprise developer-tools company. Read what the Cognition deal means.
5. Arlo
Arlo (arlo.sh, not the Arlo security cameras) books flights and tables, makes calls and waits on hold, and uses websites with your logins. You reach it by iMessage, SMS, WhatsApp, Slack, Microsoft Teams or phone, and it runs polls in group chats and joins calls to take notes.
Best for: small teams that want one assistant across iMessage and Slack that also makes calls.
Pricing: credits at 400 per $1. New texting accounts start with $25 in credits, connecting Slack adds $100, and subscriptions start at $20/month. Arlo puts a message at about 32 credits and a phone call at 30 credits a minute.
Limitations: Arlo says every send and tool write waits for approval, so nothing goes out on its own. Usage-metered credits make the monthly bill hard to predict, and its API is not open to customers yet.
6. Instinct
Instinct texts or calls you and works a phone and a computer the way a person does, from following up on dropped threads to booking a handyman. It raised a $1 billion Series C at a $10 billion valuation in late September.
Best for: people with an invite who want errands handled across phone and web.
Pricing: free during the invite-only beta, with no plans published.
Limitations: you need an invite. Users reported outages and silent stalls in September with no status page, and CNN reported a user whose Resy account was banned after the agent hit the site hundreds of times an hour. Its terms let it train on your inputs by default unless you opt out. Full story in why people turned on Instinct.
7. Caddy
Caddy texts in blue bubbles through iMessage on iPhone and over RCS on Android, joins group chats and takes voice memos. It reads Gmail threads and sends replies once you approve, adds events to Google Calendar, and works with Slack, Linear and Todoist.
Best for: Google users who want a light, friendly helper in their texts.
Pricing: free during its public beta; no prices published.
Limitations: mail and calendar are Google only, with no Outlook listed. Caddy’s own help section says its messaging provider “can run into issues” and offers a backup number for when it stops replying. See Caddy alternatives.
8. Folk
Folk (the texting assistant from Nozomio Labs, not the folk CRM) is built for accountability: it checks in on gym days and habits, logs meals from a photo, watches subscriptions and flight prices, and searches your email when asked. Text it on iMessage or Telegram; WhatsApp is switching on country by country.
Best for: habits, reminders and personal life admin.
Pricing: Free, with three background watchers and 10 minutes of calls a week. Pro is $9.99/month or $99.99/year, and drops to $5/month in many countries.
Limitations: Folk’s FAQ says it only calls your own number, never third parties. It is built around habits rather than work, and it is too new to have much independent review history.
9. Meta AI and ChatGPT in WhatsApp
Meta AI is built into WhatsApp for free: ask questions, make images, summarize unread chats. ChatGPT answers on WhatsApp at 1-800-ChatGPT only in the European Economic Area, where an EU order brought it back in July 2026; in the US and Canada you can call that number for 30 free minutes a month.
Best for: free answers without opening another app.
Pricing: free, with usage limits.
Limitations: both are chat partners. They do not touch your inbox or calendar, message your contacts, or start anything on their own, and ChatGPT left WhatsApp everywhere else on January 15, 2026. More in the best AI assistants for WhatsApp.
How to pick
If you want to text one assistant and have it book, email and follow up across every inbox and calendar you have, go with Carly. Workflows keep it working, and texting you, when something needs you.
If it is mostly personal life with WhatsApp in the mix, Pally.
If you want to call your assistant as well as text it, or want an iPhone app, Martin.
If you want free and casual, Poke or Folk. For quick answers, Meta AI.
If you want errands and phone calls handled for a team, Arlo. With an invite, Instinct.
FAQ
What is the best AI personal assistant for SMS?
Carly. You text it from any phone and it books meetings, emails people and runs workflows across all your Gmail and Outlook accounts and calendars. Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month.
Can I text ChatGPT?
Not by SMS. ChatGPT answers on WhatsApp at 1-800-ChatGPT only in the European Economic Area, and in the US and Canada you can call that number. For an assistant you text that also books and sends, use Carly and connect your accounts at carlyassistant.com/integrations.
Is there an AI assistant for iMessage?
Pally, Poke, Caddy, Arlo, Instinct and Folk all work in iMessage. Carly works over SMS, so it sits in the same Messages app on an iPhone and on any Android phone. See how to use Carly over text.
Can an AI assistant text me first?
Yes. Pally, Poke and Folk send briefs and nudges. Carly texts you when a workflow fires on a new email, a calendar event, a schedule or a form, and the same workflow can draft the reply or book the time.
Which texting AI assistant works with Outlook?
Carly connects every Outlook and Gmail account with its calendar. Martin takes up to five of each, and Poke, Pally and Folk support Outlook too. Caddy is Gmail only.
Is there a free AI assistant I can text?
Poke, Pally and Folk have free plans, Caddy is free in beta, and Meta AI is free inside WhatsApp. Carly offers free Zapier-style workflows, with AI agents from $35/month.
Ready to automate your busywork?
Carly schedules, researches, and briefs you—so you can focus on what matters.
See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
