Goals
Goals is an iOS and Android app that turns any ambition into an AI-generated, step-by-step plan with one clear action each day, plus check-ins, streaks and shared goals. Free for three goals; Pro costs $1.99 monthly.
What is Goals?
Goals is a mobile application published by Principal LA, LLC, a small Californian studio whose catalogue also includes the art discovery app XHBT. The premise fits in one line on the homepage: tell us your goal, we tell you what to do next. You describe an ambition in ordinary language, the app's AI turns it into a plan of dated steps, and each day is then reduced to a single action.
The homepage demonstrates it with a runner. The goal is a 5K in three months, the target date is set, and the plan comes back in five blocks: fifteen minutes of walking a day in weeks one and two, jog-walk intervals in weeks three and four, two kilometres without stopping in weeks five and six, three kilometres and more pace in weeks seven and eight, then the full distance. Every morning the app shows one card labelled Next step or Today. You complete it, then rate how it went from one to five stars and add a note or a photo. A streak counter and a countdown of days remaining carry the sense of progress.
The planning engine is named openly: Claude, from Anthropic, which the privacy policy lists among four third-party services. Since version 1.0.7 a goal need not have a plan at all, since simple daily check-in goals exist for habits. Goals can be shared by link with friends, family or colleagues, each participant keeping their own streak.
You can start without an account and keep up to three goals for nothing. Pro, at $1.99 a month, removes that limit, lets you create shared goals for others to join, and raises the daily quota of AI requests above the five granted on the free tier. The app runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac with Apple silicon and Apple Vision from iOS 15.1, and on Android; there is no web version, no API, and the interface exists in English only. A coach marketplace is being assembled, where practitioners sell sessions inside the app and the platform keeps 15% of each payment.
What it does
- Turn a goal written in plain language into a dated, step-by-step plan
- Surface the single action to take today
- Log a daily check-in with a one-to-five star rating, a note and a photo
- Build and keep a streak of consecutive days
- Catch up on missed days in a single gesture
- Pause a goal and resume it later without losing progress
- Share a goal by link and check in alongside other people
When to use Goals / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Goals is the right fit.
When to use Goals
- People who know exactly what they want to achieve but have no idea what the first step looks like
- Anyone training towards a dated physical goal, such as running a 5K in three months
- Habit builders who are motivated by streaks and a single daily prompt rather than a long task list
- Friends, families or teammates who want to pursue the same goal together and keep each other accountable
- Independent coaches looking for clients who are already in motion, through the in-app marketplace
When not to use Goals
- Desktop-first users: there is no web app and no desktop version, everything happens on a phone
- Anyone who needs the interface in a language other than English
- Developers and teams wanting an API, named integrations or admin controls, none of which exist
- Organisations with procurement requirements: no DPA, no security certification, no EU representative
- Under-13s, who are excluded by the terms of service
How to use Goals
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Install the app from the App Store or Google Play; there is no web version to sign in to
- Pick one of the goal ideas on the opening screen, or type your own ambition in plain language
- Choose a start date, immediate or in the future, then set the date you want to reach the goal by
- Let the AI generate the plan, and open View all steps to read the whole timeline from first step to last
- Each day, open the card marked Next step or Today to see the single action that is due
- Tap Complete Task, then rate how it went from one to five stars and add a note or a photo
- Rate straight from the push notification on days you would rather not open the app
- Use the swipeable catch-up cards when the banner tells you check-ins are pending
- Ask the AI for fresh steps once the plan runs out, within five requests a day on the free tier
- Share the goal link to bring other people in, or turn on the optional email digest in Settings
Pros & Cons
Pros
- One of the lowest entry prices in the category, at $1.99 a month or $12.99 a year on the App Store
- A permanent free tier of three goals that works without creating an account
- The daily decision is reduced to one action, which is the whole point of the product
- The AI engine is named openly, Claude from Anthropic, which is unusual at this price
- Retention periods are published as figures, and the four third-party services are named one by one
- Account deletion sits in the app, has its own documented page, and is handled server-side
- Twelve releases between January and July 2026 show a sustained development pace
Cons
- Mobile only: no web app, no desktop version
- English only, with no other interface language offered
- No API, and no named integration with a calendar or productivity tool
- No DPA, no security certification and no Article 27 EU representative
- The vendor publishes no position on whether customer data is used to train models
- A single contact channel by email, with no help centre, contact form or chat
- A very young product from a two-app publisher, with no funding information available
Pricing & Plans
A permanent free plan is available and covers up to three goals without requiring an account. The lowest paid entry point is the Pro plan at USD 1.99 per month, billed through the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store; the App Store additionally lists an annual Pro purchase at USD 12.99. No free trial is advertised, and no enterprise pricing is published.
- up to 3 goals
- AI-generated step-by-step plans
- daily actions and check-ins
- streak tracking
- the ability to join other people's shared goals
- no account required
- 5 AI requests per day
- unlimited goals
- creation of shared goals for others to join
- more AI suggestions per day
- plus everything in the free plan
- USD 12.99 per year
- listed only among the App Store in-app purchases and not advertised on the pricing page
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Goals handles your data.
GDPR overview
Implementation is partial and, tellingly, never claimed. The privacy policy, effective 21 May 2026, devotes a section to EU and EEA residents granting the GDPR rights: data portability, restriction of processing, objection, and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Access, correction, deletion and export are offered to every user, and a separate section covers the Californian CCPA. Beyond that, the wording stops. The site never states in so many words that it complies with the GDPR, no Article 27 EU representative is designated, no data protection officer is named, and no data processing agreement is published or offered. International transfers to the United States and to other countries where the providers operate are acknowledged, under appropriate safeguards that are never specified. No security certification is claimed.
Who owns the data?
The terms of service state that you keep ownership of the plans, tasks and content you create. By using the app you grant Principal LA a licence limited to storing, processing and displaying that content as far as running the service requires, and you remain responsible for what you write. The publisher says it does not sell your data or your email address, nor share it with third parties for their own marketing. You can export your plans and tasks, and delete your account from Settings or by emailing hello@principal.la, which is handled within thirty days.
Reuse rights
Nothing in the terms restricts what you may do with the plans, tasks and AI suggestions produced in the app: you keep ownership, you can export your plans and tasks, and no separate permission or attribution is required to reuse them elsewhere. In the other direction, the publisher describes precisely what it does with your data. Account details, plans, notes, AI conversation history and calendar sync preferences are collected to run the service, sync your devices and improve the product. Four third parties are named: Firebase for authentication and storage, Anthropic for the planning assistant, Resend for the optional reminder emails and Sentry for error tracking. Purchase history is handled by Apple or Google, and no card details are stored. Optional reminder emails are off by default and only go out if you switch them on yourself.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
User data is stored in Firebase Cloud, on Google Cloud Platform, and encrypted both in transit over TLS and at rest. The privacy policy describes access as restricted to authorised personnel and the measures as industry-standard, without further detail and without any certification such as SOC 2 or ISO 27001. No hosting region can be chosen by the customer, and none is named: the only geographic statement is that data may be transferred to and processed in the United States and in other countries where the service providers operate, under appropriate safeguards that are never specified. The Google Play data safety declaration adds that no data is shared with third parties and that data is encrypted in transit. Note that the marketing site itself resolves to a Fastly anycast node in the United States, which says nothing about where application data actually lives. The publisher is a Californian company and the terms are governed by Californian law.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Goals.
- AI suggestions carry no accuracy guarantee, and the terms explicitly warn against relying on them for critical decisions without independent verification
- The app plans health and fitness goals without being a medical device or a health service; the App Store flags it for health or wellness topics
- Streak mechanics and daily notifications are built to create habit, and can tip into guilt or compulsion when a long run of days breaks
- Your conversations with the assistant are sent to Anthropic, and data may be transferred to and processed in the United States
- The vendor never states whether customer data is used to train AI models, in either direction, and AI conversation history is kept for twelve months
- Liability is capped at the greater of twelve months of payments or USD 100, disputes go to binding arbitration in Los Angeles, and class actions are waived
- Outsourcing the breakdown of your own goals can quietly erode the habit of planning them yourself
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Minimal. You install the app from the App Store or Google Play and start; no account is required for the first three goals, and the site claims a first goal can be running in under a minute. There is nothing to configure - no API key, no deployment, no integration. The only settings are notifications, which stay off until you allow them, the optional email reminders, which are off by default, and calendar sync preferences. The single technical requirement is iOS 15.1 or later on Apple devices.
Deployment
Apps stores
Integrations
Supported languages
Behind Goals
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Frequently asked questions
What does Goals actually do?
Which devices does it run on?
How much does it cost?
Is there a free trial?
Which AI generates the plans?
Can several people work on the same goal?
How long is my data kept?
How do I delete my account?
Is there a minimum age?
Should you pick Goals?
Goals does one thing, and its whole design serves it: it removes the question of what to do first. The AI plan is the means, the single daily card is the product, and the streak is what brings you back. At $1.99 a month, with a genuinely permanent free tier of three goals that works without an account, the barrier to trying it is close to nothing.
Two things stand out for a product this small. The publisher names its AI engine, Claude from Anthropic, where most consumer apps say only that they use AI. And it publishes retention periods as figures - twelve months for AI conversations, twenty-six for analytics, ninety days for crash reports - alongside a list of the four third-party services it relies on. That is more transparency than the price would suggest.
The limits are just as clear. Everything happens on a phone, in English, with no API, no calendar integration and no team features. For any use governed by procurement rules the file is thin: no data processing agreement, no security certification, no EU Article 27 representative, and no published position on whether customer data trains models. The GDPR section grants rights to EU residents without ever claiming compliance.
It is also a young product from a very small publisher - first public release in January 2026, twelve versions by July, two apps in the catalogue - and the coach marketplace announced on the site is still recruiting rather than running. Taken for what it is, a well-executed personal planning and habit app for individuals, Goals is a reasonable bet at the price. Taken as an accountability tool for an organisation, it is not ready.
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