A home assistant you can talk to like a person.
Built for the people who gave up on technology. No screen, no app, no password, nothing to learn. You set it up once, for yourself or for someone you love, and after that there is nothing to do but talk to it.
Launching on Kickstarter. Waitlist members get first pick and the early-backer price. No money now, no spam, and we never sell your email.
Try this with any voice assistant you have ever owned.
- What was that thing you told me about my tomatoes last week?
- WinnabyBlossom end rot. You were losing them at the bottom, and we figured it was uneven watering.
- That's it. Tell me what to do about it, but go slow, I'm writing this down.
- WinnabyTake your time. First one: water the same amount every day instead of a lot on Sundays. Tell me when you've got that.
- Okay. Hold on, my hands are wet.
- WinnabyI'll wait.
Say any of that to Alexa, Siri, or Google. Trail off, change your mind, ask it to hold on while you dry your hands, and it tells you it didn't catch that. Then you start over, from the top, saying its name again. Winnaby just waits.
Why this and not another smart speaker.
A voice assistant waits for a command. Winnaby has a conversation.
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It remembers
What they talked about yesterday is still there today. They can pick a conversation back up in the middle.
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It looks things up
Real answers to real questions, including things that happened this week, not a canned line from a database.
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It keeps talking
They can ask a follow-up without saying its name again. Pause. Change their mind. Ask for the long version.
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The weather, plainly
Not a forecast read off a card. Whether they need a coat, and whether that walk at two is a good idea.
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Stories, read out loud
Ten minutes on how somebody discovered something, in a voice that does not run out after two sentences.
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No screen, ever
Nothing to squint at, nothing to tap, no password. It works from across the room with their hands full.
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It keeps the list
"Remind me I need horseradish." It goes on the list, and it reads the whole list back whenever it is asked.
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It knows where things are
Where the nearest pharmacy is, whether it is open, and how to get there, said out loud instead of drawn on a map.
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It plays something
Ask for a station, a decade, or just something cheerful, and it puts music on. No app, no account, no searching.
The one they'll actually keep using.
The tablet sits in a drawer. The phone is a wall of small buttons and one more password, and it dials people by accident. Winnaby sits out on the counter and gets used every day.
None of that is anybody's fault. Those things were built for people who already like screens. Winnaby was built for the ones who never did, and there is nothing on it to learn.
It talks like a person, not a machine.
They can ramble. They can stop in the middle of a sentence and start over. They can ask a follow-up without saying its name again, or ask for the long version of the story.
Winnaby keeps up the way a patient friend would, and it says so when it doesn't know something instead of making something up.
Things people actually say to it.
Nobody has to learn special words or get the phrasing right. They ask the way they'd ask you if you were standing in the kitchen.
It works for people with low vision, people who never got comfortable with a computer, and anyone who is alone more of the day than they'd like to be.
- What's the weather doing tomorrow?
- How long do I roast a five-pound chicken?
- Who was the actor in Casablanca, the one with the hat?
- Read me something about the war, but not the sad parts.
- I can't sleep. Keep me company for a while.
Three things, once.
Then nobody has to touch a setting again.
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Plug it in
It arrives already set up under your account. It goes on the kitchen counter or the nightstand and plugs into the wall.
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Add their WiFi from your phone
About two minutes, the next time you visit. After that it remembers the network. Winnaby Go can skip this entirely and run on its own connection.
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Say "Hey Winnaby"
That's the whole manual. The top of the device is also a button, if they'd rather press something. When they're done, they tell it goodnight.
Why not a smart speaker? Or just a phone?
Honest answer: for you, a phone is better. It has a screen, it's free, and you already know how to use it. Winnaby is for the person who can't or won't, and it's built around the things that actually stop them.
| Feature | Alexa, Siri or Google | ChatGPT or Claude on a phone | Winnaby |
|---|---|---|---|
| Getting started | App and account required | App, account, login, updates | Arrives set up. Family adds WiFi once. |
| Talking to it | Commands. Say it wrong and it fails. | A real conversation | A real conversation, hands free, across the room |
| Asking a follow-up | Say the wake word again every time | Tap and type again | Just keep talking |
| Stories and long answers | Short and canned | Very good, if you can read the screen | Very good, read out loud |
| Needs a screen or steady hands | No | Yes | No |
| Works with no smartphone in the house | Not really | No | Yes |
| Turns the lights on | Yes | No | No, and it isn't trying to |
| Looked after by a family member | Awkward | No | Yes, from your own phone |
If they already love the smart speaker they have, keep it. Winnaby is for the people who gave up on theirs.
Two versions.
Same insides, same conversations. One stays home, one goes along.
Winnaby Home
$149
For the kitchen counter or the bedside table. Plugs into the wall and uses the WiFi that's already there.
- Real conversation, hands free, from across the room
- Remembers what you talked about last time
- Looks things up, tells long stories, reads them out loud
- Weather, the shopping list, directions, music
- Follow-up questions without saying its name again
- Family adds the WiFi once, from a phone, and manages it from there
Winnaby Go
from $249
Everything Home does, untethered. It uses WiFi when there is WiFi, and its own cellular connection when there isn't, so it keeps working in the car, on a walk, or in a house with no internet at all.
- Everything Winnaby Home does, in the same voice
- WiFi and cellular, switching between them on its own
- Works anywhere with a signal, no home internet required
- Hours of battery, charges over USB
- Goes in the car, to the park, to the doctor's waiting room
Plus a membership, from $9.99 a month
The membership covers the conversations. We run the AI, the voice and the servers, so nobody at home ever deals with an account, a key, or a bill they didn't expect.
- 50conversations$9.99
- 100conversations$19.99
- 250conversations$29.99
- 500conversations$49.99
- 1,000conversations$89.99
Move up or down any time from your own phone. You're the one who approves it, so there's no way for a plan to change by accident.
Why I'm building this.
I built the first Winnaby on my kitchen table with a soldering iron my dad taught me to use. The first real test wasn't a demo. It was my fiancée trying to have a conversation with it and telling me, honestly, everything that was wrong. It cut her off mid-sentence. It couldn't hear her from the couch. The stories were boring.
We fixed all three, and we're still fixing. This is a small company. The plan is to stay honest about what it can do, ship something that survives being unplugged a hundred times, and make a device an eighty-year-old can use on the first try.
A few things on this page are still being finished, and the case in the photo is a design, not a shipped product. I'll keep saying so here until it isn't true.
Jake Bernesby, Port Washington, New York
Questions we get.
Is it listening all the time?
It listens for its own name, on the device itself, and that's all it does until it hears it. Once a conversation starts the ring lights up, what's said is sent up to be answered, and the microphone stays open for a short while afterward so a follow-up doesn't need the name again. Then the ring goes out and so does the microphone. Conversations are never sold and never used for advertising.
Do they need a smartphone?
No. They don't need a phone, an email address, or an account. Everything on the setup side happens on your phone, not theirs.
What if they can't remember how to use it?
There's nothing to remember beyond talking to it. If the name slips their mind, pressing the top starts a conversation too. If it gets unplugged, plugging it back in is the whole recovery.
Can it call 911, or call me?
Not yet. Winnaby is company, not a medical alert device, and we won't pretend otherwise. Calling and messages are the first thing on the list after launch.
What if the internet goes out?
Winnaby Home says so, out loud, in plain words, so nobody is left talking to a silent box. Winnaby Go switches to its own cellular connection on its own.
When does it ship?
We're launching on Kickstarter after the next round of testing. Waitlist members hear first, and we'll only take orders with a delivery date we can actually keep.
Get in line early.
Waitlist members get first pick and the early-backer price when Winnaby launches on Kickstarter.
No money now. We'll email you when there's something real to see. Privacy