What Roomie is
Roomie is the roommate who actually keeps track. Add it to your apartment's group chat and it handles rent, splits, groceries, chores and the landlord, so none of you have to.
It knows Tricks: Money, Groceries, House and Lease Inbox. Roommates start with the first three; Lease Inbox is taught when you're ready to give the landlord an address for the group.
Not roommates? It works for trips and friends too.
Add it to the group chat
WhatsApp is in a small beta. Tell us about your apartment and we'll get Roomie into your group. Whoever adds it becomes its first Admin.
Telegram works today: open t.me/imroomiebot, pick your group, done.
Discord and iMessage are on the way. Vote for them on the home page.
What happens when it joins
- It says hi and introduces itself in one short message.
- It asks one setup question: what's the group for, your currency and your city. One reply covers it all.
- Skip it and it uses the defaults: USD, Chicago time and the roommates Tricks (Money, Groceries, House).
- When setup's done it posts one Join link: that's everyone's way into the dashboard.
On Telegram it also asks everyone to press Start with @imroomiebot once, so it can message you privately.
Talking to it
Roomie answers when you:
- say “roomie” anywhere in a message,
- @mention it, or
- reply to one of its messages.
It mostly answers when addressed; sometimes it chimes in when a message is clearly for it, and it answers voice notes addressed to it. Once a morning it posts what matters today: rent due, a landlord visit, chores due, things you're probably low on. Otherwise it keeps quiet.
You can also message it privately: what do I owe
, remind me Friday
. Your rent share and your pay links come that way too.
Send /pet and it tells you about its day.
Tricks
A Trick is something Roomie knows how to do. To teach it one, say roomie, learn lease inbox
, or tap Teach on the dashboard's Tricks page (Admins). Three things to say for each:
Money
Log shared costs, split them any way, settle up with pay links.
- roomie, I paid 60 for internet
- roomie, who owes what?
- roomie, Alex paid 60 and I paid 40 for dinner
On from the start for roommates.
Groceries
One shared Cart, recipes for the group, and an Instacart list.
- roomie, tacos for 5 friday
- roomie, add milk and eggs
- roomie, we're out of dish soap
On from the start for roommates.
House
The chore chart and the house care nobody remembers, on schedule.
- roomie, I did the dishes
- roomie, whose turn is trash?
- roomie, skip my turn on trash
On from the start for roommates.
Coming soon
- Lease InboxSoon
- OutingsSoon
- CookingSoon
- TripsSoon
- StickersSoon
- GuestsSoon
- Move-outSoon
Want one sooner? Vote for it.
The dashboard
Every group gets its own page: rent and Balances, the Cart, the chore chart, the landlord's mail and what Roomie did.
To get in, open the Join link Roomie posted when setup finished (or say roomie send us the dashboard
). Sign in with Google once and pick your name. Your own private link also works: roomie send me the dashboard
.
- Members
- Everyone in the group that Roomie knows. Members can open the dashboard and log things.
- Admins
- Whoever added Roomie, plus anyone they promote. Admins approve people, teach Roomie Tricks or make it forget them, and change the group's settings.
- Pending
- Someone who joined after Roomie did. Roomie answers them but won't log anything for them until an Admin approves, with
roomie approve Priya
or on the Members page.
Privacy
Each group is separate: its own memory, its own dashboard. Nothing crosses between groups.
Every message goes to a small model that decides whether Roomie should answer; the ones it answers go to Claude. Chat messages, its memory of conversations and its debug records are kept for 30 days, then deleted. Say roomie forget me
and it deletes what it knows about you and takes you out of the group's Members. What goes where, and who can see it, is on the privacy page.
Questions
Is it free?
Yes, while it's in beta.
Does it read everything we say?
Yes. Every message, with the few before it, goes to a small model that decides whether Roomie should answer. It mostly answers when addressed; sometimes it chimes in, and it answers voice notes addressed to it. What it answers goes to Claude with recent chat for context.
Chat messages, its memory of conversations and its debug records are deleted after 30 days. Each group's memory is separate. The privacy page has the details.
Can it message people privately?
Yes. Your rent share, what you owe and your dashboard link come privately, and you can message it first: what do I owe
, remind me Friday
. On Telegram, only after you press Start with @imroomiebot (a Telegram rule). On WhatsApp, any Member of the group.
Does it nag people about money in the group?
No. If you've owed the same person more than $20 for over a week, Roomie reminds you privately, once a week, with a pay link. Nobody else sees it, and stop nudging me
turns it off.
Does it work on iMessage?
Soon, through a relay we run. Vote for it on the home page and we'll tell you when it's ready.
Does the landlord know it's a shared inbox?
Yes. Every email it sends says it's the residents' shared inbox and names who asked. When a new landlord address shows up, Roomie offers to send a short intro email first, signed by everyone in the group.
Why didn't it answer?
- The message didn't say “roomie”, @mention it or reply to it.
- You're Pending: an Admin hasn't approved you yet.
- The group hasn't taught it that Trick. Say “roomie, learn …”.
- It got a lot of messages at once and is pacing itself. Try again in a minute.
Can it forget a Trick?
Yes. An Admin says roomie, forget chores
or taps Forget on the dashboard's Tricks page. What it kept stays, so teaching it again picks up where you left off.
Can I use it in more than one group?
Yes. Each group gets its own Roomie, memory and dashboard. Signed in with Google, you can switch between your groups on the dashboard.
What's different on WhatsApp and Telegram?
WhatsApp is a beta we set up with you; there Roomie knows everyone in the group from the start and can message any Member privately.
Telegram is open to everyone: add it yourself. Roomie meets people as they first speak, and can only message you privately after you press Start.
What does "Pending" mean?
Someone who joined after Roomie did (on Telegram, anyone who first speaks more than a day after it joined). Roomie answers them but won't log anything for them until an Admin approves them, in the chat or on the Members page.
How do I remove it?
Remove it from the group like any other member. To wipe what it kept, an Admin can delete the group's data in the dashboard's Settings first.
What does "forget me" delete?
In that group: your chat messages, what Roomie remembered about you (like a diet or a Venmo handle), its memory of you under any name you had, the photos of yours it read and the debug records of your messages. You leave the group's Members and show as “Former member”; write again and you're a new member an Admin approves. Expenses you were part of stay so everyone else's Balances still add up.
Who runs this?
A small independent team. Roomie is open source on GitHub, and the data lives in a Postgres database on Neon. No ads, and we don't sell data.
Can it order groceries by itself?
No. It turns the Cart into an Instacart list, and a person checks out. Then roomie I paid 84
splits the shop by who added what.
Does it work with Venmo or Splitwise?
Settle up gives you Venmo, PayPal or Cash App links with the amount filled in; Roomie never moves money itself. An Admin can bring in a Splitwise group's history, copy expenses there, or keep the two in sync.
Ready when your apartment is.