Instinct's AI Agent Can Join Your Group Chats

Instinct, the personal AI agent that raised money at a $10 billion valuation last week, early access users can now add it to a group chat. Once it's in the thread, it works for the whole group: it helps everyone pick a plan, then books it.

Your friends don't need Instinct to take part.

Founder Noah Shinn announced it on X on Monday, with a short demo:

What the group agent does

"Making plans with friends usually turns into a frustrating back-and-forth over times and places," Shinn wrote. "With Instinct in the group, you can explore options together, agree on a plan and get it done, all in one thread."

He listed the jobs it's built for:

• A weekend trip. It works out dates and everyone's arrival times.
• Event tickets. It buys them as soon as they go on sale, splits the cost and sends one to each person.
• Carpools. It figures out who drives each day from everyone's schedules.
• Thanksgiving. It keeps track of who's bringing what and orders the shopping list.
• A fantasy league. It keeps the standings, settles rules disputes and reminds everyone to set their lineups.

Instinct works over text message and doesn't have a mobile app yet, so there's nothing for a friend to download. They just reply in the thread.

A second Instinct joins the chat

When you add Instinct to a group, a new Instinct joins to work for the group. It's separate from your personal agent and can't reach your personal accounts.

Your own Instinct, the one connected to your accounts, stays outside the group. It asks you before it connects to the group's agent, and you choose which groups to trust. You can take that trust back at any time.

Even inside a trusted group, your Instinct checks your permissions before it shares anything or takes any action. If someone new joins the chat, anything your Instinct was about to send to the group is held until you say it can share with the bigger group.

So if someone new gets added to the trip chat, your Instinct won't pass along which weekends you're free until you say so.

Why Instinct is careful here

Privacy has followed Instinct since it launched. Its first privacy policy drew concerns about how much it collected, and the company has since rewritten it. Before this, Instinct let your agent work things out directly with a friend's agent once you'd added that friend to a trusted list. The group feature builds on that with tighter walls.

The race for your group chat

Group chats are where a lot of plans get made, and the big companies want in.

Meta's Muse, one of Instinct's biggest rivals, can't join group chats yet, though Meta's older assistant, Meta AI, can already be added to groups on WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and Facebook. The two have been trading features for weeks: both added phone calls in September, with Instinct's Concierge and Muse's calls to US businesses.

OpenAI's Dots, the always-on assistants it launched last week, can work alongside people in ChatGPT Spaces, OpenAI's shared workspaces (both are in our DevDay explainer).

When I gave my dot real jobs for a day, the trip went well: it found a direct flight and an Airbnb for Montreal and built a plan, then stopped at checkout so I could pay.

That was a trip for one person. Instinct is going after the version where five people each have opinions about the Airbnb. My full day with Dots is in this video:

Who can use it

Group chats are rolling out to Instinct's early access users first, and Shinn says everyone else gets it soon. To get on the list, you ask your Instinct agent to add you. Meta did the same with Muse's phone calls, starting with people who'd asked their Muse for it.

Group plans usually fall apart because one person ends up doing all the chasing. An agent the whole thread can talk to, with nobody else signing up, takes that job off the one friend who always gets stuck with it.

I think the permission design will decide whether people actually use it. The group's agent can't see anyone's personal accounts, and your own Instinct asks before sharing anything with it.

Sources

• Noah Shinn on X: Instinct in group chats
• TechCrunch: Instinct brings its AI agent to group chats, even for friends without an account
• TechCrunch: Instinct raises $1B Series C at a $10B valuation
• TechCrunch: Instinct's AI assistant raises privacy and security concerns
• Noah Shinn on X: Instinct Concierge phone calls
• Ryan Fox (Meta) on X: Muse calls to US businesses
• OpenAI: Introducing Dots