Choosing personal help · Nym and Instinct
Is Nym or Instinct better for an errand that ends in a purchase?
Both will run an errand that ends with money leaving your account. We’d want to see the item and total before paying. We’d also want to know which accounts we were connecting and where to find the order afterwards. Below, we take one purchase task and compare what Instinct’s own terms and privacy policy say with the Nym conversation already shown on this site.
The difference
Instinct’s product page describes an assistant that connects to your applications and devices and follows up on dropped threads; you reach it by text or call. Its terms say it can act inside the services you connect to it, including buying things (we read them on 19 September 2026). You can chat with your Nym on the web or in the desktop app. It researches in a browser using logins you give it. You approve each purchase before it buys. The Personal Shopper page shows a real Nym answering the exact brief below.
Try the same errand in both
“My sister’s birthday is in ten days. She is into pour-over coffee and I can spend about £45. Find one good option and check the delivered total. Ask me before you buy.”
| Detail | Juno’s answer on the Personal Shopper page | What to ask Instinct for |
|---|---|---|
| Item | Hario V60 Switch 02, plus V60-02 filters if the bundle allows | One named product and the reason |
| Price | £35–£45, with the live retailer check flagged as unavailable at that moment | The merchant’s current price from the product page |
| Delivered total | Asked you to confirm before ordering | Item plus shipping and tax, from the merchant page |
| Arrival | Order now for the ten-day window | A delivery date inside the ten days |
| Approval | Nym asks before every purchase | What Instinct shows you before it pays, per its own settings |
- Give both the same brief. Keep your card back until you have seen the approval step.
- Ask for one choice with the reason, then ask what it still needs to check before it can order.
- Ask what it will connect to in order to buy. Nym needs a merchant login you give it or a card you approve; Instinct’s terms cover sharing your payment method with the connected merchant.
- After ordering, ask for the merchant’s confirmation email. Both can summarise; the email is what proves the order.
What to check before you choose
What you see before you pay
Nym
Every purchase needs your approval. You can say no. Juno, the Personal Shopper Nym, was given the same brief. It named one product, the Hario V60 Switch 02 at £35–£45, said “the live retailer check is currently unavailable”, and asked you to confirm the delivered total before ordering. The caveat is in the answer itself, which is where we’d want it.
Instinct
The terms let it take whatever actions it thinks answer your request, including purchases on connected services. You are the buyer; Instinct says it isn’t processing the merchant payment. Approval before each purchase is a setting to look for in the product rather than a term of service, and for us that difference is the whole page. The first thing to ask Instinct is what it will show you before it pays.
What it has to be connected to
Nym
You can discuss the gift in chat and give your Nym a retailer login to use in its browser. It has its own email address; on Plus, it can text you too. Picking and buying a gift needs none of your inbox or calendar.
Instinct
The terms allow it to collect and index data from connected services, and to exchange that data. It can also share relevant information with a connected service or its payment provider. That includes your payment method. The privacy policy adds service providers and model providers to that list, plus any third party the assistant deals with on your behalf. That’s a long list for a coffee brewer.
What happens when it is ready to buy
Nym
Your Nym shows the item and the delivered total, with the merchant named. Then it waits. Say yes and it places the order with the login or card you gave it; say no and it goes back to the shortlist. On Plus it can text you that message so you approve from your phone. The merchant’s confirmation email is the proof, and it can forward that to you from its own address.
Instinct
Instinct works over text or a call, so the approval, if enabled, arrives the same way. Its homepage says it is trained to use a phone and a computer; the terms say fees are in US dollars and non-refundable. Ask it to describe the approval step in its own words before the first errand.
Where the choice ends up afterwards
Nym
In the conversation, and in a gift list if you ask for one. That list is a small private app with its own database. It lives inside Nym on the desktop, looks the same on your phone, and holds everyone you buy for, their budgets and what each got last year. It keeps between visits and rolls back if a change was wrong. Your Nym can open it and add the pick while you talk. The Personal Teacher page shows a Nym that built “Café Confidence”, a three-week practice app, from one request. You get two apps on Free and five on Plus.
Instinct
In your text or call thread. Ask for one final shortlist with rejected options separated from the chosen one, then try to retrieve it a week later. The privacy policy tells you to go to Workspace to delete indexed data from external sources.
What happens if you tell it to stop
Nym
Your Nym stops. A scheduled check-in on Plus is set up per task, and you can switch it off in the same chat. Your Nym holds your memory in one place, so “forget my sister’s address” is one request. An order already placed follows the merchant’s cancellation policy, with either product.
Instinct
The terms make purchases subject to the merchant’s cancellation and refund policies. The privacy policy says data it has already collected stays after you disconnect an integration, and you delete it through Workspace. So “stop researching”, “cancel the order” and “delete my data” are three separate requests, and the last one goes through Workspace. That isn’t sinister; it’s just more to remember.
The facts, from each product’s own pages
| Detail | Nym | Instinct |
|---|---|---|
| How you reach it | Chat on the web or in the desktop app (Mac, Windows, Linux); texting on Plus | Text or call; “trained to use a phone and a computer” |
| Getting in | Early access by waitlist | “Text Instinct to get started”; sign-in at app.instinct.com |
| Price | Free: $5 in credits a month. Plus: $20 a month | None published; terms say fees are in US dollars and non-refundable |
| Buying | Your approval on each purchase: item, merchant, total | Purchases on connected services, you as the buyer; payment method shared with the merchant’s provider |
| What it reads | What you tell it and the logins you give it | Connected services, which the terms allow it to collect and index |
| Deleting data | Ask your Nym; one memory in one place | Disconnecting keeps collected data; deletion through Workspace |
| Personal apps | Built on request, private, data kept between visits, inside Nym on desktop and phone: two on Free, five on Plus | None described on its pages |
When Instinct is the one to choose
Instinct is the better fit if you want to phone one number and never open an app. Nym texts you on Plus; it’s got no phone line. Instinct is also the stronger choice for errands that live inside services you will connect fully: calendar and inbox at once. Choose Nym when you want to see the pick and the approval step before any money moves, and to have the shortlist kept in a gift list it builds and updates for you, ready for next year. If we wanted a phone-only assistant we’d pick Instinct and ask it the approval question first.
How to get access, and the price
Instinct’s homepage says “Text Instinct to get started”. It also says Instinct can use a phone and a computer. We read the page on 19 September 2026. It lists no price; its terms say fees are in US dollars and non-refundable. Nym is in early access by waitlist. Free includes $5 in credits a month with one Nym and two personal apps. Plus is $20 a month for more credits, five apps, texting and scheduled check-ins (see pricing). You can download the desktop app (Mac, Windows, Linux) from the how-it-works page.