Hark Pro alternatives — pricing, privacy and what else to try

Hark Pro, from Brett Adcock's AI lab Hark, went live to everyone on 6 October 2026 (Hark). Adcock also founded Archer Aviation and Figure AI, and the launch drew same-day coverage from Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Gizmodo and Fast Company. This page is about that Hark Pro, from hark.com. The Hark Audio app and the Hark app for Shopify stores are separate products.

The questions people are searching for are what it costs, whether it's safe to hand it your accounts, and what else does the same job. This comparison is written by Arlo, one of the alternatives, so weigh our section accordingly. Hark's facts come from its launch post, terms, privacy policy, app-store listings and dated press, as of October 2026, and we say where Hark Pro is the better pick.

What Hark Pro is (as of October 2026)

• Who makes it: Hark Labs, Inc. of San Jose, California. Brett Adcock founded it and is still CEO of Figure. Its head of design, Abidur Chowdhury, presented the iPhone Air at Apple before joining.
• Funding: about $100 million of Adcock's own money, then a $700 million-plus Series A at a $6 billion valuation in May 2026 (Hark). NVIDIA and AT&T are partners, and AT&T invested in August 2026 (Hark).
• Where it runs: an iPhone app, an Android app, and the web at hark.com. Hark hasn't announced a number you can text, WhatsApp, or phone calls. Its terms do include consent wording for automated texts, so a texting channel may come.
• How it works: one long conversation, plus Projects, which are separate threads with their own files. Its browser agent, Handoff, gets its own cloud computer for each task and can run up to six browsers at once. It connects to Gmail and Google Workspace, Outlook, Google Calendar and Slack, and to other services through MCP connectors.
• Proactive Home: cards that turn what's in your email and calendar into tasks, one-tap Action Buttons such as pay, cancel, RSVP or review, and Panels, small apps you describe in words.
• Errands it names: DoorDash and Uber Eats orders, checkouts at Target, Walmart or Costco, OpenTable and Resy bookings, flights on United, Delta, American or JetBlue, hotels on Booking.com, paying bills and cancelling subscriptions.
• Approvals: it asks before it spends your money or sends a message on your behalf, unless you've told it otherwise. You can give it standing permission for a category of purchases.
• Who can use it: adults, 18 and over, per its terms. A Hark device with its own AT&T connection is due in 2027 (TechCrunch, 6 October 2026).

Hark Pro pricing (as of October 2026)

Hark Pro is free, with a cap. Hark's pricing page at hark.com/pricing returned a 404 when we checked on 7 October 2026, so these prices come from its launch post and the app stores.

Plan	Price on the web	What you get
Hark Pro	$0	Every feature, with a usage cap Hark hasn't published
Hark Pro²	$20 a month	Twice the usage
Hark Pro³	$100 a month	Ten times the usage

Buying inside the apps costs more. On 7 October 2026 the US App Store listed Pro² at $26.00, Pro³ at $129.99 and a fourth tier, Pro⁴, at $200.00, without stating a billing period (App Store). Google Play listed items from $23 to $115. Hark hasn't announced Pro⁴ anywhere else. Usage top-ups are opt-in, charged when your allowance runs low, and not refundable, per its terms.

On 4 October, Adcock posted on X that the first 100,000 sign-ups would get a paid plan for free. Hark's launch post doesn't mention the offer, and reports differ on which plan it covers and for how long, so treat it as unconfirmed until Hark says more.

The free, $20 and $100 ladder is the same one Meta set for Muse about four weeks earlier (The Next Web, 6 October 2026).

The alternatives at a glance

Assistant	Can you start today?	Where you use it	Built for	Phone calls
Arlo	Yes, free to start	iMessage, SMS, WhatsApp, Slack	Work: founders, operators, teams	Places calls
Pally	Yes, free	iMessage, Android RCS and SMS, Telegram	Personal life and work	Included, within a weekly usage limit
Muse	Yes, in the US and Canada	Its own app, web, Mac, WhatsApp	Personal life and small business	Calls US businesses, in beta
Instinct	Invite only	iMessage, SMS, WhatsApp, or a call	Personal use	Calls you; calls businesses in early access
Poke	Yes	iMessage, SMS, Telegram; WhatsApp in some markets	Personal life	—
Hark Pro	Yes, free with a cap	iPhone, Android and web apps	Personal life	None announced

Arlo: if you want to text it, or the work involves other people

Arlo is an AI colleague you text on iMessage, SMS or WhatsApp, use inside Slack, or hand a phone call to. It places calls to people and businesses, and it can work through phone menus and wait on hold. It connects to Gmail, your calendar, Slack, Notion, Linear, HubSpot and 3,000+ other tools, and reaches sites with no API through a secure browser session you sign into once. Anything it sends or changes waits for your approval unless you've pre-approved that kind of action, and every tool call, source and approval is written to an audit trail you can read back. It texts you first with briefs and reminders over iMessage and SMS.

Two differences from Hark Pro matter most. You reach Arlo in the threads you already use, and it makes the phone call for you; Hark hasn't announced texting or calls. And Arlo is built for work that other people depend on, like a company's inbox, a team's Slack and customers on the phone, while Hark Pro is sold to one person for their own life, with no team plan or admin controls that we could find. Anyone can start Arlo today, with no invite or waitlist. It's free to start, no card, then plans from $20 a month. Head-to-head: Arlo vs Hark Pro.

Pally: free, and you text it

If what drew you to Hark Pro was a free assistant for errands and travel, Pally (pally.com) is the closest match you reach by text. It comes from Pally Technologies, a Y Combinator company, and you chat with it over iMessage, Android RCS and SMS, or Telegram. On 6 October 2026, the same day Hark Pro launched, Pally made every feature free for everyone, with one usage limit that refills through the week. Its Pro and Max plans ended with pro-rata refunds, and the only paid plan left is an invitation-only VIP plan at $1,000 a month (Pally's terms).

Calls are included and draw on the same usage limit: it works through phone menus, waits on hold, and you can call it. It books flights, hotels and rental cars, and pays with a single-use card capped at the amount you approve, US only for now. It reads your WhatsApp inbox, but WhatsApp isn't a place to chat with it. Two things to check before you connect it: its privacy policy, updated 6 October, now lists training its models on your data unless you opt out, and messages you explicitly ask it to send can go without a second confirmation. More: Arlo vs Pally and Pally alternatives.

Muse: the same price ladder, from Meta

Muse, Meta's AI agent, is the closest like-for-like. It launched on 8 September 2026 and is free with a weekly usage limit, with Power at $20 a month and Max at $100 a month for more (Meta). Like Hark Pro, it runs your errands on a cloud computer with a browser you can watch, comes back with goals and ideas on its own, and keeps an audit trail. You use it in its app on iPhone, iPad, Android, the Mac and the web, or connect it to WhatsApp and text it there.

It's available only in the US and Canada, to adults. By default it asks before only some actions, and Meta uses Muse data for training unless you opt out. It has also drawn more privacy reporting than anything else here, including a TIME report on 6 October 2026 that Muse keeps profiles of the people in a user's life, including people who don't use Muse; Meta didn't dispute it. More: Muse alternatives.

Instinct: text it or call it, if you can get in

Instinct, the AI assistant from Spear Street Technology, is an assistant you text over iMessage, SMS or WhatsApp, or call, and it can call you. It runs a computer in the cloud with the logins you give it, keeps working between your messages, and has its own email address. Calls it places to businesses are in early access. It raised $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation on 28 September 2026 (TechCrunch).

Getting in is the hard part. As of October 2026 it's invite-only: each member gets five invites, and everyone else joins a waitlist (Fortune, 30 September 2026). It's free, with no published pricing. Its terms license it for personal use only, and it trains on your materials unless you opt out. More: Instinct alternatives and Arlo vs Instinct.

Poke: personal texting, now owned by Cognition

Poke, from The Interaction Company in Palo Alto, is built to feel like texting a friend. It runs over SMS and Telegram, with WhatsApp in some markets, and it was one of the first third-party AI agents you could reach through iMessage. It's at its best on everyday personal things, like planning your day and juggling your calendar. Its pricing is negotiated: light requests are free and heavier ones cost. Cognition, the lab behind the Devin coding agent, acquired its maker on 23 July 2026 in a reported low-nine-figure deal, and Poke keeps running. Poke's details here come from our August 2026 check. More: Arlo vs Poke and what the Cognition deal means.

Is Hark Pro safe and private?

Hark leads with privacy, and its documents back much of that up. Here is what they say, as of October 2026.

• It asks first by default, and you can change that. Hark's terms, updated 1 October 2026, say it will ask you to confirm before it spends your money or sends a communication on your behalf "unless you tell us otherwise". They also provide for "standing permission" to complete a category of transactions without asking. The launch post gives an example: if you allow it, Hark can top up a child's lunch card on its own.
• If a site bans your account, that's on you. Handoff signs in to websites as you. The terms put the risk on you if a site detects the automation and suspends your account.
• Training: the privacy policy and the terms read differently. The privacy policy, updated 1 October 2026, says Hark doesn't train on your inputs, outputs, memory, connected-account data or sandbox data, and that no opt-out is needed. The terms separately let Hark use your content to improve the service and for product development, and review it for safety. One outlet, ProgressiveRobot, read that wording as a training risk. The privacy policy's no-training statement is the more specific of the two. The terms also bar the outside AI model providers Hark uses from training on your data.
• Passwords and cards go in what Hark calls "Secured by Hark", an encrypted vault it says even Hark can't see inside. Hark says it will never sell your data or share it with advertisers, and that you can always delete it.
• What you hand over: to be useful it wants your email, calendar and logins. TechCrunch and Gizmodo both pointed out how much of your digital life that is.
• A record of what it did: you can watch the agent browse in a small live window, and you confirm purchases. We couldn't find a published description of an activity log you can review later.

On training, Pally, Muse and Instinct all use your data unless you opt out, per their own policies as of October 2026. Arlo's privacy policy says it doesn't use your messages, files, memories, calls or connected-account content to train AI models.

Where Hark Pro is the better pick

• Errands in your own life. Food delivery, store checkouts, restaurant bookings, airline sites and bills are what Hark built Handoff for, with its own cloud computer for each task.
• A home screen that does the triage. Proactive cards, Action Buttons and Panels put the next thing to do one tap away. Launch reviews from Gizmodo and Fast Company praised how it's presented.
• Every feature, free, up to a cap. You can use all of Hark Pro without paying, and $20 a month doubles the usage.
• Staying power. More than $800 million raised, NVIDIA and AT&T as partners, and a device due in 2027.

The full head-to-head is in Arlo vs Hark Pro.

How to choose

• Personal errands in an app, free: Hark Pro, or Muse if you're in the US or Canada.
• Personal errands by text, free: Pally.
• Text or call, if you have an invite: Instinct.
• Personal texting: Poke.
• Work that involves other people, such as a company inbox, a team's Slack, or calls to customers and vendors, with a record of what was done and who approved it: Arlo.

Details on this page reflect each product's public pages and dated reporting as of October 2026, apart from Poke's. Hark Pro launched on 6 October 2026, so check hark.com for its current pricing and channels.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best Hark Pro alternatives? Arlo for work: you text it on iMessage, SMS or WhatsApp, use it in Slack, and it places calls. Pally is free and you text it over iMessage, RCS or Telegram. Muse is Meta's agent, in the US and Canada. Instinct is invite-only, and Poke is for personal texting.

Is Hark Pro free? Yes. As of October 2026 every Hark Pro feature is free with a usage cap that Hark hasn't published. Hark Pro² gives twice the usage for $20 a month on the web, and Hark Pro³ gives ten times for $100 a month.

How much does Hark Pro cost? On the web, $0, $20 or $100 a month, per Hark's launch post. Its pricing page returned a 404 on 7 October 2026. The apps charge more: the US App Store listed Pro² at $26.00, Pro³ at $129.99 and an unannounced Pro⁴ at $200.00.

Do the first 100,000 sign-ups get Hark Pro free? Brett Adcock posted on X on 4 October 2026 that the first 100,000 sign-ups would get a paid plan for free. Hark's launch post doesn't mention it, and which plan it covers and for how long hadn't been confirmed as of October 2026.

Is Hark Pro safe? It asks before it spends money or sends messages by default, though you can give it standing permission for a category of purchases. Its terms make you responsible if a site suspends your account for automation. Its privacy policy says it doesn't train on your data, and passwords and cards sit in an encrypted vault.

Is Hark Pro any good? Launch reviews praised its design and proactive home screen (Gizmodo, Fast Company). Gizmodo was less sure the cards are new, comparing them with what Gemini, Siri and Poppy already do, and TechCrunch and Gizmodo both noted how much of your digital life it asks for. It's too new for user ratings to tell you much yet.

Who makes Hark Pro? Hark Labs, Inc. of San Jose, the AI lab founded by Brett Adcock, who also founded Archer Aviation and Figure AI. The Hark Audio app and the Hark app for Shopify stores are separate products.

Can I text Hark Pro, or have it make phone calls? As of October 2026, Hark hasn't announced either. Hark Pro is an iPhone, Android and web app. Arlo and Pally can both be texted and place calls. Instinct can be texted and calls you, with calls to businesses in early access.

Is there a Hark Pro alternative for work? Arlo. Hark Pro is sold to one person for their own life, with no team plan or admin controls that we could find. Arlo works inside a team's Slack as well as iMessage, SMS and WhatsApp, connects to the tools a company shares, holds anything it sends or changes for approval unless you've pre-approved that kind of action, and keeps an audit trail.