Chorus vs Humane AI Pin
The Humane AI Pin was a screenless, voice-first wearable computer with a camera, laser-projected palm display, and its own cellular connection, launched in 2024 at $699 plus a required $24/month subscription. It is discontinued: HP acquired Humane's platform, patents, and team for $116 million in February 2025, and all Pins lost their core functions at 12 p.m. PT on February 28, 2025 when Humane's servers went offline. As of July 2026 the device cannot be bought new or used as intended; Humane's website is offline, and the team now builds HP IQ, an on-device AI layer for HP business PCs.
Chorus is a platform for hiring AI employees — autonomous AI agents that each run on their own always-on computer, connect to 70+ tools, and handle real work end to end. Here’s how the two compare, honestly.
At a glance
| Comparison dimension | Chorus | Humane AI Pin |
|---|---|---|
| Always-on computer | Every agent runs on its own dedicated always-on machine (4 vCPU / 8 GB) with a real browser — it keeps working when your laptop is closed. | No — the Pin was a wearable dependent on Humane's cloud; nothing worked persistently in the background, and since February 28, 2025 the servers are off and devices are bricked. |
| Tool integrations | 70+ integrations out of the box — Gmail, Slack, Notion, GitHub, Linear, Stripe, and more. The agent handles the auth. | Effectively none — calls/texts, photos, translation, music, and AI queries via Microsoft/OpenAI models, with no third-party work-app ecosystem; all of it stopped working at shutdown. |
| Messaging channels | Web chat, iMessage/SMS, Slack, WhatsApp, and Telegram — and it messages you proactively when work is done. | While live, its own phone number for voice and SMS over a T-Mobile MVNO; no Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, or proactive outreach — and no channels at all since the 2025 shutdown. |
| Persistent memory | Persistent memory and files live on the agent's own disk, so it remembers last week's work. | Photos, videos, and notes synced to Humane's cloud portal; all user data on Humane's servers was permanently deleted after February 28, 2025. |
| Background automations | Scheduled jobs (crons) and background automations are built in — agents work while you're away. | None — it was an on-demand voice assistant with no scheduled jobs or background task execution. |
| Pricing | Free plan to start (no card). Pro $20/mo for one always-on agent; Max $200/mo; extra agents $50/mo. | Discontinued; formerly $699 hardware (later $499) plus a required $24/month subscription; refunds at shutdown were limited to purchases within the prior 90 days. |
Where Humane AI Pin shines
- Genuinely ambitious hardware: a standalone wearable with camera, laser-projected palm display, and its own T-Mobile-based phone number — no smartphone required.
- Pioneered hands-free, voice-first ambient computing with features like real-time translation, which influenced how the industry thinks about post-smartphone devices.
- Real engineering depth — HP paid $116 million for the CosmOS software platform, 300+ patents and patent applications, and the team, which now powers HP IQ.
- An unusually dedicated community: open-source projects like OpenPin and PenumbraOS revived bricked Pins as hackable standalone Android devices.
Where it falls short
- The product no longer exists: every Pin was server-dependent and stopped working for calls, messaging, AI queries, and cloud access on February 28, 2025, and all user data on Humane's servers was permanently deleted.
- Even when it worked, it was a reactive voice assistant, not an autonomous agent — it answered queries in the moment but could not do background work, run scheduled jobs, or operate apps and websites on your behalf.
- It had essentially no work-tool integrations (no email triage, Slack, project trackers, or code tools) and no way to message you proactively across channels.
- Reception while it was alive was poor — reviewers panned it as slow and overpriced, and returns at one point outpaced sales, which led directly to the fire-sale acquisition.
- The shutdown left owners with bricked hardware and refunds only inside a 90-day window, a cautionary tale about products whose core functions live entirely on a vendor's servers.
Choose Humane AI Pin if…
- You are a hardware tinkerer who wants a cheap secondhand Pin to revive with OpenPin or PenumbraOS as a hackable standalone Android AI device.
- You want the spiritual successor inside an HP fleet: HP IQ brings the Humane team's on-device AI (Ask IQ, file analysis, NearSense device hand-off) to HP EliteBook X G2 AI PCs — rollout began Spring 2026, with more HP devices later in the year.
- You collect or study notable consumer-hardware history — the Pin is a landmark artifact of the 2024 AI gadget wave.
Choose Chorus if…
- You want something you can actually use today — the AI Pin cannot be purchased new or operated as designed, while Chorus is a live, supported product with a free tier.
- You need work done while you're away: Chorus agents run on their own always-on cloud computers with scheduled jobs and automations, where the Pin only ever responded to in-the-moment voice queries.
- Your work lives in tools — Gmail, Slack, Notion, GitHub, Stripe and 70+ others — which the Pin never integrated with.
- You want to reach your AI over iMessage, WhatsApp, Slack, or Telegram and have it message you proactively, rather than talking to a dedicated hardware device.
Common questions
Does the Humane AI Pin still work in 2026?
Not as originally designed. Humane's servers shut down at 12 p.m. PT on February 28, 2025, ending calling, messaging, AI queries, and cloud access, and stored user data was deleted. Open-source projects like OpenPin and PenumbraOS can partially revive a Pin as a standalone hacked device, but that requires technical work and is unofficial.
What happened to Humane after HP bought it?
HP acquired Humane's CosmOS platform, more than 300 patents and patent applications, and most of its team for $116 million in February 2025 and shut down the AI Pin business. The team became HP IQ, an AI innovation lab led by Humane cofounder Imran Chaudhri; its on-device workplace AI (Ask IQ, file analysis, NearSense) was unveiled at HP Imagine in March 2026 and began rolling out on HP EliteBook X G2 AI PCs in Spring 2026, with broader HP device support planned later in the year.
Is Chorus a replacement for the Humane AI Pin?
They solved different problems: the Pin was wearable hardware for in-the-moment voice queries, while Chorus is a software platform for hiring autonomous AI agents that each run on their own always-on cloud computer with 70+ tool integrations. If what attracted you to the Pin was an AI that's always available, Chorus delivers that through the phone you already own — via iMessage, WhatsApp, Slack, or Telegram — rather than a separate device.