Frequently asked questions

You sign in on the sign-up page with your Google account or via an email code. After that you're on the waitlist — seats are limited and handed out by hand.

As soon as a seat is free you get an email with the download. If one is already reserved for you, it arrives right away. Signing up twice doesn't speed anything up: it doesn't create a second request, and your questionnaire answers are kept.

The code is valid for ten minutes. If yours is older, just request a new one on the sign-up page.

If no mail arrives at all, check your spam folder; the sender is pouch@agentmail.to. And use the same address you used the first time — your approval is tied to the address you signed up with.

No. The email-code route works just as fully — including later, for the download and in the app.

What matters is that you take the same route again: if you signed up with the email code, use “or by email” on the page again; if you used Google, use Google again.

That's expected, and it's because Pouch isn't in the Play Store yet. Two dialogs appear, both only the first time:

“Install from this source?” — Android asks this for the app that did the download, usually Chrome or your file manager. Allow it once and the question won't come back.

Play Protect — if you see “App blocked” or a scan prompt, tap “More details” and then “Install anyway”. The scan then usually reports “This app looks safe”.

The downloaded file is in Downloads and is called pocket-agent-<version>.apk. One tap is enough — you don't need to download it again.

Usually there's an older build on the device from someone else — for instance from a passed-on copy. Uninstall the existing Pouch app once and install the freshly downloaded file again.

If that doesn't help, check the free storage: Android aborts installs without a clear message when space gets tight. And when in doubt, download the file again — an interrupted download looks like a complete file on the device.

About five minutes, twelve steps, and the app counts them at the top.

In order: your starting point (guided or quick start), a short introduction, the legal texts, signing in, your name, a note about test data, your first entries, notifications, battery exemption, the connection for your AI chat, choosing the chats, done.

The first step has no “Next” button — choosing takes you onward. And the last button is called “Start”, not “Done”.

Below the two texts there's a checkbox to confirm, and it only appears once you've scrolled a little. While it's unchecked, “Next” stays grey — the reason is written in small print underneath.

You don't have to work through the whole text: both texts scroll within themselves, a few swipes are enough.

Both are about the same thing: your phone being able to answer when a chat asks something.

Notifications are how a request reaches you — without them you approve nothing, because you see nothing.

The battery exemption keeps Android from putting the service to sleep. Without it a request sometimes arrives and sometimes doesn't, and that's worse than not at all.

You can change both later in Android's settings.

The steps for notifications and battery are optional. The app isn't waiting for anything there — “Next” stays active the whole time, even while it says “No exemption” beside it.

Both can be done later, in Android's settings under Apps → Pouch. If a step really won't let you past, the reason is written in small print under the Next button — then an entry is missing, such as your name or accepting the legal texts.

Once you've entered the MCP address in ChatGPT, the first access asks on your phone — you confirm it there. After that it appears under Access → Connector approvals as an active connector with a date.

If it's listed there, nothing more is needed. “No activity recorded yet” only means the chat hasn't asked anything yet — not that something is missing.

The home screen shows Connected with a green dot. If it says something else, the card below tells you why and offers the matching button.

Right after the last step the model guide opens once, with the setup for ChatGPT and Claude. You can close it top right and reach it again later under Settings.

In the app under Settings → Connection. The MCP address and a QR code are there; in ChatGPT you add the address as a custom connector.

A new chat's first access has to be approved on the phone. Until then it is refused — that's not a fault, it's the point at which you decide who may reach your dossier.

Your plan allows fewer signed-in devices than are currently signed in. Nothing is broken and nothing is lost.

Sign an old device out (in the app under Settings → Account) or switch plans. The new device then connects without any further action.

Yes, it does. A connection has two ends, and they have to be undone separately:

Removing it in ChatGPT takes the entry away there — the approval on your device stays.

Revoking it in Pouch actually ends the access: Access → Connector approvals → Revoke access. After that the connector cannot reach your device, even if it were still listed in ChatGPT.

If you want both gone, do both — otherwise you either leave an approval open or keep an entry that leads nowhere.

ChatGPT remembers the tool list from the moment you connect and never re-reads it on its own. After an update with new capabilities your chat therefore can't see them — it doesn't report an error, it just answers plausibly beside the point.

Disconnect the Pouch connector in the chat once and connect it again: in ChatGPT under Settings → Apps → Pouch → Disconnect, then reconnect. The access centre shows, per connection, whether it knows the current state.

In the app under Settings → “Updates & help” → Check. If a new version is available it says “Available”, with the install button underneath.

The install itself is always confirmed by Android — no app can do that for you. The first time, the same two dialogs appear as for the initial installation.

There are three, and they solve different problems. You don't need all three.

1. Dossier snapshots (on the device). They run by themselves, hourly by default; the last five are kept. They exist for when a chat has messed something up in your dossier — you restore the state from earlier. Nothing to set up. Under Settings → Backup you can change the interval or take one by hand.

2. The .soulpack export (a file you carry away). For moving to a new phone, and for a copy outside the device. Important: the file is unencrypted. That is deliberate — encrypted it would be worthless on a new device, because the key never leaves this installation. It contains your complete dossier, including secret entries. Only put it in places you trust.

3. The recovery backup (encrypted, stored with us). For when the phone is gone. You choose your own password, the app encrypts on the device and only then uploads — we never see the content and cannot open it. Which also means: without your password the backup is lost, for us too. Write it down somewhere you will still find it in six months.

Which one when? If a chat wrote nonsense into your dossier, the first one helps — it is already running, you only restore. Moving to a new phone: take the second. If the phone is lost or broken, only the third still helps: what was on the device is then nowhere else.

Uploading a recovery backup is part of Pro. Restoring is not: you can always get your data back, even if you are on the free tier again later.

Because we're in a closed pre-alpha. Seats are limited and handed out by hand — not out of coyness, but because every piece of feedback is still read individually.

While that's the case, the app comes as a direct install. That's the reason for the Android warnings above.

Your dossier lives on your device, encrypted. The relay is the wire, not the warehouse: it passes requests between your chat and your phone and does not store the contents persistently.

What a chat may see is your decision per fact, through its sensitivity level — and every request that actually touches your device is one you confirm yourself. The details are in the privacy policy.

One point that matters in this early phase: what you release to an AI chat goes to that provider in clear text — the AI cannot work with it otherwise. Entries marked secret are never transmitted. Please don't store real passwords, health or financial data during this phase.

Preferably straight from the app: Settings → Feedback. You can attach a diagnostic if you want; what exactly goes with it is listed underneath, and your facts, projects and skills are never included.

Or write to pouch@agentmail.to. Answers come from a human or from Pouch itself — either way, someone is reading.