Do you believe in Magic?
Because that’s the name of the new texting-based virtual assistant service.
How it works is you text your requests to their special number and an anonymous virtual assistant makes it happen.
For instance, you could ask Magic to book you plane tickets, deliver groceries, or send a gift to your mom.
It’s free to sign-up and they just tack on a convenience fee to whatever purchases they make on your behalf.
To get started, just text “MAGIC” to 83489.
(I just texted and got a message back that there’s a waiting list 17,000 people deep! They say you can advance your position by tweeting about the service or skip the line entirely by paying them $100 a month.)
Apparently there’s quite a pent-up demand for this kind of service!
That response is perhaps why Fancy Hands has joined the game as well, with their new Orri app (currently only available for Android devices).
Orri works similarly, though you can also include non-purchase tasks like research, appointment-setting, and making phone calls on your behalf.
Orri is available without a Fancy Hands membership and is just billed out at a rate of $0.34 a minute.
Some are calling it a glorified Google, but I’m sure there are use-cases where it would come in handy.
Hat tip to Stephen in Detroit for letting me know about Cloe, another texting-based concierge service. Currently on wait-list as well.
What do you think? Would you use this kind of on-demand virtual assistant service?