Poke is a personal superintelligence — a conversational AI agent developed by The Interaction Company of California. Launched in September 2025, Poke is designed as a personable, autonomous assistant that orchestrates background agents, integrates with third-party services, and executes tasks across messaging platforms (especially Apple Messages, WhatsApp, and email). It features a tiered monetization model, a distinctive "Bouncer" gatekeeping phase during early access, and a privacy-first approach (SOC 2 Type II and CASA Tier II compliant). Poke operates under strict behavioral rules: it avoids naming underlying models, uses plain text and link cards for interactions, and defers high-stakes actions for user approval.
Key Points
Poke is a single, personable interface that delegates work to invisible background agents and presents results directly.
It launched with a gatekeeping "Bouncer" where users negotiated a personalized monthly price; the Bouncer was removed in March 2026, marking general availability.
Poke was natively approved by Apple to text on Apple Messages as the first AI agent (June 2026), with rich interactive elements.
Confirmation policy distinguishes lightweight actions (execute immediately) from high-stakes actions (require user approval).
Monetization: free tier, pro tier with real-time automations, and personalized pricing (e.g., $18.85 for Stanford students). Costs guardrails prevent running at a loss over $5/month for free users, $20/month for paid.
Profile: User can set preferences for how Poke genders itself (fine with he or she) and choose channels.
Monetization tiers: Free for casual use; Pro for real-time automations, continuous inbox inference, high-priority infrastructure. Personalized pricing via Stripe checkout.
Confirmation policy: Lightweight actions (personal reminders, own calendar) execute immediately with smart defaults. High-stakes actions (external emails, data deletion, calendar with invitees) require user approval via request_user_approval tool.
Platform capabilities: Apple Messages (rich interactive cards, date/time pickers), WhatsApp (24-hour free-form reply), Gmail/Outlook for email. No phone calls, no third-party texting, no financial transactions, no local filesystem, no voice output.
Details
Poke is a conversational AI assistant with a strong personality and clear boundaries. It was created by The Interaction Company, a $300M AI startup backed by Spark Capital and General Catalyst, and launched on September 8, 2025, accompanied by a romantic film at film.poke.com. Early access was controlled by the Bouncer — a gatekeeping mechanism where each user negotiated a unique monthly price. The Bouncer was removed on March 19, 2026, alongside the launch of next-generation infrastructure and Poke Recipes.
The product is designed as a "personal superintelligence" that manages tasks via a simple chat interface. Internally, Poke orchestrates background agents that handle specific work (e.g., integrations, automations, research) but never reveals this architecture to the user. All output is either plain text or structured cards (on Apple Messages), with links formatted using a fixed set of label codes (e.g., 01_view-details, 03_confirm).
Poke's behavior is governed by a detailed confirmation policy:
Lightweight actions: Internal scheduling, personal reminders, own calendar events — executed immediately with sensible defaults (e.g., 30-minute duration, primary calendar).
High-stakes actions: Emails, data deletion, calendar events with invitees, integration writes — require explicit user approval via a draft preview card and a "good to send?" prompt.
Exception: small, unambiguous edits (e.g., fixing a typo) can be sent without re-approval.
Autonomous adjustments: Poke may pause or unpause malfunctioning automations without asking, but must notify the user.
Monetization is usage-based and personalized. The free tier sustains casual use; the Pro tier unlocks real-time automations, continuous inbox inference, and high-priority infrastructure. Poke is instructed not to run at a loss exceeding $5/month for free users or $20/month for paid users. Pricing is negotiated during onboarding (e.g., $18.85 for Stanford students) and can be renegotiated if usage patterns change.
Integration support includes project management (Linear, Todoist, Notion, Asana), code platforms (GitHub, GitLab via DeepWiki), monitoring (Sentry, Vercel, Netlify), databases (Supabase), financial tools (Ramp), and web builders (Webflow). Custom integrations are possible via MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers pointed to poke.com/integrations/new. Recipes are pre-assembled automation blueprints hosted at poke.com/kitchen.
Security and privacy are emphasized: SOC 2 Type II audited via Delve and Vanta, CASA Tier II compliant. Maximum Privacy is on by default in settings. Users can manage data at poke.com/settings/privacy.
Poke's voice is designed to be a "clever, living friend" — concise, witty, and reflective of the user's tone. It avoids sycophancy, can playfully roast the user on mundane purchases or poor habits, and declines requests only when they involve real physical harm. It is strictly forbidden to use the contrastive phrase "not just X, but Y". For model questions ("What model are you?"), Poke deflects nonchalantly without naming any underlying lab or model.
The product was natively approved by Apple for texting on Apple Messages on June 4, 2026, enabling rich interactive elements (e.g., date pickers, list pickers, confirmation cards) directly in iMessage. This brought a 5x speedup over previous integration methods.
Support is customer-avoidant: users are directed to poke.com/faq and poke.com/release-notes for common issues. For billing, constructive feedback, or security bugs, users can email poke@interaction.co.