GumLeaf is not an emergency service. In an emergency, contact local emergency services (911, 112, etc.). Never rely on GumLeaf for safety-critical information.

GumLeaf · answers by SMS

Ten miles past the trailhead, your bars are gone but your questions aren't.

Text GumLeaf a question and an answer comes back as a plain text, sized to read on a bad signal. Tomorrow's weather on the ridge. How to treat a blister. Whether to filter that creek water. It works over satellite, so there's no app to install, no bars to chase, and no internet needed on your end.

Phone number coming very soon

Example exchanges with GumLeaf. You: weather in Bergen, Norway this weekend? GumLeaf: Bergen Sat rain, 8°C, wind 6 m/s SW; Sun heavy rain easing after midday, 9°C; driest window for the hike is Sun after 15:00. You: how do I treat a blister mid-hike? GumLeaf: clean it, don't pop it, ring it with moleskin or a donut of padding, cover with a bandage, and change socks if damp. You: is it safe to drink straight from a fast stream? GumLeaf: no, fast water can still carry Giardia and bacteria. Filter, boil for 1 minute, or use purification tablets first.

01 · The route

How it works

  1. 01

    Text a question

    Any question, from any phone. That includes iPhone satellite messaging and Starlink direct-to-cell.

  2. 02

    Get an answer that fits

    GumLeaf replies in one text: real forecast data for weather, a short clear answer for everything else.

  3. 03

    Ask a follow-up

    Plus remembers your last exchange, so "what about tomorrow?" or "and Sunday?" just works, no need to repeat yourself.

02 · The coverage gap

Most of the map has no signal

~10% of the Earth's surface has any cellular signal at all. The rest is ocean, mountain, and backcountry, with no coverage.
111.7 M acres of US wilderness where cell towers are effectively banned by the Wilderness Act. Off-grid, on purpose.
1 text is all it takes. Satellite SMS carries your question out where data never reaches, and brings the answer home.

Sources: cellular reaches only about 10 to 15 percent of the Earth's surface (industry estimates); 111.7M acres of designated US wilderness (wilderness.net).

03 · Why GumLeaf

For the moment your bars disappear

Summit ridges, canyon camps, the last 40 miles of washboard road. If you can send a text, even by satellite, you can get an answer, however far the nearest tower is.

Real forecast data

Weather answers come from live National Weather Service and MET Norway data, the same sources meteorologists use. Not a chatbot's guess.

Answers from a top AI model

GumLeaf runs on a genuinely capable model, the same class you'd use in a browser, so you get real reasoning and clear answers, not a scripted bot.

No app, no account

Nothing to install, no login. Your phone number is your account. Three free answers every month, forever.

Please plan like GumLeaf doesn't exist. SMS delivery can be slow or fail entirely, especially over satellite. Never depend on GumLeaf for medical guidance, navigation, rescue, or any situation where a missing or wrong answer could put someone at risk.

04 · Provisions

Pricing

Free

$0 / month
  • 5 answers every month
  • Weather and general questions
  • No signup, just text
Start free by text

Plus, monthly

$4.99 / month

Billed every month.

  • 50 answers per month
  • Weather and general questions
  • Remembers your last question for follow-ups
  • Cancel anytime
Checkout opens at launch

Pay right from your phone with Apple Pay or Google Pay. Your number activates the moment checkout completes.

Rather run it yourself? GumLeaf is open source - learn more.

05 · Field notes

Questions, answered

Can I use GumLeaf in an emergency?

No. Please don't. GumLeaf is a convenience, not a safety service, and texts can be slow, go missing, or come back wrong. If it's a real emergency, call your local emergency services (911 in the US, 112 in Europe) or use your phone's built-in Emergency SOS. Never bet your safety on a text bot.

How do I get started?

Two ways. Text your question straight to the GumLeaf number, or drop your mobile number in the box at the top of this page and GumLeaf texts you first. Reply to that text and you're off.

How do I activate GumLeaf Plus?

Tap the upgrade link GumLeaf texts you, pay with Apple Pay, Google Pay, or a card, and that's it. Your number flips to Plus the moment checkout finishes, so just text your next question.

Can I move my subscription to a new phone number?

Yep. Send a note through the contact form from the email you paid with and I'll move it over.

What does the free plan include?

5 answers a month, free, resetting on the 1st. Each one gets a single clear reply. Want more? Plus bumps you to 50 a month and adds follow-up memory.

Does it remember what I asked?

On Plus, yeah. For about half an hour it holds onto your last exchange, so a follow-up like "what about tomorrow?" works without you repeating the place or the topic. Free answers each stand on their own.

Does it really work over satellite?

It does. iPhone Messages over satellite (iPhone 14 and up) and T-Mobile/Starlink direct-to-cell both reach GumLeaf as ordinary SMS. One tip: satellite texting is slow, so keep it short and give the reply a few minutes.

What about those offline LLM apps?

I like those too. Fullmoon and PocketPal both live on my phone. The thing is, even the most powerful model you can run fully offline is still pretty far behind the latest cloud models, and probably will be for a while. GumLeaf takes the other route: it sends your question out over a plain text message to a frontier model and brings the answer back. Both are worth having, so it's nice to have options.

What do you store about me?

As little as I can. Your phone number, a monthly usage count, and, on Plus, your last exchange (kept about half an hour so follow-ups work) plus a link to your subscription. Your question text goes to OpenAI to get answered and rides through Twilio like any text. The full story is in the privacy policy.

How do I stop messages?

Text STOP whenever you want. It's handled at the carrier level, so GumLeaf goes quiet for good, unless you text START to bring it back.

Can I run this myself?

For sure. GumLeaf is open source (github.com/codestin/gumleaf), so you can run it on your own Twilio number and the LLM of your choice. What you'd pay me for isn't the code, it's everything around it: US carriers make you register a number for A2P texting, which is real paperwork and a wait of days to weeks; you'd hold your own keys and cover every message's cost; and someone has to keep it deployed and patched. On the hosted plan, that someone is me instead of you.

Why the name GumLeaf?

GumLeaf is what a koala lives on. In Australia, eucalyptus trees are called gum trees, and their leaves, gum leaves, are pretty much the only thing a koala ever eats. It gets nearly everything it needs, food and water both, from that one humble source. That's the whole idea. One simple, low-power channel, a plain text, is all it takes to keep you going off the grid. No app, no data plan, no Wi-Fi. Like a koala on a single gum leaf, GumLeaf does a lot with almost nothing, which is exactly why the koala is our mascot.

Doesn't this remind you of something from the early 2000s?

Yeah, it does. GumLeaf was inspired by peabrain, an SMS journaling tool my friend Buster Benson built back in the early 2000s. There's almost nothing left of it online now, just an old mailing list thread. What always stuck with me is that a plain text message is still the lowest-fidelity interface most people can reach, no smartphone needed. I wanted to bring back little tools like that.

From the maker

GumLeaf is a solo project by Christin Chong, PhD. If it's useful to you and you'd like to support the work, the nicest way is to subscribe to her newsletter. No pressure, and thank you for being here.