Control complex AI agents via iMessage and SMS with Poke

The Interaction Company of California launched Poke to the public, moving their AI agent platform out of an email-focused beta into standard text messaging applications. The system allows users to execute complex tasks and manage daily routines directly through iMessage, SMS, Telegram, and WhatsApp. For developers building consumer AI, the zero-install messaging interface bypasses the standard application friction layer.

Architecture and State Management

Poke uses a decoupled architecture to manage the user experience and the technical execution separately. A user-facing Personality Agent handles conversational tone, state management, and interface constraints. It routes requests to an Execution Agent that manages external API calls, web browsing, and data processing.

This multi-agent system ensures the user is isolated from intermediate processing steps. The Execution Agent passes structured results back to the Personality Agent. The system then formats the output for the specific text and media constraints of an SMS or iMessage thread.

Proactive Alerts and Capabilities

Most conversational interfaces require user prompting. Poke operates continuously in the background, monitoring connected accounts to surface proactive alerts. The system connects to Gmail and Google Calendar to track meeting changes and flight schedules. It also supports hardware integrations for Philips Hue and Sonos, alongside data pipelines from Strava, Fitbit, and Notion.

Users automate these systems using Recipes, which are agent skills defined via natural language. Poke parses the intent and maps it to the corresponding third-party API endpoints. The underlying platform maintains SOC 2 and CASA Tier 2 compliance for handling user authentication tokens and personal data.

Developer Tooling and Capital Structure

The platform includes an npx tool for engineers to write custom execution logic. Standard developer integrations cover GitHub, Vercel, Supabase, and Cursor. This allows developers to monitor repository changes or deployment statuses directly via text message.

During its summer 2025 closed beta, Poke processed over 200,000 monthly messages across 6,000 users. The current public release targets select markets where WhatsApp and Telegram dominate, including Brazil, with availability dictated by regional regulatory shifts.

Concurrent with the launch, the 10-person Palo Alto startup announced a $300 million post-money valuation. The company secured $10 million in new capital, bringing total funding to $25 million following a seed round led by General Catalyst.

Funding Stage	Amount	Notable Investors	Valuation
Seed Round	$15 Million	General Catalyst	Undisclosed
New Funding	$10 Million	Spark Capital, Village Global	$300 Million

Additional individual backers include the founders of Stripe, Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch, and OpenAI’s Joanne Jang.

If you are building consumer AI applications, evaluate the delivery mechanism alongside the model capabilities. Forcing users to download a dedicated app or authenticate a web client introduces immediate drop-off. Building stateful AI agents directly into the communication channels users already check multiple times a day reduces activation energy to near zero.