Our research
Our research · 2026-09-06
Tomo does coaching and accountability over text. When a companion app began carrying the conversation instead, users objected.
TomoReminders and follow-up
Coaching and accountability that charges for the unprompted check-in
Tomo is an AI agent you reach on iMessage, SMS, Web and Voice. To start, text a number. It messages you first rather than waiting to be asked.
iMessageSMSWebVoice
- Posted doing a job
- 2
- public posts, each below
- Of those, went wrong
- 0
- fewer is better; people post successes
- Posts for it, against it
- 0 / 0
- nothing posted yet
How Tomo works
Tomo does coaching and accountability over text, with a dashboard on the web.
Its pricing is the instructive part: the conversation itself is free and the unprompted check-in is what costs money. That is a rare and clean expression of where the value sits in a proactive agent. It is also a cautionary listing, users objected when a companion app began carrying the conversation, which suggests the channel itself, not just the model, was part of what they were paying for.
It buys things. A founder published the first three purchases on 10 September 2026, an $81 Japanese textbook, $55 of whey protein and a $109 sunrise alarm clock, and said approval is moving to Stripe Link. Payments and the Stripe Link entry here are recorded from that post rather than from a product page, which is why both are dated to it.
Read again in September. The operating company is Mapo Labs, Inc., which the product pages never say, and the policy is one of three here to disclose an advertising relationship: it names Meta and TikTok pixels, says they support cross-context behavioural advertising, and then notes that those cookies are not set on the privacy or terms pages, which is a detail almost nobody bothers to publish.
No price is published anywhere, and there is no security contact.
On 6 October 2026 it shipped Anonymous Relays: Tomo will carry a message to someone who has never signed up, without naming the sender, and a classifier screens out hateful ones. Its policy's answer about people who never signed up covers people in a group chat with Tomo, not people it messages one to one on someone else's behalf.
The policy was rewritten on 24 September 2026 and answers the group-chat question. A group chat is not a private conversation: Tomo receives every message and attachment sent in it, along with each participant's name and number or handle, and its replies are visible to everyone. Somebody who has never created an account gets a record linked to their phone number, can be messaged directly by Tomo about a request made in the group, and stops that by emailing from that number. Group memories are notes attributed to individual participants and reused both in that chat and in the private conversations of any current participant who has an account; leaving stops the reuse and does not remove what was already said. A limited profile from your private conversations, name, school or work, hobbies, can be carried into the group, with sensitive categories excluded.
What Tomo has shipped
3 features the company has announced, newest first, each linked to the announcement. The examples of what to use it for are the company’s.
Anonymous Relays
Send a message through Tomo to someone who is not on Tomo, without saying it is from you. A classifier model stops it relaying hateful messages.
Use it for: finding out what a friend wants for their birthday; asking someone to homecoming; matchmaking two friends.
Buying through Stripe Link
Your Tomo can buy across the internet through Stripe Link, each purchase tied to a goal you set with it; its founder published the first three.
Use it for: a textbook for the language you said you wanted to learn; the protein or the alarm clock a goal you set called for.
Voice, as a preview
Call the number you already text and talk to your Tomo; in rare cases it may call you first. What it does on the call lands back in the thread as texts and images you can check.
Use it for: talking a plan through while driving, with the record left in the thread.
What Tomo costs, and how you start
| Channels | iMessageSMSWebVoice |
|---|---|
| How you start | Text a number |
| Who starts it | Messages you first |
| Is there an app | Optional app An app exists but is not how you start |
| Categories | Personal assistants,Coaching |
| Can do | Reminders,Group threads,Calendar and scheduling,Email,Web research,Persistent memory,Payments,Phone calls,Calls people for you,Introductions |
| Connects to | Google Calendar, Gmail, Notion, Google Drive, Stripe Link |
| Pricing | Not published on its own site: the pricing path redirects to a login. TechCrunch reported a basic plan starting at $19.99 a month on 3 October 2026. |
| Number type | Not stated on its own pages |
| Contact number | None published |
| Documentation | None linked |
| First message, pre-written | None published |
| Runs on | Linq (named as its infrastructure partner in a testimonial on Linq's own site) (source) |
| Browses with | Not disclosed |
| Number carrier | No number to look up |
| Status | Live |
Does Tomo train on your conversations?
| Trains on your conversations | Qualified statement“We do not use your health data...to train or improve generalized...AI/ML models” |
|---|---|
| Data of people who never signed up | Addressed“If you are in a Group Chat with Tomo but have not created an Account, we create a record linked to your phone number or messaging handle so that Tomo can operate the Group Chat.” |
| What it holds when you connect an account | Not stated in the policy |
| If you cancel | Retained only as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described. No period stated. |
| Model providers named | OpenAI |
| Jurisdiction | United States, primary governing state California |
| Security document | None published |
| Asks before acting | Nothing published |
| Prompt injection | Not mentioned anywhere public |
| Bug bounty | None published |
| Who is on the line | The agent |
| Calls from its own number | Not stated on its pages |
| Says it is software on the call | Not stated on its pages |
| Records the call | Not stated on its pages |
| A user in crisis | No protocol page. The terms, last updated 6 October 2025, say to call 911 or 988 in distress. |
| Availability | Not stated |
Tomo’s own pages answer 7 of the 9 questions this site asks of every listing. Not answered: publishes a price, says where to report a bug. About the middle of its kind: 27th of 56 personal assistants.
Quoted verbatim from the published policy on 2026-10-03, and what a document says is not the same as its legal effect.
Who makes Tomo
| Company | Mapo Labs, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Founders | Justin Quan, Raymond Chen |
| Based in | Not published |
| Funding | $5M seed led by Bain Capital Ventures, announced June 2026 on emerging from stealth. Source: Business Wire |
| Investors | Bain Capital Ventures, Accel, Basis Set Ventures, Conviction, Pear VC |
| Traction | Over 10,000 paying customers before leaving stealth, on word of mouth. A Stripe product lead separately put usage at 500,000 people when Stripe Link went live on it, which is somebody else's figure rather than Tomo's. |
From Tomo’s own pages at tomo.ai, last read 2026-09-10. Which apps it works in is inferred from its descriptions; it does not list them.
What people have used Tomo for
Things it did, with a page eachShopping
Reminders and follow-up
Our research Tomo does coaching and accountability over text. When a companion app began carrying the conversation instead, users objected.
TomoWhat people say Tomo saved or got them back
Every dollar figure somebody attached to a post about Tomo. The figures are theirs, unverified, and never added up here.
- $245spentthree purchases: $81, $55 of whey protein and a $109 alarm clock
In its own words
What Tomo and its founders have posted: launches, features and claims, recorded as what the product says about itself.
Justin Quan Tomo's founder published the first three purchases the product ever made, each tied to a goal its owner had set. The first was $81 on a Japanese textbook for a user in Hawaii who had always wanted to learn the language. Then $55 of whey protein for someone getting in shape, and a $109 sunrise alarm clock for someone trying to sleep better.
Justin Quan
@justoutquan · 2026-09-10
The first-ever purchase made on Tomo came from a user in Hawaii who started using it because she'd always wanted to learn Japanese. Tomo spent $81 on a Japanese textbook for her. Next came $55 whey protein from a user working with Tomo to get in shape, then a $109 sunrise alarm clock from a user working with Tomo to sleep better. Consumers let their personal agent make purchases when they trust that it has their best interests in mind. Pushing people towards their personal ambitions is a great way to start building that trust among everyday people: purchasing items as aspirational as a textbook earns the right to purchase items as mundane as toilet paper. We’re partnering with Stripe so that tomosapiens can approve purchases directly through Link, further closing the gap between aspiration and action for real people.
0:34 videoJeff Weinstein “The 500,000 people using @tomo, an AI app for personal goals, can now buy across the internet with @link.”
Jeff Weinstein
@jeff_weinstein · 2026-09-10
The 500,000 people using @tomo, an AI app for personal goals, can now buy across the internet with @link. ❤️🔥 I love these examples! => - A user bought a textbook to learn Japanese - A user bought whey protein to get in shape - A user bought a sunrise alarm clock to sleep better
Justin Quan Tomo adds voice as a preview. You call the same number you already text and talk to your Tomo, powered by OpenAI Live, and the company says that in rare cases your Tomo may decide to call you first. The framing puts the trail rather than the call at the centre: the argument is that voice is worth having because the actions it takes still land back in the thread as texts and images you can check afterwards.
Justin Quan
@justoutquan · 2026-09-10
*ring ring* Today, we’re releasing a preview version of Tomo Voice. Tomosapiens can talk with their Tomo by calling the phone number they already text with, powered by OpenAI Live. In rare cases, your Tomo may also decide to call you first. Calling is especially joyful knowing that Tomo can take real-world actions and update your garden of apps with a realtime verifiable trail of texts and images. Voice is another step towards making accomplishing more in life even more delightful for everyday people. It’s been a ton of fun to try. I hope you pick up!
0:43 video