Instinct vs Poke (2026)

Linking Google Workspace gives the assistant Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Tasks, and users can connect other services, hand it a payment method for rides and bookings, or give it account credentials so it can sign in for them. It exchanges data with those services and takes actions on them, purchases included. The errands it handles, from bill disputes and gift orders to groceries and medical appointments, show the range, though the full list of supported services beyond Google is not given.

Sourceinstinct.com/termsread 2026-10-12

In Gmail and Outlook the assistant searches, drafts and sends mail, replies in thread with attachments, forwards, files and labels, and it creates and edits calendar events and syncs contacts.

Recipes add read and write access to Notion pages and databases, Linear and Asana projects, Todoist tasks, GitHub repositories, Vercel and Netlify deployments, Supabase, Ramp spend data, Webflow and Oura, authorized by OAuth or an API key during setup.

Any other service joins as an MCP server added by URL, with an API key or OAuth credentials, or tunneled from a local machine, and Poke discovers and calls the tools it exposes.

Sourcepoke.com/docs/managing-integrationsread 2026-10-12

One assistant thinks, plans and acts across a task, taking an errand such as a weekend getaway or a bill dispute through calls, web steps and connected accounts. The planning happens inside the assistant, with no workflow builder or team of cooperating agents for a user to arrange.

Sourceinstinct.com/privacy-policyread 2026-10-12

A single assistant carries each request across email, calendar and connected tools, so one text can ask it to send onboarding email, schedule a kickoff, create a Notion project and set check in reminders. Recipes package the integrations, an automation and onboarding questions a job needs, and automations keep running in the background on Pro and Ultra. Multistep work rests on the assistant's own planning inside the conversation, with no workflow designer or team of agents to lay out.

Sourcepoke.com/docs/creating-recipesread 2026-10-12

Work starts when the user texts or calls Instinct, or opens the Mac app or web workspace, and voice requests work once audio features are switched on. The assistant is available when engaged, and nothing in the product sets it working on a schedule, a watched inbox or another event without a request.

Sourceinstinct.comread 2026-10-12

Poke is built to message first. Real time automations run in the background on paid plans, reminders and scheduled tasks fire on their own time, and the assistant watches connected services and its memory to step in, for example adding the action items from a Granola meeting to the calendar. Users reach it by text or voice message in Apple Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram and RCS, and real time sync keeps Gmail and Outlook inboxes current.

Sourcepoke.comread 2026-10-12

The assistant reads what a user makes available, from Drive files, Docs and Sheets to emails and private messages, and Instinct is authorized to copy and index data from connected services so it understands what the user is working on. How that index is kept, and what a user can see of it, is not explained beyond revoking Google access and deleting the Workspace data collected.

Sourceinstinct.com/privacy-policyread 2026-10-12

Answers draw on the user's own mail, calendar, contacts and connected apps, queried as each request runs, with web search for everything else, including maps and directions. Notion pages and databases, GitHub repositories and DeepWiki documentation become further sources once their recipes are added, and Poke can read a photo of a spreadsheet and turn it into a table or chart. The assistant keeps no searchable store of the user's files of its own, so each answer is assembled from those live sources.

Sourcepoke.com/docs/managing-integrationsread 2026-10-12

Understanding what matters to its user is the core of the pitch, yet users get no memory they can open, edit or clear, and no account of what the assistant retains between requests.

Sourceinstinct.comread 2026-10-12

Poke keeps memories about the person it works for and combines them with connected services to act at the right moment, while the human operators behind Poke Human see only the details of their task, never the chat history, memories or integrations. Deleting the account clears data within about 24 hours, with backups and legal holds taking longer. What a memory holds, how long it lasts and how a single memory is reviewed or removed are left unsaid.

Sourcepoke.com/faqread 2026-10-12

The user authorizes the assistant to act as it judges responsive to a request, purchases included, and Instinct warns that an autonomous agent can make unintended payments, contact the wrong people or be misled by instructions planted by third parties. Its remedy is to ask users to review what the assistant has done and stay attentive, with no approval step or spending limit built into the product.

Sourceinstinct.com/termsread 2026-10-12

The assistant acts on what the user texts it, drafting and sending email, booking calendar events and running automations in the background. Control comes through the conversation itself, by disconnecting an integration or by asking Poke to trim busy automations, and there is no approval setting or rule that holds a kind of action for sign off. Poke Human brings in a person for hard errands, a service that does the task instead of checking the agent's work.

Sourcepoke.com/docsread 2026-10-12

Accounts are personal and sign in through Apple, Facebook or Google. The assistant can hold payment details and third party passwords, and Instinct concedes that information sent to it may not be secure in transit. Google Workspace data follows Google's Limited Use rules, and that access can be revoked by asking the agent or disconnecting it. There is no security certification, team administration or single sign on.

Sourceinstinct.com/privacy-policyread 2026-10-12

Accounts are personal, tied to one phone number and opened through a Google or Microsoft account, with no team workspace, roles or single sign on. Interaction applies reasonable physical, technical and organizational safeguards, follows Google's Limited Use rules for Workspace data, and keeps data from users on Maximum Privacy out of model training. Poke offers buyers no SOC 2 report, ISO certification or trust center.

Sourcepoke.com/privacyread 2026-10-12

Results come back in the text thread or on the call, and users are asked to review what the assistant has done. They get no activity history or record of the actions taken across connected accounts to review it with.

Sourceinstinct.comread 2026-10-12

Requests and results live in the message thread, where Poke reports back on what it did, and instructions sent through the API land in the same conversation, so the thread doubles as the record. A subscription page tracks usage against the plan's allowance and the next reset, and a status page covers service health. Users get no separate activity log, run history for automations or audit trail of actions taken in connected apps.

Sourcepoke.com/docs/usage-and-resetsread 2026-10-12

The service runs on infrastructure from Instinct's hosting providers and is reached by text, phone, the web and a Mac app. Hosting locations are not given, and there is no region choice or private deployment.

Sourceinstinct.com/termsread 2026-10-12

Poke runs only as Interaction's hosted service, reached through messaging apps and the web, and sign ups are open in every region worldwide. Buyers get no hosting location, region choice, private deployment or self hosted option.

Sourcepoke.com/docsread 2026-10-12

One general assistant covers every errand. It names jobs it can take on, from bill disputes to grocery orders and doctor's appointments, but offers no catalog of ready made tasks or agents to adopt.

Sourceinstinct.comread 2026-10-12

Recipes are ready made setups a user installs in one tap, each bundling integrations, an automation and onboarding questions. Examples include a morning summary of assigned Linear issues, a TripIt import of travel plans, Oura sleep and readiness insights, Notion page organization and Gmail inbox management. The directory groups first party and approved community recipes by category, from calendar, email and finance to health, travel, students and developer tools, and creators publish their own from Kitchen after review.

Sourcepoke.com/recipesread 2026-10-12

The assistant runs on AI models Instinct evaluates, fine tunes and trains on user data unless the user opts out, and even then content flagged for safety review can still be used. Neither the models nor their makers are named, and users cannot choose one.

Sourceinstinct.com/privacy-policyread 2026-10-12

Plans differ by model class. Pro brings frontier models for complex tasks, Ultra runs frontier models on every action, and the free plan falls back to a lighter mode once its allowance is used. Neither the models nor their makers are named, and a user cannot pick one. Cognition has said its own models and infrastructure will power Poke over time.

Sourcepoke.com/pricingread 2026-10-12

Text, phone, the web workspace and the Mac app are the only ways in. Other software has no API or MCP server through which to send the assistant work or read what it did.

Sourceinstinct.comread 2026-10-12

The Poke API is one endpoint. A POST with a bearer key from Kitchen delivers a message to the user's own assistant, which carries it out like a text, and the examples cover a browser extension that sends a selected page, a GitHub Action that reports a failed deploy and a Typeform or CRM webhook that hands over a new lead. The poke npm package logs in, adds MCP servers and tunnels local ones, and Kitchen publishes recipes. There is no API for reading conversations or managing integrations, recipes or automations.

Sourcepoke.com/docs/apiread 2026-10-12

Usage data feeds the evaluation and training of Instinct's own models, which improves the product in general. A user gets no way to test, check or compare how the assistant handles their own tasks before it acts.

Sourceinstinct.com/privacy-policyread 2026-10-12

A recipe or automation goes to work once installed, and users have no way to run it against sample input, check its output against expectations or compare versions first. When automations fire so often that a user keeps reaching the plan's limit, the fix is to have Poke review and trim the busiest ones, which manages cost and speed, not quality.

Sourcepoke.com/docs/usage-and-resetsread 2026-10-12

The assistant uses a phone and a computer the way a person does, signing in to third party accounts with credentials the user provides and completing web errands such as grocery orders and appointment bookings. Whether that happens in a hosted browser, a cloud desktop or on the user's own Mac through the app is not explained.

Sourceinstinct.comread 2026-10-12

Poke works through integrations, web search and messaging, and it can build and publish a website, but it does not drive a browser, a desktop or a phone's apps. Errands that need a phone call, an order or a booking go to a human operator through Poke Human on the Ultra plan.

Sourcepoke.com/faqread 2026-10-12