Informant · iPhone app
Instead of a feed, a brief that ends.
Informant follows the topics you pick, from sources you approve: news sites, blogs, podcasts and subreddits. It gathers what’s new into stories, tells you who’s saying what, and then it stops. When you’re caught up, it says so, and you get on with your day.
- You approve every source
- AI writing is labelled
- Stays on your iPhone
In development.It runs on Joshua’s iPhone today. It isn’t on the App Store or in TestFlight yet.
What it does
Keep up. Then put the phone down.
Informant uses AI to summarize what your sources say, on your iPhone, and it labels every line the AI wrote. Grouping stories and hiding small stuff follow plain rules.
Topics and sources
Start from a pack, search for podcasts, add a blog or a subreddit, or bring a list from another reader. Informant shows you every source before anything is added. Match and mute words keep each topic on track.
“You’ll see every source before anything is added.”
A brief that ends
Today gathers new posts into stories and puts the strongest first. Each says how many sources carry it. Release notes, help threads and other small stuff stay out unless you want them. Or flip through the brief full screen, a page per story.
“You’re caught up.”
Who’s saying what
A short summary of each story, and where the sources disagree. Ask a question about a topic, and the answer cites the posts it came from. If your sources don’t cover it, Informant says so.
“Your sources don’t answer that yet.”
Learn
For the topics you’re new to: a primer, a glossary drawn from your sources, review cards, a three-question weekly check, and a timeline of how things got here.
“Built from your own sources, then it ends.”
Alerts, only for big ones
Off unless you turn them on, topic by topic. Even then, Informant only taps you when three or more of your sources carry the same story.
Save to Informant
Found something in Safari or another app? Share it to Informant. A widget on your home screen shows how many new stories are waiting.
Where it fits
One family, one IDuh Pipeline.
Informant covers what’s happening out there. With Scatterplot, it’s how you work out where you stand. Endgame says where you’re going, and Masterplan draws the way between. Each app works on its own.
Point AWhere you are
The middleThe route between
Point BWhere you’re going
Works today, on a tap
- Scatterplot → Masterplan. Send a project, with your own Point A note, as the start of a plan.
- Endgame → Masterplan. Pick a goal as the plan’s end.
- Scatterplot ↔ Endgame. Link a project to the goal it serves, and open one from the other.
- Scatterplot → Informant. Suggest topics to follow. Only the topic names you tick go across.
Not yet
- Informant evidence into a Masterplan plan.
- Keeping a plan up to date when its project or goal changes. For now, you send it again.
Hand-offs move between apps on the same iPhone. A link is a reference, not a copy, and nothing is sent until you tap.
Where your reading lives
Your topics are nobody else’s business.
What stays put
- Your topics, sources, reading and Learn cards are kept on your iPhone. There’s no Informant server.
- Summaries, answers and Learn are written by Apple’s on-device model. No cloud AI reads your topics.
- Anything the AI wrote says so: “Written by AI from your sources.”
What touches the network, and when
- Your sources: Informant fetches the feeds you approved, straight from the sites that publish them, plus a preview picture from a story’s page.
- Finding sources: podcast search goes to Apple. Suggested news and Hacker News searches are only added once you approve them.
- Sign-in uses GeniusID, the IDuh Genius account. Signing in doesn’t upload your topics or reading.
Where it stands
Built and briefing, not ready to hand out.
Everything in “What it does” is built and running on Joshua’s iPhone. The AI parts are still being tested on a real phone. There’s no download, beta or sign-up yet.
Built
- Topics, starter packs, podcast search, imported lists, match and mute words
- Feeds from sites, blogs, podcasts and subreddits
- Today’s brief, stories, the full-screen flip-through, alerts and the widget
- Summaries, Ask and Learn, written on the phone and labelled
Not yet
- More kinds of source: X, Bluesky, Mastodon and newsletters
- Sync across devices, and a web companion
- Send to Masterplan: evidence from a topic as part of a plan’s Point A
Agent Big Head: A feed wants you to keep scrolling. A brief wants you to go do something else. I know which one I’d hire.
Questions
Short answers.
Can I get it?
Not yet. Informant isn’t on the App Store or in TestFlight. When that changes, this page will say so.
Does AI choose what I read?
No. You choose the topics and approve every source. Plain rules group the stories and set the order, strongest first. The AI writes summaries and answers from the posts in your brief, and labels them.
Which iPhones will it work on?
The briefs and feeds don’t need anything special. Summaries, Ask and Learn use Apple’s on-device model, so they need an iPhone with Apple Intelligence turned on.
Is it a news app?
It reads whatever you point it at: news sites, blogs, podcasts or subreddits. It doesn’t publish anything, and IDuh Genius doesn’t pick your sources.
The rest of the family
Three more in the family.
Point A · What you’ve gatheredScatterplot Catch notes, links, photos and places. File them into projects and find them by day or on a map.
The middle · How you get thereMasterplan Write where you are and where you’re going. Four intelligences sketch the route; you choose.
Point B · What done looks likeEndgame Decide what success means before you begin, and keep every version of the goal.