Apple approves Poke as the first AI agent on its Messages for Business platform
Apple approves Poke as the first AI agent on its Messages for Business platform
苹果批准 Poke 成为其“商务信息”（Messages for Business）平台上的首个 AI 智能体
Poke, a startup that turns using AI agents into something as simple as sending a text message, has become the first AI agent approved to run on Apple’s Messages for Business platform. Previously, the platform was designed for businesses — airlines, retailers, hotel chains, and others — to communicate with their own customers through iMessage, offering a standardized interface that supports both automated chat and live agents. Until now, it hadn’t been open to stand-alone third-party AI agents. Poke 是一家致力于将 AI 智能体使用门槛降低至“发送短信”般简单的初创公司，它已成为首个获准在苹果“商务信息”（Messages for Business）平台上运行的 AI 智能体。此前，该平台主要供航空公司、零售商、连锁酒店等企业使用，旨在通过 iMessage 与客户沟通，提供支持自动聊天和人工客服的标准化界面。在此之前，该平台并未向独立的第三方 AI 智能体开放。
Launched in March, Poke is one of the first AI agents designed to be accessible to everyday users who don’t have the technical skill set or inclination to work with command-line tools or more complex agentic systems, like OpenClaw. Today, Poke can help with common activities, like daily planning, managing your calendar, tracking your health and fitness, controlling your smart home, and editing your photos, all via text message. To date, it’s relayed some 100 million messages, the company tells TechCrunch. The AI service operates over SMS, Telegram, and, in some markets, WhatsApp. Now Poke will be able to add iMessage to its supported platforms. Poke 于今年 3 月推出，是首批专为普通用户设计的 AI 智能体之一，旨在让那些不具备技术背景、也不愿使用命令行工具或 OpenClaw 等复杂智能体系统的用户也能轻松上手。如今，Poke 可以通过短信协助用户完成日常规划、日程管理、健康与健身追踪、智能家居控制以及照片编辑等常见任务。据该公司向 TechCrunch 透露，截至目前，它已处理了约 1 亿条消息。该 AI 服务目前支持短信、Telegram 以及部分市场的 WhatsApp。现在，Poke 的支持平台中又新增了 iMessage。
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://t.co/VIWYU64dUI pic.twitter.com/AtZxupI2Ji— Poke (@interaction) June 4, 2026 向全新的 Poke 打个招呼吧！🌴 现已正式获得苹果批准，可在 Apple Messages 上进行对话。作为首个且唯一的 AI 智能体，立即开始聊天：https://t.co/VIWYU64dUI pic.twitter.com/AtZxupI2Ji— Poke (@interaction) 2026 年 6 月 4 日
The news of Poke’s launch on Apple’s Messages for Business comes just days ahead of Apple’s anticipated Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, where it’s expected to introduce an AI-optimized version of Siri along with other AI tools and services for app developers. It is also rumored that Apple would open its App Store to AI agents. That’s not quite the case here with Poke. Apple’s Messages for Business platform isn’t about offering a consumer-facing mobile app, but rather a way for consumers to interact with a business through iMessage’s interface directly. This allows consumers to reach out to businesses for information, support, appointment scheduling, and more, without having to call them by phone. Poke’s users ask the AI agent a question or make a request, and it responds via text. Poke 在苹果“商务信息”平台上线的新闻，正值苹果备受期待的全球开发者大会（WWDC）前夕。预计苹果将在周一的会议上推出 AI 优化版的 Siri，以及面向应用开发者的其他 AI 工具和服务。此外还有传言称苹果将向 AI 智能体开放 App Store，但 Poke 的情况并非如此。苹果的“商务信息”平台并非提供面向消费者的移动应用，而是让消费者通过 iMessage 界面直接与企业互动。这使得消费者无需拨打电话，即可向企业咨询信息、寻求支持或预约服务。Poke 的用户只需向 AI 智能体提问或提出请求，它便会通过短信进行回复。
For founders and investors, the more interesting detail may be the business model it opens up. Marvin von Hagen, co-founder of The Interaction Company of California, the Palo Alto-based startup behind Poke, says his startup will pay Apple on a per-user basis. While he can’t share the exact pricing, he notes that it’s significantly lower than Meta AI, after it increased fees in response to EU regulation that required it to permit third-party AI agents on WhatsApp. That per-user toll structure, applied at scale, represents a potentially meaningful new revenue stream for Apple but also a new cost of distribution that AI agent startups will need to factor in. 对于创始人和投资者来说，更值得关注的细节可能是它所开启的商业模式。Poke 背后的初创公司 The Interaction Company of California（总部位于帕洛阿尔托）的联合创始人 Marvin von Hagen 表示，他的公司将按用户数向苹果付费。虽然他无法透露具体定价，但他指出，这比 Meta AI 的费用要低得多——Meta AI 此前因欧盟法规要求其在 WhatsApp 上允许第三方 AI 智能体接入而提高了收费。这种按用户收费的模式如果大规模应用，对苹果而言是一个潜在的重要新收入来源，但对于 AI 智能体初创公司来说，这也是必须考虑的一项新分发成本。
“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 charge us per user on the platform and actually make money with this, especially if it becomes really big,” von Hagen says. He believes Apple’s support for AI agents will grow over time as well. “我认为苹果刚刚意识到这是提供 AI 服务的最佳方式，而且……这对他们来说确实是好事，因为他们向我们收费。他们按平台上的用户数向我们收费，并从中获利，如果规模做大，收益会非常可观，”von Hagen 说道。他相信，苹果对 AI 智能体的支持力度未来还会进一步增强。
Getting Apple’s approval required the company to verify that it could offer live support, if needed, and that its AI agent was clearly identified as such. Poke also submitted testimonies from its messaging providers and customized its user interface to meet Apple’s guidelines. For instance, Poke on iMessage has to show link previews instead of inline links, as before, and it uses Apple’s style guide for things like buttons and interface elements. 为了获得苹果的批准，该公司必须证明在必要时能够提供人工支持，并明确标识其 AI 智能体的身份。Poke 还提交了来自其消息服务提供商的证明，并根据苹果的准则定制了用户界面。例如，iMessage 上的 Poke 必须显示链接预览，而不是像以前那样直接显示内联链接，并且在按钮和界面元素等方面必须遵循苹果的样式指南。
“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,” von Hagen said. As for being the first? That had a lot to do with trust. “It was also just important that we were very aligned in terms of the positioning of the company,” he noted, explaining that many consumer products today are about getting to numbers through questionable tactics. “We care about quality, we care to have a brand that signals trust,” von Hagen said. “我们花了几个月的时间才达到所有这些标准，任何想要在此基础上进行开发的人，也都需要几个月的时间才能通过这个审批流程，”von Hagen 说道。至于成为“首个”的原因？这与信任有很大关系。“我们与苹果在公司定位上保持高度一致也非常重要，”他指出，并解释说当今许多消费类产品都是通过一些令人质疑的手段来获取用户数据。“我们关心质量，我们希望打造一个代表信任的品牌，”von Hagen 说。
It’s not clear if Apple will announce any news related to AI agents on its Message for Business platform at WWDC next week, and von Hagen isn’t clued into Apple’s plans. However, Poke is currently rolling out invites to existing users that will allow them to optionally move over to the iMessage experience, if they prefer. Backed by Spark Capital, General Catalyst, and other angels, the 10-person startup recently added another $10 million to its coffers, on top of last year’s $15 million seed round. It’s now valued at $300 million, post-money. Apple was not immediately available for comment. 目前尚不清楚苹果是否会在下周的 WWDC 上宣布任何有关其“商务信息”平台 AI 智能体的消息，von Hagen 对苹果的计划也并不知情。不过，Poke 目前正在向现有用户发送邀请，允许他们根据意愿选择迁移到 iMessage 体验。这家拥有 10 名员工的初创公司获得了 Spark Capital、General Catalyst 及其他天使投资人的支持，继去年获得 1500 万美元种子轮融资后，最近又筹集了 1000 万美元。目前，该公司的投后估值为 3 亿美元。苹果公司未立即对此置评。