Brett Adcock starts the Hark Pro keynote by announcing he’s finished with computers. Then he demos an app. On a computer. I’m still not sure the joke was intended.
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The moment that got me came later. Adcock asks Hark to unsubscribe from ChatGPT, my go-to AI for close to everything, and the cursor slides through the billing page toward a red cancel button like it has done the trip a thousand times. Rude. Good marketing too, and Hark Pro went on my iPhone soon after.
One chat, no tabs
There’s no conversation history tucked into a sidebar when you open Hark Pro. Just one ongoing thread for everything you ask it to do, from everyday questions to errands. Abidur Chowdhury, Hark’s head of design and a former Apple designer who worked on the iPhone Air, says people already know how to talk to another person. Why change that for AI?
Firing off a second prompt in the exact same window was effortless. Then I noticed Projects—Hark’s setup for heavy lifts like travel itineraries and job hunts. It keeps you from drowning in a single, mile-long transcript where your flight details get buried under random late-night questions.
Amazon first, then the PR flood
Protein powder and creatine are staples of my training routine. The other day, I took advantage of Amazon’s Subscribe & Save subscription program to have them delivered at a discount every four months. I wasn’t looking for a long-term subscription, though, and canceled the orders later. So I asked Hark Pro to sign in to my Amazon account and dig up whatever I was still subscribed to. One result. Amazon Prime, renewal date attached, nothing else hiding behind it.
I tested Hark Pro on my Gmail, too, where PR pitches hit like a dripping tap. PR agencies pitch me product after product, and standard filters are too dumb to tell a good launch email from trash. Hark Pro went through my senders, made the call on each one, and archived the clutter.
Both sign-ins went through Secured by Hark, an encrypted vault the company claims no one on staff can peek inside. I’ll take that on faith for now, eyebrow raised.
What bugs me
Nobody at Hark has said what the free tier covers. Paying $20 a month doubles your usage and $100 multiplies it by 10. Doubling a mystery number is still a mystery.
Under the launch video, a few people grumble that setup alone ate a chunk of their daily allowance. A handful of comments proves nothing. I’m watching anyway.
Then comes onboarding’s opening request. Your email. Card details follow, stored so Handoff can pay for you, and Hark promises to check in before anything that needs approval, while calling Handoff the best computer-use model in the world, a boast Hark makes about itself. Until it builds a longer record, my card stays in my wallet.
Worth watching from inside a PR blast radius
Journalists, obviously. Anyone with a graveyard of half-remembered Subscribe & Save orders, too. Gadget people should also look, since Hark plans hardware for 2027 with AT&T on cellular, and Chowdhury told reporters Hark isn’t “in the game to make wearable cameras.” After a few years of AI pins and camera glasses, I find that refreshing.
My take for now
I’m going to keep Hark Pro installed beside ChatGPT, but two successful tasks don’t tell me how useful it’ll be long-term. After all, I still need to find the free tier’s limits.
And when an assistant can access my email and payment details, a small mistake can become an expensive one. I’d lose confidence in Hark after a purchase I never intended to make.