Kinso.ai (a real and honest review)

If you haven't heard of Kinso (https://www.kinso.ai/) they are a startup in Australia that has gone viral through their marketing, with an all in one messaging platform. I was an early user and wanted to share my honest thoughts. Please keep in mind some of my issues may already have been fixed or will be fixed. Firstly, I love the idea, and I was sold almost a year ago. Kinso took so damn long to come to market I was almost getting pissed off. I am pretty sure they underestimated how hard it was to hook into messaging platforms and intended to launch a lot sooner. In order to be an early member you had to do an onboarding call. This was fine, felt very unnecessary and could have easily been a 10 minute edited video. Instead it was a 22 year old walking through every feature at light speed. This girl felt like she had no time in the world, it was crazy. She seems really sweet and lovely but I really don't know why they are doing so many of these onboarding. It feels more like an exclusivity strategy instead something that adds value to clients. I felt more overwhelmed after the call. The product! It's got pros and cons. It's beautifully designed and I got it setup fast. However had constant issues. My linkedin was connected for a week before I realised I had unread linkedin DM's that just never came through. It was notification hell. I cannot believe any user was able to use this without notification control. I went from no notifications (as I like it) to one ever 5 minutes. That random email newsletter, notification. A payment came through, notification. Email, WhatsApp. KINSO KINSO KINSO on my phone every 5 minutes. And no way to control it. Kinso genuinely added so much stress to my life. I assume they have added this feature or will soon, but how the hell did this get into the hands of anyone without notification control? The U.I. Honestly I really struggled to get into it and I gave it a good shot, I used it for over two months every day, but I kept finding myself going into gmail to check if I missed anything, same with WhatsApp. There are lots of little things as well. No AVATAR images on the contacts, I can't respond to a poll on WhatsApp. All these little things mean you need to keep your original systems and apps just in case, which makes Kinso somewhat redundant. I will say, the search feature in gmail is super strong, I was impressed with that a lot. Other downsides, I couldn't connect instagram or my iMessages. They have these skills you can setup, I setup a bunch and got excited for them, but not once did I see one fire. Maybe they did? I have no idea, I couldn't find them. In the end, I am honestly shocked at how bad Kinso is. I really gave it a fair go, they had bought so much good will from their marketing and I am their ideal client. I run a business, have a team of 10 staff. But I couldn't get into this app. I kept getting annoyed seeing them post these videos online with these super niche features, like when you type into the chat it recognises the time and checks your calendar before you book and auto sends them a calendar invite booking link. This is cool, but let me turn off my fucking notifications. I honestly thought Kinso would be a huge startup that goes big, and maybe they will. But despite my best efforts, I really do not think this is good software. And that isn't a dig at the team. I actually think they have done an amazing job, but I don't think anyone can solve this all in one messaging platform. In truth, I built my own version using Claude code and it works way better. It hooks into Instagram, and my iMessages through my mac. It was easy to build as I only need it to work for me and not become a SAAS. I got nothing wrong with the Kinso team, I actually really like and respect them. I would be curious to see if they are experiencing high churn or if their members are saying similar things. Perhaps I am an edge case. At the end of the day, going so viral and building so much hype comes at a cost. If you cannot deliver a good product, no marketing or views will fix it. Would love to know how any other uses are finding it, let me know. Going to cancel my subscription today.