Poke, which lets users access AI agents via text message, becomes the first AI agent approved for Apple's Messages for Business platform; Poke launched in March
TechCrunchSarah Perez
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple’s business-messaging effort began as Business Chat, with integrations into customer-service platforms such as Salesforce and Nuance. Poke’s approval extends that channel from service workflows toward access to an AI agent through text messaging.
Poke had already raised new funding after its 2025 seed round, signaling investor support for its text-message-based automation model before this platform approval.
First-order effects
Poke gains approved access to Apple’s Messages for Business platform, giving its text-based AI agent a new Apple-sanctioned distribution channel.
Apple’s business-messaging platform now has its first approved AI-agent participant, making Poke an early reference point for future agent integrations.
Second-order effects
Other AI-agent providers seeking business messaging distribution will have a clearer incentive to pursue Apple approval and demonstrate comparable safety, workflow, and customer-service fit.
Businesses using Messages for Business may have a new option to put agent-led task automation alongside conventional customer-service integrations, increasing pressure on existing platform partners to add agent capabilities.
Third-order effects
If Apple approves more agents, business messaging could evolve from a channel for support conversations into a controlled distribution layer for task-performing AI systems.
The approval highlights a likely gatekeeper dynamic: agent companies may increasingly depend on messaging platforms’ policies and integration processes to reach users in high-frequency communication channels.
The trend: AI agents are moving from standalone apps into established communication platforms, where distribution is increasingly governed by platform approval and integration rules.
Say hi to the new Poke! 🌴 Now officially approved by Apple to text on Apple Messages. As the first and only AI agent. Chat now: https://poke.com/ [video]
we've been building @stanleyforx on iMessage for months now. seeing poke get official apple approval for AI texting feels like the whole thesis getting validated.
Looks like a new surface Apple is trying out, let developers build verified agents that live in iMessage with poke as the first? If so, absolutely genius. Single pane of glass for consumer agents
this makes me wonder if Apple is acknowledging they own the best messaging app and agents should live in it as a first-class citizen too if they want a piece of the post-app pie
I'm very surprised Apple didn't wait until WWDC in four days to announce they officially support AI Agents in iMessage. (...if it's true, that they changed their iMessage For Business rules)
Huge! Apple just approved the first AI agent to run on Apple's Messages for Businesses platform, which has previously been available only to partners like retailers …