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Apple Approves First Third‑Party AI Agent for iMessage

The move creates a paid path for third‑party assistants inside iMessage that could expand user choice beyond Siri.

Overview

  • Poke was approved to run on Apple’s Messages for Business on Thursday, June 4, 2026, making it the first third‑party AI agent available inside iMessage.
  • The Poke agent handles tasks by text, including daily planning, calendar management, health and fitness tracking, smart‑home control, photo editing, and web lookups.
  • Poke will pay Apple on a per‑user basis to operate on Messages for Business, and Apple required proof of live human support, clear AI labeling, and conformity with Apple’s messaging UI rules for approval.
  • The Interaction Company is inviting existing users to migrate their Poke chats to iMessage, but early public use produced reports of delayed or missing replies as the integration scales.
  • The approval repurposes Messages for Business for consumer AI, opens a new revenue stream for Apple, and could foreshadow broader third‑party agent support or policy clarifications at Apple’s upcoming WWDC.