Poke

About Poke

Most AI assistants live in their own app, which means you have to remember to open them. Poke flips that. It drops an AI agent straight into your messaging, so you talk to it the same way you text a friend.

That's the pitch from The Interaction Company of California, the Palo Alto startup behind it. No new app to download. You text Poke, it takes action across your connected tools like Gmail, Google Calendar, Notion, and Linear, and it pokes you first when something needs your attention.

The framing TechCrunch used stuck with me: Poke is basically "an OpenClaw for the rest of us." All the action-taking of an AI agent, none of the terminal commands and dependency hell.

Try Poke and see if an AI in your messages actually fits how you work.

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What is Poke?

Poke is a proactive AI agent that runs inside your existing chat apps instead of a separate dashboard. It works over Apple Messages (iMessage), SMS, Telegram, and, in some markets, WhatsApp. The newest version on Apple platforms uses what Poke calls "rich actions," so you get tappable buttons and interactive replies, not just walls of text.

Here's the part people miss. Poke isn't a chatbot you ask questions. It's an agent that does things.

You connect your accounts, and Poke reaches into them on command or on a schedule. Alert me to emails from my boss. Add Granola action items to my calendar. Text me the score from last night's game. Remind me to grab an umbrella if it's going to rain.

The difference from ChatGPT or Claude is the job each one does. You go to a general chatbot to think, research, or draft something. You text Poke when you want something handled.

Under the hood, Poke isn't locked to one AI lab. It routes each request to whatever model fits best, big provider or open source. That's a real edge over Meta AI (Meta models only) or ChatGPT (OpenAI only).

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Who is Poke For?

Poke makes the most sense if you already live in your messages. If you fire off texts all day and rarely open standalone productivity apps, having an assistant in that same thread kills a ton of friction.

Here's who gets the most out of it:

• iPhone-heavy users who treat iMessage as their default hub and want the rich-action experience.
• People juggling a stack of connected tools (Gmail, Notion, Linear, Calendar, GitHub) who'd rather text one agent than tab between six apps.
• Anyone who wants agentic AI but isn't technical. This is the OpenClaw crowd minus the terminal. No installs, no dependencies, no system access worries.
• Tinkerers who'll actually build their own automations using Poke's "recipes" and share them.

If you barely text and prefer a dedicated app for each task, the core benefit evaporates. Android users get SMS and Telegram (and WhatsApp in some regions), but the tightest experience right now is iMessage on Apple devices.

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Poke Pros and Cons

The balance leans positive if you're the right user. Poke's strength is meeting you where you already are. But the value drops fast if you're not glued to your messages, or if you want a flat, predictable bill.

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Poke Features: What It Actually Does

An AI Agent Inside Your Messages

Poke's whole thing is running as an agent inside your messaging app. You text it like a contact, and it replies with answers and actions. On Apple devices it uses short, rich messages with one-tap actions. It runs on iPhone, iPad, and Mac via iMessage, plus SMS and Telegram, with WhatsApp limited by platform rules in some regions.

Recipes and Automations

This is the engine. Recipes are pre-made tools that automate parts of your life or work, spanning health, productivity, finance, scheduling, travel, home, school, email, and developer tasks.

Installing one is a button click plus a quick authorization. Want it to check you into flights automatically, or text you a morning news digest? There's a recipe, or you write your own in plain text.

Over the first few weeks after launch, users created thousands of recipes. The Interaction team even pays creators somewhere between 10 cents and a dollar per signup that comes through a shared recipe.

Deep App Integrations

Recipes connect to tools you already use, which is what separates Poke from a generic bot. The lineup is wide:

• Work: Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook, Notion, Linear, Asana, Granola, GitHub, Todoist, Canva.
• Developer: PostHog, Webflow, Supabase, Vercel, Netlify, Sentry, Cursor, Devin.
• Health, home, and finance: Strava, Withings, Oura, Fitbit, Philips Hue, Sonos, Mercury, Ramp.

It reaches into the accounts you connect and handles the task instead of giving you instructions. The catch: you have to connect each one, and it's only as useful as the integrations you actually wire up.

A Personality, Not Just a Tool

Poke has attitude. The onboarding acts like a bouncer, it cracks jokes, and you literally haggle with it over pricing. That sounds gimmicky, and sometimes it is, but it's also why people get attached. Founder Marvin von Hagen has said the team leaned general-purpose fast because beta testers loved "the personality and the humanness of it so much."

Cross-Device and Voice

Because it runs through messaging, Poke follows you across phone and desktop without separate logins. Start a thread on your iPhone, pick it up on your Mac. You can fire off voice messages too, not just text.

See Poke's recipes and start connecting your apps.

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Poke vs Alternatives

Poke isn't a task manager, a note app, or a research tool, so comparing it to those is apples to oranges. The honest comparison is against other ways to get an AI to think or act for you.

Poke wins on convenience and zero setup. ChatGPT and Claude win when you want to think out loud, research, or write, and you don't care where the chat lives. OpenClaw wins if you're technical and want raw power and control.

The pitch is simple: Poke gives you most of what an agent like OpenClaw does, without making you touch a terminal.

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Poke Pricing: How It Actually Works

Poke's pricing is unusual, and that's the point. There's no flat published number.

It's free to start. Then you negotiate your monthly price with the agent itself. During beta, users haggled their way to somewhere between $10 and $30 a month, and people genuinely compared notes on who got the better deal.

The logic underneath is usage. If you ask for things that don't need real-time data, you can probably run Poke for free. What costs the company money is real-time inference, like an automation that fires on every incoming email or checks you into flights live. Heavier use, higher price.

Von Hagen has been blunt that profit isn't the goal right now. "We really don't want to make money, we really want to grow," he told TechCrunch. The startup is valued at $300 million after raising around $25 million from Spark Capital, General Catalyst, and a wall of angels including the Collison brothers and Jake and Logan Paul.

Funny? Sure. But it makes budgeting a guessing game. Compared to ChatGPT's flat $20 a month, you don't know your exact number until you're in and arguing with a bot about it. If pricing surprises bug you, that's a real friction point.

For where other tools land, our Leaderboard tracks the top-rated picks worth your money.

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Is Poke Worth It?

If you live in your messages, I think Poke is one of the more interesting AI products out there right now. The reason is boring and it's the whole story: it shows up where you already are.

Most assistant apps die on your home screen. You download them, use them twice, forget they exist. Poke sidesteps that entirely by being a text thread. You don't open it. It's just there, the same way a friend's chat is just there.

The recipes are what make it more than a novelty. Once you wire up Gmail or your calendar, it stops being a chat and starts being something that quietly handles stuff. Email triage, reminders, scheduled nudges, all without you launching anything.

It's clearly early. A 10-person team, public since March, behavior that shifts week to week. And the haggle-with-a-bot pricing is going to annoy plenty of people who just want a number.

But the bet is a good one. If The Interaction Company keeps stacking integrations and the agent keeps getting more capable, this could become the assistant a lot of people reach for by default. For now, the convenience is hard to argue with.

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Poke Review: Final Thoughts

Poke is a smart pick if you're a messaging-heavy, probably iPhone, user who wants an AI agent that meets you in your texts and actually does things. The recipes push it past gimmick territory, and the texting-first design means you'll keep using it.

It's not for everyone. Non-Apple users still get SMS and Telegram, but the experience is less polished than iMessage. The negotiated pricing makes costs unpredictable, and as a new product it's still filling in gaps.

Want a flat-rate tool for thinking and research? ChatGPT or Claude at $20 a month is the safer call. Want maximum agent power and you're technical? OpenClaw. Want an agent you can text without any setup? That's exactly the lane Poke owns.

Give Poke a try and decide if an AI in your messages earns a permanent spot.

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FAQ

What is Poke?

Poke is a proactive AI agent from The Interaction Company of California. It lives inside your messaging apps (Apple Messages, SMS, Telegram, and WhatsApp in some markets) and connects to services like Gmail, Notion, and Google Calendar to take real actions for you using "recipes" and automations.

How much does Poke cost?

It's free to start. After that, pricing is usage-based and negotiated with the agent, landing roughly between $10 and $30 a month for most people. Light, non-real-time use can stay free.

Does Poke work on Android?

Yes, through SMS and Telegram, plus WhatsApp in some regions. The most polished, rich-action experience right now is iMessage on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

What apps does Poke integrate with?

A wide range, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook, Notion, Linear, Asana, Granola, Todoist, GitHub, Canva, PostHog, Webflow, Supabase, Vercel, Netlify, Sentry, Cursor, Devin, Strava, Withings, Oura, Fitbit, Philips Hue, Sonos, Mercury, and Ramp.

How is Poke different from ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a general-purpose chatbot you open to think, research, or write. Poke is an agent you text to get things done, and it takes action across your connected apps. Poke also isn't tied to one AI lab, so it routes each task to whatever model fits best.

Is Poke worth it?

If you text constantly and use iMessage or another supported app as your main hub, yes. The convenience of an agent inside your messages is the real draw. If you don't live in messaging or you want predictable pricing, look at ChatGPT or Claude instead.