That’s not quite the case here with Poke, however. 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.
This platform makes sense as a place where AI agents like Poke could operate, given that its interactions are fairly similar to those of other businesses. Poke’s users ask the AI agent a question or make a request, and it responds via text.
It also opens up a new business model for Apple. 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.
“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.
Getting Apple’s approval required an approval where the company verified 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.
“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.
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, the startup is currently rolling out invites to existing users that will allow them to optionally move over to the iMessage experience, if they prefer.
Apple was not immediately available for comment.
