Orchid lives in your texts. There's no app to download and no new inbox to check. You text a number, it texts back, and behind that thread it's reading your email, watching your calendar, and doing the work you'd otherwise hand to a person.
A lot of people find us by searching "Orchid AI assistant iMessage," and until now the best answer we had was the homepage. This is the longer one: what Orchid actually does from a text thread, why we put it there instead of in an app, and how to set it up. The setup part takes about two minutes.
Why a text thread and not another app
Every app you install is another place work can hide. We wrote about that at length in The Next App Is No App, but the short version is that adding one more destination never reduced anyone's coordination work. It added to it.
The research on this is blunt. Gloria Mark and her colleagues found that after an interruption, people took an average of 23 minutes to get back to what they were doing, and that they finished the interrupted work faster but with significantly more stress (Mark, Gudith and Klocke, CHI 2008). Sophie Leroy showed that part of your attention stays behind on the last task even after you switch, which she called attention residue, and it makes you worse at the next one (Leroy, 2009). Microsoft's Work Trend Index put a number on where the day goes: 57% of it in communication tools, 43% actually creating, and 68% of people saying they don't get enough uninterrupted time to focus (Microsoft, 2023).
So we made a decision early. The assistant should come to the one thread you already have open, and it should never ask you to open anything else. For most people that thread is Messages. It's on your lock screen, it already has your attention, and it's already where you tell people what you need.
What it does from the thread
Everything below happens in the same conversation. You don't switch modes and you don't open a dashboard.
Connect Gmail and Orchid starts reading what comes in. It surfaces the threads that need you and drafts the replies in your voice, and the drafts stay drafts until you say send. We wrote about that shift, from processing mail to delegating it, in The End of Inbox Zero.
Scheduling is a sentence. find 30 minutes with sarah next week becomes a hold on your calendar and a note to Sarah. Reschedules, conflicts, and travel time get the same treatment, and nothing lands on the calendar without your okay.
Before a call, Orchid texts you who you're meeting, what you talked about last time, and what's still open between you. If you use Granola, it carries your notes forward into the follow-ups.
Reminders work the way you'd say them to a person. remind me to chase the landlord friday if he hasn't replied. Orchid watches the thread and only nudges you if the condition is still true.
If you'd rather talk than type, send a voice note. Orchid pulls out the actions and confirms what it heard. And when an answer doesn't fit in a bubble, an itinerary, a comparison, a plan, it comes back as a stack of cards you swipe through.
None of this stops at work. People use the same thread to log meals and workouts, to stay close to the people they keep meaning to call, and to get through a semester.
Setting it up
- Text +1 (415) 695-4918. Say hi, or just say what you need.
- Orchid sends you a link to connect Gmail and Google Calendar. It's Google sign-in, so you never hand Orchid a password, and you can revoke access from your Google account whenever you like.
- Tell it how you work. Which senders matter, when you want the morning rundown, what it should never touch. It remembers.
That's it. Orchid learns your voice from what you've already written, so the first drafts are usable and they get better from there.
Is it really iMessage?
On an iPhone, yes. The thread with Orchid is a regular blue-bubble conversation, with the same end-to-end encryption Apple applies to every iMessage (Apple Platform Security).
What it costs, and what it won't do
Orchid is paid, from $29.99/mo. There's no free tier, because an assistant that reads your inbox shouldn't be paid for with your data. We lay out the reasoning, and the student and founder deals, in Is Orchid AI free?
It also won't send an email, book a meeting, or touch anything outside your thread without your approval. It only sees the accounts you connect, and we never sell your data or train on it. The long version is in Is Orchid AI safe? and the privacy policy.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to download an app?
No. Orchid runs inside Messages. There's a web app at app.orchid.ai for connecting accounts and changing settings, but you don't need it day to day.
Which accounts can I connect?
Gmail and Google Calendar today, through Google sign-in. Outlook, Slack, Notion, and Linear are on the way. Tell Orchid which one you need and it moves up the list.
Can Orchid send emails on its own?
Only within the limits you set. By default replies stay as drafts until you approve them, and calendar holds wait for your sign-off.
How is this different from asking ChatGPT in Messages?
A chat model answers questions. Orchid is connected to your inbox and calendar, remembers you across conversations, and acts on your behalf. We put it next to the closest product that also lives in iMessage in Orchid vs Poke.
If you've read this far, the fastest way to understand it is to try it. Text +1 (415) 695-4918 and say hi 🌸
