--- title: Instinct's onboarding wows, but nobody wants to do real... description: A new AI assistant called Instinct is drawing attention for its polished onboarding, which smoothly connects iMessages, Google Workspace, and MCPs and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/instinct-s-onboarding-wows-but-nobody-wants-to-do-real-work-in-it-6rijpuy6a copyright: © 2026 Daily Dev Ltd. terms: https://daily.dev/tos/ twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Instinct's onboarding wows, but nobody wants to do real work in it | daily.dev og:description: A new AI assistant called Instinct is drawing attention for its polished onboarding, which smoothly connects iMessages, Google Workspace, and MCPs and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/instinct-s-onboarding-wows-but-nobody-wants-to-do-real-work-in-it-6rijpuy6a og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/6rijpuy6A.png og:image:alt: Instinct's onboarding wows, but nobody wants to do real work in it og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Instinct's onboarding wows, but nobody wants to do real work in it **[Trends](https://daily.dev/sources/trends)** · 3 min read · 5 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary A new AI assistant called Instinct is drawing attention for its polished onboarding, which smoothly connects iMessages, Google Workspace, and MCPs and proactively suggests actions. Peter Yang praised the onboarding but flagged a major limitation: everything happens in a single thread, making it unsuitable for real parallel work, so he relegates it to minor chores while keeping ChatGPT Work and Codex for serious tasks. Invites to the app are currently paused. A separate, loosely related tweet from Jeff Weinstein touches on helping AI agents provision accounts on software platforms, reflecting a broader push toward agent-friendly onboarding. ## Content Instinct is the private-access AI personal assistant built by a small team led by former Sierra researcher Noah Shinn, and the early reaction is split right down the middle: it's genuinely impressive to use, and its legal and security posture should probably scare you. Start with the good part, because there's a real product here. Peter Yang, who tested it early, called the onboarding "very well done," specifically praising how smoothly it connects iMessage, Google Workspace, and MCPs. "The best builder prioritize onboarding and new user needs," he wrote. He also noted Instinct feels more proactive than competitors, suggesting actions right after you connect a new integration. Another early user summed it up in four words: "It's a very good app." But Yang's take comes with a real caveat: he can't see himself doing actual work in it, because everything lives in one thread. It's the same complaint he has with other assistant bots, no way to run parallel conversations. His verdict is that Instinct is fine for chores and random tasks, but for real work he's sticking with ChatGPT and Codex. Then there's the part of the story that's harder to wave off. Reporting on Instinct has surfaced some genuinely alarming terms of service: a perpetual, irrevocable license to use, store, and modify user data, including screen captures, keystrokes, and cursor movements. The terms also let the agent enter binding agreements on the user's behalf, which is a wild amount of trust to hand an early-stage assistant. Testers found the practice matched the policy in unflattering ways. Data reportedly wasn't deleted after disconnecting. Emails were stored in plain text. The system showed susceptibility to phishing, and in at least one case sent an email without the user's approval. None of that is a rounding error, that's the kind of stuff security teams write incident reports about. Instinct has backing from Kleiner Perkins and Conviction, so there's real money behind it, and so far the company hasn't publicly addressed any of the criticism. So you've got a product that early testers genuinely like using, sitting on top of a legal and data-handling foundation that looks like it was written for a different, much smaller risk profile. Access is invite-only and currently paused, which means most people forming opinions right now are doing it secondhand, off screenshots of the fine print and a handful of glowing tweets. That gap between the demo and the disclosure is exactly where this story gets interesting. ## Questions this post answers ### What are the concerning terms of service in the Instinct AI assistant? Instinct's terms grant a perpetual, irrevocable license to use, store, and modify user data, including screen captures, keystrokes, and cursor movements. The terms also allow the agent to enter binding agreements on the user's behalf. Testers reported data was not deleted after disconnecting, emails were stored in plain text, and the system showed susceptibility to phishing. _Anyone vetting AI assistants before granting data access can track scrutiny like this on daily.dev._ ### Who built the Instinct AI assistant and who is backing it? Instinct was built by a small team led by former Sierra researcher Noah Shinn. It has financial backing from Kleiner Perkins and Conviction. Access is currently invite-only and paused, and the company has not publicly addressed criticism over its data-handling practices and terms of service. _Developers weighing early-access AI tools against their funding and governance can follow updates on daily.dev._ ### Why doesn't Instinct work well for real work compared to ChatGPT or Codex? Everything in Instinct lives in a single thread, so there is no way to run parallel conversations, a limitation shared with other assistant bots. Early tester Peter Yang found it fine for chores and random tasks but said he sticks with ChatGPT and Codex for actual work because of this constraint. _Developers comparing AI assistants for daily workflows can weigh tradeoffs like this on daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 2 discussions and 54 comments across x (as of 2026-09-13). **TL;DR:** Replies mostly split between people begging for invites and a genuine debate over whether Instinct's single-thread design is a dealbreaker, with some using it for personal tasks while keeping other tools for real work; a few flag privacy concerns and skepticism about consumer adoption. **Sentiment:** 20% positive · 45% mixed · 35% skeptical **The case for** - Some find it useful for personal/life tasks and proactive nudges (e.g. prompting to fix a broken integration) feel genuinely helpful. - One long-time similar-tool user says it saves hours by having deep context across their systems. - A few argue the single-thread limitation is just a UX problem that could be fixed rather than a fundamental flaw. **The pushback** - Several worry about the broad permissions requested when connecting Google/other accounts and question the privacy/security tradeoff. - One commenter argues consumers won't want to connect all their accounts or do everything over text, calling the product dead on arrival. - Segregating work tools/agents by access level is seen by one commenter as a feature, not something to collapse into one mega-thread. - Lack of visibility into what the agent is actually doing/thinking is called out as a downside. **By community** - x (mixed): A flood of invite requests and tool comparisons surrounds a real but secondary debate about whether the single-thread design and permission scope are dealbreakers. **Hottest debate:** Whether cramming everything into one thread is a fixable UX quirk or a fundamental flaw that makes the product unsuitable for real work. **Open questions** - Will multi-thread or channel-based support actually resolve the parallel-work limitation? - How concerned should typical (non-early-adopter) users be about the scope of permissions requested during onboarding? **Highlights** > @ericbahn @petergyang Eric Instinct is dead on arrival. Don’t worry about these ppl’s take. 1. Consumers won’t connect their Google and other stuff 2. Consumers aren’t looking to do everything over text message. VCs have zero understanding of consumer > — [letsbuildmore on x](https://x.com/letsbuildmore/status/2090975913022484667) > @ericbahn I'm glad you asked. Instinct requested all these permissions when I asked it to connect to Google which I imagine will be *very concerning* for normies. I still did it anyway because I'm an early adopter and the VCs tweeting about this can't be wrong right?! Honestly, this is > — [petergyang on x · 2 points, 2 comments](https://x.com/petergyang/status/2090824957807005970) > @petergyang “However, I can't see myself doing real work with Instinct since it's all just in one thread.” I keep wondering if that’s really the case, or just a UX issue we need to fix. IRL you’d give multiple people different tasks and follow up for updates. But that feels like a lot of > — [jonasleupe on x · 1 points](https://x.com/jonasleupe/status/2090853835782721697) > @petergyang Same conclusion. I am using Instinct for personal life stuff (fine to have a mega iMessage thread), but my work life is.... dozens of different solutions. Many different agents - with different levels of access and security. For work, the segregation is a feature not a bug > — [katiecholden on x](https://x.com/katiecholden/status/2090856556476969417) > @petergyang I'm testing out Instinct right now inside of iMessage. I tried connecting my WhatsApp and it wasn't working. Instinct proactively sent me a message proactively to fix it which was pretty cool. I don't like that there's no visibility in what the agent is thinking or doing. > — [cyburke on x](https://x.com/cyburke/status/2090864937522385354) **Source threads** - [x](https://x.com/petergyang/status/2090997413846917312) · 0 points · 0 comments - [x](https://x.com/petergyang/status/2090814910720835633) · 0 points · 54 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Instinct brings its AI agent to group chats, even for friends without an account](https://daily.dev/posts/instinct-brings-its-ai-agent-to-group-chats-even-for-friends-without-an-account-trqfv9mee) · TechCrunch · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Viral AI assistant Instinct now has its own email address](https://daily.dev/posts/viral-ai-assistant-instinct-now-has-its-own-email-address-aakiacuae) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#devtools](https://daily.dev/tags/devtools), [#chatgpt](https://daily.dev/tags/chatgpt) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/instinct-s-onboarding-wows-but-nobody-wants-to-do-real-work-in-it-6rijpuy6a) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Instinct's onboarding wows, but nobody wants to do real work in it","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/instinct-s-onboarding-wows-but-nobody-wants-to-do-real-work-in-it-6rijpuy6a","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/instinct-s-onboarding-wows-but-nobody-wants-to-do-real-work-in-it-6rijpuy6a"},"datePublished":"2026-08-22T03:00:30.745Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T19:49:55.219Z","description":"A new AI assistant called Instinct is drawing attention for its polished onboarding, which smoothly connects iMessages, Google Workspace, and MCPs and...","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Trends","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Trends","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ZfSp3asX--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996004/logos/trends?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/trends"},"commentCount":1,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/instinct-s-onboarding-wows-but-nobody-wants-to-do-real-work-in-it-6rijpuy6a","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":5},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}],"keywords":"devtools,chatgpt","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trends","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/trends"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Instinct's onboarding wows, but nobody wants to do real work in it"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/instinct-s-onboarding-wows-but-nobody-wants-to-do-real-work-in-it-6rijpuy6a#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What are the concerning terms of service in the Instinct AI assistant?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Instinct's terms grant a perpetual, irrevocable license to use, store, and modify user data, including screen captures, keystrokes, and cursor movements. 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