Martin alternatives — AI assistants for teams and personal life

If you're looking at Martin alternatives, start with what Martin is for. Martin is a voice-first personal assistant — you talk to it to manage your calendar, email, and reminders. Poke and Catch play a similar personal-assistant role over text. Lindy is a work-automation tool. Arlo is an AI colleague for a team — it works across every channel your team uses, answers the phone itself, and holds every action behind an approval gate. Those are different products, so the right pick comes down to whether you're outfitting yourself or a team.

Everything below is real to the best of our knowledge as of July 2026. Because we can't verify each competitor's live feature set, treat the specifics as "as of July 2026." After the rundown, I'll make the case for Arlo if you want one governed assistant spanning iMessage, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and live calls.

The main Martin alternatives at a glance

Assistant	Where it works	Best for
Martin	Voice, text, email	Voice-first scheduling and reminders
Poke	iMessage, SMS, Telegram (WhatsApp in some markets)	Personal tasks over text
Catch	Text and chat (personal assistant)	Personal tasks and daily help
Lindy	Email, Slack, calendars, business tools	Workflow automation at work
Arlo	iMessage/SMS, Slack, Teams, live phone calls	An AI colleague across a team's tools, with governance

Martin

Martin is the voice-first assistant. As of July 2026 it connects to your calendar, email, and messaging, and you can talk to it, text it, or email it. The pitch centers on scheduling, reminders, drafting quick messages, and daily updates — a personal assistant you speak to like you would a real one. Want the direct head-to-head? See Arlo vs Martin.

Poke

Poke comes from The Interaction Company and the pitch is that using it feels like texting a friend. As of July 2026 it runs over iMessage, SMS, and Telegram, with WhatsApp in some markets. The sweet spot is everyday personal stuff — planning your day and juggling your calendar. For the direct comparison, see Arlo vs Poke.

Catch

Catch is a personal AI assistant you message to manage your day and get quick help. As of July 2026 the pitch is a friendly, conversational helper for one person's tasks and reminders. If you want a personal assistant for your own to-dos over chat rather than voice, Catch is aimed at you. See Arlo vs Catch for the head-to-head.

Lindy

Lindy is built to get work done, not chat. As of July 2026 it's a workflow automator that plugs into email, Slack, your calendar, and a long list of business apps — triaging inboxes, sitting in on meetings, and chaining multi-step workflows on its own. If your problem is repetitive business processes rather than a chatty assistant, Lindy is the obvious pick here.

Why Arlo is the best Martin alternative for teams

Martin, Poke, and Catch are personal assistants — one person, their calendar, their reminders. That's a good fit for an individual. But bring an assistant into a team and the questions change: Can everyone reach it where they already work? Can you trust it to take action? Can you prove what it did afterward? Arlo is built for exactly those questions.

• It works everywhere, including the phone. Arlo is in iMessage and SMS, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and live phone calls. Like Martin it handles a call, but it also lives in the team's channels — and context doesn't drop when a thread becomes a call.
• It remembers, and it briefs you. Arlo holds onto what matters across conversations and sends a morning briefing on what changed overnight, so nobody re-explains themselves.
• It acts, and connects to real tools. Arlo works across 3,000+ tools. When an app has no API, it signs in once through a secure browser session and operates it by hand — clicking, reading, and filling forms the way a person would.
• Governance is the default, not an add-on. Every send and every tool write pauses for a reviewer you choose, and every action lands in a full audit trail. That's the line between an AI colleague you can put on real work and a personal assistant you just talk to. See how approvals before sending work.
• It scales past one person. Arlo starts free, with usage tiers at $20, $100, and $200 a month as you scale. The Business plan is custom for orgs that need admin policy and audit export.

How to choose

Pick Martin, Poke, or Catch if you want a personal assistant for your own calendar, texts, and reminders. Pick Lindy if the goal is automating business workflows across apps. Pick Arlo if you want one AI colleague across iMessage, Slack, Teams, and calls, with memory and governed actions your whole team can audit. If phone calls are the draw, see how Arlo works as an assistant that makes phone calls or fits in Slack.

Try Arlo

Arlo is the Martin alternative for teams that want one assistant everywhere they work — including the phone — with an approval gate on every send and a full audit trail. Try Arlo to put a colleague inside the tools you already use.