How to Choose a Personal AI Agent You Can Text

Does it do the job, or tell you how?

Look for an agent with its own computer and browser. That’s what lets it book, buy and fill in forms instead of sending you a list of steps.

An agent that only chats will tell you how to move your reservation. An agent with its own browser opens the site and moves it. Tab and Sundae both say this plainly: each works on a computer and browser of its own, then texts you the result. Pally remembers, books, chases and calls. Kiwi works through your connected apps, and uses the website when there’s no app for the job.

The fastest test: ask for something that needs a website with no app, like changing a booking on a small hotel’s site. A chat-only agent will send you instructions. A real agent will come back with it done.

Who presses pay?

Good agents ask before they spend. The difference is who finishes the checkout: the agent, or you.

Tab shows you exactly what it’s buying, the total and who gets paid, and pays only after you approve. Sundae fills the basket and stops at the checkout, so you type your card and press pay yourself. Kiwi and Dazzle both ask for your OK before spending. Claude Duet asks before sensitive steps like sending messages or paying.

Neither way is wrong. If you want errands off your plate entirely, pick an agent that can pay once you say yes. If you’d rather keep your card to yourself, pick one that stops at the checkout.

Where will you text it?

Pick the app you already open most. An agent you have to remember to visit is an agent you’ll stop using.

• iMessage. Tab, Maverick and Dazzle live in Messages. Many iMessage agents also work over SMS or RCS, so check the agent’s page if you’re on Android. AI agents on iMessage has them all.
• iMessage and WhatsApp. Kiwi and Sundae work in both, so you can switch phones without switching agents.
• Telegram too. Poke and Pally also work on Telegram. See AI agents on WhatsApp and AI agents on Telegram.
• Group chats. Ollie is built for families and can sit in the family group chat, so everyone sees the plan.

Does it remember you?

Memory is what makes an agent feel like an assistant instead of a search box. Check what it keeps, and how you make it forget.

Sundae remembers your preferences, the people you mention and what you were working on, and you can ask what it knows, tell it to forget something or stop it learning. Hermes Agent keeps one memory across every app you reach it from, so what you tell it on Telegram is there on WhatsApp. Tab remembers where you left off, so you don’t explain the whole story again tomorrow. Dazzle takes a different route: it learns your tastes and plans from the photos in your camera roll.

Before you share much, find the delete button. An agent that can’t tell you what it remembers can’t promise to forget it.

Does it text you first?

A proactive agent watches what’s coming and messages you before you ask. A reactive one waits for you.

Kiwi is built around this. It reads your calendar and email, then texts you once at the right moment: your flight is late, want a car booked for when you land? Claude Duet briefs you every morning, then goes quiet until something needs you. Poke runs proactive automations in the background on its paid plan, and Hermes Agent runs scheduled reports and briefings on its own.

Proactive is only useful if it’s quiet the rest of the time. Ask how often it will message you, and how you turn it down.

Hosted, or on your own machine?

A hosted agent works in minutes. One you run yourself keeps your data on hardware you control, but you look after it.

OpenClaw, Hermes Agent and NanoClaw are open source and run on your own computer or server, and you reach them through the messaging apps you choose. Hermes Agent lets you bring your own model provider, with hosting optional. NanoClaw runs every session in its own container, so the agent only sees what you hand it.

If you go hosted, read the data policy before you connect your inbox. The good ones say it in one line: Ollie says your data is never sold or used to train AI models. For the full privacy checklist, see the best private AI agents, and Hermes Agent vs OpenClaw if you’re choosing between the two best-known ones.

How will you pay?

Personal agents charge in a few different ways. Match the model to how much you’ll lean on it.

• Free. Kiwi and Pally say they’re free.
• Free to start, then a limit. Sundae is free to start with a daily limit. Poke has a free plan, with a paid plan for stronger models and background automations. Ollie prices by how many messages it sends you.
• Part of a plan you may already pay for. Claude Duet comes with Claude Pro and Max in the US, behind a waitlist.
• Free software, you pay for the model. OpenClaw and Hermes Agent cost nothing to run, but the AI model and any hosting are billed by whoever provides them.

Prices move, so check the maker’s own pricing page. Every agent page here links to it.

A quick way to decide

• You want things done, not advice: an agent with its own computer, like Tab or Sundae.
• You want to hear about problems before they happen: Kiwi or Claude Duet.
• You’re running a family: Ollie.
• You live on Telegram: Poke, Pally or Hermes Agent.
• Your data stays on your machine, no exceptions: OpenClaw, Hermes Agent or NanoClaw.

Then test your pick with one real errand from this week, something with a website, a payment and a follow-up. The agent that finishes it without you is the one to keep. Browse the full directory to see every agent side by side.