This flips the typical assistant model. You're not locked into one company's AI agents.
Aide, from indie team Testcode, Inc., lets you pick your provider on Android. Connect to Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, local Ollama models, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. API keys stay on your phone with hardware-backed encryption. Messages route directly from your device to your provider. Aide's servers never see them.
The app replaces your default assistant. Swipe from the corner, hold the power button, or use voice to invoke it. Free tier covers text chat, provider switching, history, custom prompts, and web search. A $9.99 one-time Pro upgrade adds voice input and output, photo and file attachments, device actions like SMS and calls, plus Home Assistant integration.
BYOK matters because the AI market moves fast. Aide lets you chase performance without committing to one company. Your local Ollama instance can search the web through Aide. Claude handles "what's the weather" without its own internet connection.
No subscription.
Free for basics, $9.99 once for everything. You pay your provider directly for usage. For anyone frustrated with Google Assistant's limits, Aide offers an alternative that doesn't ask you to trust another middleman with your conversations.