Apple Approves Poke as the First AI Agent on Messages for Business

Apple Opens the Door for AI Agents — Poke Is First Through It

On June 4, 2026, Apple officially approved Poke as the first AI agent to operate on its Messages for Business platform. This is a significant milestone for both Apple and the broader AI industry, as the platform was previously designed exclusively for businesses — airlines, hotel chains, retailers — to communicate with their own customers through iMessage. Standalone third-party AI agents had never been permitted on this platform until now.

Poke is a startup that makes using AI agents as simple as sending a text message. Created by The Interaction Company of California, a Palo Alto-based startup, it launched in March and has already relayed over 100 million messages. That number alone speaks to the massive demand for this type of service and the appetite for AI that meets people where they already are — in their messaging apps.

What Poke Can Do and Why It Matters

Poke can help users with everyday tasks: daily planning, calendar management, health and fitness tracking, smart home control, and photo editing — all through text message. It operates over SMS, Telegram, WhatsApp (in select markets), and now iMessage.

This is particularly important for users who lack the technical skills or desire to work with complex agentic systems or command-line tools. Poke bundles all of these capabilities into the most familiar interface possible — a chat window. It's another clear example of AI democratization, putting powerful AI capabilities into the hands of everyday people without requiring any technical knowledge.

For the Georgian tech ecosystem, this is equally interesting. Many Georgian businesses already communicate with customers via WhatsApp. If Apple opens up Messages for Business more broadly, it could become a new channel for Georgian companies — particularly in tourism, hospitality, and e-commerce — to provide AI-powered customer service at scale.

The Business Model — How the Money Flows

For founders and investors, the most interesting detail is the business model. According to Marvin von Hagen, co-founder of The Interaction Company of California, Poke will pay Apple on a per-user basis. While exact pricing hasn't been disclosed, von Hagen notes it's "significantly lower" than Meta AI's fees on WhatsApp — which Meta increased in response to EU regulations requiring it to permit third-party AI agents on the platform.

This per-user toll structure, at scale, represents a potentially meaningful new revenue stream for Apple. It's also a new distribution cost that AI agent startups will need to factor into their economics. Von Hagen says: "I think that Apple is just noticing this is the best way to offer AI, and actually, good for them, because they charge us. They make money with this, especially if it becomes really big."

This model could become a template for how Apple plans to monetize the AI ecosystem — not by selling its own AI directly, but by opening the platform and taking a cut of transactions. It's a classic platform play, and it signals that Apple sees itself as the infrastructure layer for the AI agent economy.

Apple's Requirements and the Certification Process

Getting Apple's approval required Poke to meet several stringent requirements. The company had to demonstrate that it could provide live support when needed and that its AI agent was clearly identified as such — not pretending to be a human. Poke submitted testimonies from its messaging providers and customized its interface to meet Apple's design guidelines.

For example, Poke on iMessage must display link previews instead of inline links, and it uses Apple's style guide for buttons and interface elements. Von Hagen noted that "this took a couple of months to adhere to all of these standards, and it will take anyone else who wants to build on this — it will also take them a couple of months to get through this approval process."

As for why Poke was first — it came down to trust. "It was also just important that we were very aligned in terms of the positioning of the company," von Hagen explained. "We care about quality, we care to have a brand that signals trust." In an era where many consumer AI products resort to questionable growth tactics, Apple's emphasis on trust and quality signals a deliberate choice about the kind of AI ecosystem it wants to cultivate.

WWDC and Apple's Broader AI Strategy

Poke's launch on Messages for Business comes just days ahead of Apple's anticipated Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), where the company is expected to introduce an AI-optimized version of Siri along with other AI tools and services for app developers. There are also rumors that Apple may open its App Store to AI agents.

However, Poke's case is distinct from the App Store. Messages for Business isn't about mobile apps — it's a way for consumers to interact with businesses through iMessage's interface: for information, support, appointment scheduling, and more, without making phone calls. Poke's users ask the AI agent a question or make a request, and it responds via text.

This move by Apple could signal that the company intends to actively develop an AI agent ecosystem — not as a competitor, but as a platform that enables others to build. This is reminiscent of Apple's approach with the App Store itself: create the infrastructure, set the rules, and let the ecosystem flourish. The per-user fee model ensures Apple benefits regardless of which specific AI agents succeed.

Poke's Scale and Investor Confidence

Behind Poke is a 10-person team backed by Spark Capital, General Catalyst, and other angel investors. The company recently added $10 million on top of last year's $15 million seed round. It's now valued at $300 million post-money.

These numbers indicate that investors see enormous potential in the AI agent space — particularly for platforms that operate through everyday communication channels like SMS, iMessage, and WhatsApp. There's no need to download a separate app; the AI agent is where the user already is. This "be where the user is" principle is one of the most powerful distribution strategies in tech, and Poke has executed it masterfully.

For businesses of all sizes, the takeaway is clear: the future of customer interaction is conversational, AI-powered, and embedded in messaging platforms. Companies that integrate AI agents into their customer communication channels early will have a significant competitive advantage. The question isn't whether to adopt this technology, but how quickly you can move.

What's Next — The Future of AI Agents

Poke's approval by Apple could be the beginning of a much broader trend. If Apple continues to open its platform to AI agents, the implications are far-reaching:

• For consumers: Easier access to AI services through familiar interfaces they already use daily
• For businesses: A new channel for customer communication, enabling 24/7 AI-powered support without requiring customers to download anything
• For startups: A new distribution channel, but also new costs in the form of per-user fees that must be factored into unit economics
• For Apple: A new revenue stream and greater control over the AI ecosystem

This development also raises interesting questions about platform power. Apple is positioning itself as the gatekeeper of AI agent access on iOS — deciding which agents are approved, setting the rules of engagement, and collecting per-user fees. This mirrors the App Store model but applied to a new category of software. Whether this leads to innovation or gatekeeping will depend on how broadly and fairly Apple opens the platform.

For the global tech community, one thing is certain: AI agents are no longer a future technology — they are here, integrating into everyday communication. The businesses and developers who recognize this shift early will be best positioned to capitalize on it. Poke's approval by Apple isn't just a product launch; it's a signal that the era of conversational AI agents has truly begun.

🔗 წყარო: TechCrunch