Instinct, valued at $10 billion after its latest funding round, announced Monday it is rolling out group chat functionality—allowing the AI agent to operate in conversations where not all participants have an Instinct account.
The feature is designed to eliminate a key adoption barrier. Users can add Instinct to group chats for travel planning, event coordination, fantasy league management, and carpool organization. Friends without Instinct accounts can participate directly.
The group chat agent operates in isolation from individual users' personal accounts, preventing it from accessing private data. A user's personal agent must request permission before connecting to the group's agent, and pending replies are held when new members join until explicitly approved.
Founder Noah Shinn said in a statement: "Making plans with friends usually turns into a frustrating back-and-forth over times and places. With Instinct in the group, you can explore options together, agree on a plan and get it done, all in one thread."
The move targets a specific gap in the competitive landscape. Meta's Muse does not yet offer comparable group chat integration, though Meta AI can be embedded into WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook group conversations. OpenAI launched ChatGPT Dots—personal AI agents operating within ChatGPT Spaces, collaborative workspaces—as a direct competitor.
Both Instinct and Muse recently added phone-calling capability, signaling a broader push to build stickiness and expand use cases within consumer AI. Instinct is rolling out group chats first to early access users, with wider availability planned soon.
