What is Hobson?

Who is Hobson for?

Dual-income parents and busy caregivers who are juggling two work calendars plus the kids’ schedules, and are tired of things slipping through the cracks: the dentist visit nobody booked, the carpool nobody claimed, the flyer that never made it onto a calendar.

It also fits co-parents who need to coordinate the kids without merging two households, and anyone looking after an older parent who wants to know a ride arrived safely. If one person in your house is the one who “just remembers everything,” Hobson is built to take some of that off them.

Why does Hobson exist?

A shared calendar shows you what you already entered. It doesn’t notice what you forgot, and it doesn’t chase down who’s driving on Tuesday. That noticing becomes one adult’s unpaid second job. Hobson does the noticing so two busy adults can stay coordinated without a weekly logistics meeting.

The idea is a “judgment layer”: Hobson doesn’t replace Google Calendar or Apple Calendar. It reads them, looks for the gaps and the recurring patterns, and turns what it finds into a short list of nudges you can act on, snooze, or dismiss.

What does Hobson do?

• Smart nudges.Hobson learns the rhythm of your calendar and points out what’s overdue or missing: a checkup that hasn’t been booked, a haircut that’s slipped, a date night that keeps not happening, a birthday coming up with nothing planned. Each nudge comes with a “Schedule it” action.
• Today’s Brief. A short morning summary of what matters today and what still needs a decision.
• Carpool coordination.For a recurring kids’ activity shared in a Circle, Hobson asks who’s driving 48 hours ahead. Parents tap “I’ll Drive” with a seat count, “Need Ride,” or “Not Going,” and Carpool Karma tracks who drives most.
• Flyer scan. Snap a photo of a paper notice and Hobson reads the dates and details. You review every event it found before anything is added to your calendar.
• Email forwarding. Forward a school or club email to your Hobson address and the events are extracted for you.
• Circles and shared lists. Coordinate with a partner, a co-parent, or the other soccer parents. Share nudges, assign to-dos, and give a list a deadline without sharing your whole calendar.
• Talk to Hobson. Ask about your week, add an event in a sentence, or plan a dinner out with restaurant suggestions.
• Household extras.Household plans add “Schedule a ride” for a single trip (everyone gets an “arrived safely” notification) and shared medication refill reminders.

What happens in the first week?

You connect a calendar, and Hobson reads the last few months to learn what is normal for your family. The first nudges appear within a day or so: the overdue checkup, the birthday coming up, the activity that has gone quiet. You create a Circle or join one from an invite link, and the carpool questions and shared lists start from there. A Sync Score on your Profile tab shows how much of your life Hobson can see, and goes up as you connect calendars, join Circles, and act on nudges.

Which calendars and apps does it work with?

Hobson syncs Google Calendar and Apple Calendar, and can subscribe to ICS feeds such as a school or team calendar. It reads your events to generate nudges and never modifies or deletes anything on your calendars. Google Calendar data is handled under Google’s API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use rules. For fitness-related nudges it can optionally connect to Strava and Apple Health. On Android, calendar sync is Google Calendar; Apple Calendar and Apple Health stay iPhone-only.

What does Hobson cost?

• Solo is free. Nudges, Circles, carpool coordination, calendar sync, and Talk to Hobson are all included, with 10 AI assists per month for the heavier AI actions such as scanning a flyer or asking Hobson to plan something.
• Household is $8.99/month or $79.99/year for up to 6 people, with unlimited AI plus the ride and medication features.
• Founders is $39.99/year, annual only, for the first 1,000 members, with the price locked for life.

There are no ads on any plan, and Hobson does not sell your data.

How does Hobson handle your data?

Your data is stored with row-level security, so each account can only read its own rows. AI features run through Hobson’s own server functions using Anthropic’s Claude; under Anthropic’s commercial terms that content is not used to train models. Scanned photos are processed in memory and never stored. Chat messages and forwarded emails are deleted after 90 days, and you can delete your account and everything in it from the Profile tab. The full details are in the privacy policy.

Who makes Hobson?

Hobson is made by Susan Agostinelli and Rodney Jones, an independent two-person team based in California. It launched on the App Store in August 2026 after a private beta with a few dozen families. Contact: developer@gethobson.app.

• Platforms: iOS (iPhone) on the App Store, and Android on Google Play.
• Company: Hobson, LLC, a California limited liability company.