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# AI agents you can text: Poke, Maverick, folk and Tab compared
- URL: https://bullquill.com/ai-agents-you-can-text-imessage-whatsapp/
- Published: 2026-10-25T07:16:38.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T07:26:05.000Z
- Description: Start-ups are shipping AI assistants as a phone number or Messages contact instead of an app. Here is how text-message agents connect to your email and calendar, what Poke, Maverick, folk, Ask Proxy, Tab and Instinct charge, and the privacy trade-offs.
- Author: Rowan Ashby
- Tags: AI, Explainer, AI Agents, iMessage, WhatsApp, Poke, Cognition, #lang-en, #evergreen, #tr-ai-agents-you-can-text-imessage-whatsapp

## Key takeaways

- A fast-growing group of start-ups now ships AI assistants as a phone number or Messages contact rather than as an app, including Poke, Maverick, folk, Ask Proxy, Tab and Instinct.
- Prices published on company sites run from free tiers to $19 a month (Poke Pro), €27 a month (Maverick Pro), $9.99 a month (folk Pro) and $1 a day (Ask Proxy).
- Money is following the format: Instinct raised $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation in September 2026, and Cognition bought Poke's parent company in July 2026.
- Most of these agents work by linking your email, calendar and other accounts through OAuth, so the privacy question is less about the chat and more about what the agent can read and do.
- Platform rules matter: Meta's WhatsApp Business terms bar general-purpose AI assistants as a primary service, while Apple's Messages for Business requires approved providers and a review.

## What are AI agents you can text?

**AI agents you can text** are assistants that live in iMessage, SMS, RCS, WhatsApp or Telegram, so you message them like a contact instead of opening an app. On 24 October 2026 TechCrunch counted more than 20 such services, from family organisers to errand bots.

The idea is simple. You save a number or a contact card, send a message such as "remind me to renew my passport next week" or "find a table for four on Friday", and the agent replies in the same thread. Behind the thread sits a large language model, a memory of past conversations, and a set of connections to the services you allow it to use.

What separates these "agents" from older chatbots is that they take actions. Poke's site lists Gmail tools that search, draft and send email, plus Google Calendar, Notion, Outlook and Todoist connections. Maverick's site says it can book, remind, cancel and plan, and that it "asks before it sends, books or pays for anything." Instinct, according to TechCrunch, works from its own phone number and computer and can place phone calls to book appointments where there is no online booking.

## Why start-ups ship an assistant as a phone number instead of an app

Three practical reasons explain the trend, and each one shows up in how the companies describe themselves.

### No download, no new habit

Ask Proxy's site says there is "no app to download": you save the contact and text "start". Maverick says it needs no app and no account. Messaging is the most-used feature on most phones, so an assistant that sits in that inbox avoids the hardest part of consumer software, which is getting people to open a new icon every day.

### The assistant can text you first

An app has to fight for notification permission. A text thread does not. Several services build their pitch around proactive messages: folk says it "texts you first", Ask Proxy promises reminders and outreach without waiting to be asked, and Poke describes itself as proactive. Morning briefings, flight alerts and nudges about unanswered email arrive as ordinary messages.

### Group chats become a workspace

Because the agent is just another participant, it can join a group conversation. Maverick says it can be added to a group chat to help people settle plans. That is hard to replicate in a standalone app, where every friend would need to sign up first.

## How text-message AI agents connect to your calendar and email

The chat window is only the front door. The work happens in three layers.

1. **The messaging channel.** Some services use a normal phone number and SMS or RCS. Others use Apple's Messages for Business, a channel built into the Messages app. Apple's documentation says a business must pick an Apple-approved messaging service provider, register on Apple Business Register, build and test its flows, and pass an Experience Review before going live. Automated agents must identify themselves as automated and send a first reply within five seconds. TechCrunch reported that Poke became the first AI agent approved on that platform in June 2026.
2. **The model and memory.** A language model interprets the request, and a memory store keeps preferences and history. folk says each user gets an isolated cloud computer and a persistent "memory graph", and it lets users bring their own API keys from Anthropic, OpenAI or OpenRouter.
3. **Connected accounts.** To read your inbox or add a calendar event, the agent asks you to sign in to Google, Microsoft or another service and grant it permission. folk lists Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive, Notion, Strava, Canvas and GitHub, plus "any MCP-compatible tool", a reference to the Model Context Protocol used to plug tools into AI models. Maverick's pricing page caps Pro users at 20 connected apps.

Once those connections exist, a single text can trigger several steps: search the inbox for a booking confirmation, extract the date, create a calendar entry, and reply with a summary. That is the core value, and also the core risk.

## Comparison: the main AI agents that live in your texts

The table below uses each company's own website where it could be reached on 25 October 2026\. Where a site did not publish a detail, the table says so rather than guessing; Tab and Instinct details come from reporting cited in the Sources section.

| Service   | Channels (as stated)                     | Published price                           | Status / notes                                                                    |
| --------- | ---------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Poke      | Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram             | Free; Pro $19/month; Ultra $199/month     | Live; site banner says Poke "is joining Cognition"                                |
| Maverick  | iMessage, including group chats          | Free (beta); Pro €27/month with 500 tasks | Asks for confirmation before acting                                               |
| folk      | iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram             | Free; Pro $9.99/month or $99.99/year      | Says it never trains on user data                                                 |
| Ask Proxy | SMS (text "start" to a published number) | $1/day personal; first 30 messages free   | Workplace version offered; business price not listed                              |
| Tab       | iMessage, WhatsApp                       | Not published                             | Left stealth 6 Oct 2026 at a reported $300M valuation; private beta with waitlist |
| Instinct  | SMS / text; no mobile app yet            | Not published                             | Invite-only since Aug 2026; $1B Series C at $10B valuation                        |

Data as of 25 October 2026 (UTC). Prices change often during beta periods; check each pricing page before signing up. TechCrunch's roundup also lists family-focused services such as Ollie, Fambot and Ohai, but Bullquill could not confirm their current pricing on their own sites at the time of writing.

## What these AI assistants cost

Pricing falls into three models. The first is **freemium with a monthly plan**: Poke, folk and Maverick all offer a free tier and charge for heavier use or stronger models. Poke's $199 Ultra tier adds "pay-as-you-go usage beyond credits", a sign that running frontier models on every request is expensive. The second is **daily pricing**: Ask Proxy charges $1 a day for its personal assistant, which works out to roughly $30 a month. The third is **not yet priced**: Tab and Instinct are still in private or invite-only access and have not posted consumer prices.

Cost pressure is real for the companies too. Cognition said Poke users exchanged more than 100 million messages in the three months before the acquisition, according to coverage of the announcement, and every message runs through paid model inference.

## The funding behind texting assistants

Instinct is the largest bet. TechCrunch and Reuters reported on 28 September 2026 that the company raised a $1 billion Series C at a $10 billion valuation, with Sequoia Capital, Benchmark and Coatue participating. Its previous round, about a month earlier, valued it at $2.5 billion.

Cognition, the maker of the Devin coding agent, acquired The Interaction Company of California, Poke's developer, in July 2026\. Cognition did not disclose terms; TechCrunch reported a valuation in the "low nine figures". Cognition said it wants to bring Poke's proactive, conversational style into Devin.

Tab emerged from stealth on 6 October 2026 at a reported $300 million valuation, backed by SV Angel, Valar Ventures and American Spirit, according to Dealroom and Crypto Briefing. The amount raised was not disclosed.

## Privacy trade-offs of AI agents in text messages

Handing an assistant your inbox is a bigger decision than trying a chatbot. Before connecting accounts, it helps to think about four points.

- **Scope of access.** An agent that can send email on your behalf can also send the wrong email. Prefer services that ask for confirmation before sending, booking or paying, as Maverick says it does, and grant only the accounts you need.
- **Training and retention.** folk says it never trains on user data; Ask Proxy says it does not train on conversations, sell data, track location or let outside humans review messages. Read the privacy policy for how long messages and connected-account data are stored and how to delete them.
- **Policy changes.** TechCrunch reported that Instinct's first privacy policy drew criticism for overreach and was later updated. Early-stage policies can change quickly, in either direction.
- **The channel itself.** Standard SMS is not end-to-end encrypted, and any message to an AI agent is processed on the company's servers regardless of channel. Treat the agent as a third party that reads everything you send it.

## Platform rules: WhatsApp and Apple

The channel owner can change the rules. Meta's terms for the WhatsApp Business Platform, last updated 23 September 2026 according to the page, prohibit AI providers from using the platform to offer general-purpose AI technology as a primary function, and bar using WhatsApp Business data to train AI models. Industry coverage reported that the restriction reached existing users on 15 January 2026, while customer-service bots for retailers or airlines remain allowed. Services that list WhatsApp as a channel may rely on different arrangements, so availability on WhatsApp can vary by region and over time.

Apple takes a gatekeeper approach instead: businesses enter Messages for Business only through approved providers and an Apple review, which is why Poke's approval was notable.

## What it means

For users, text-based agents lower the barrier to trying AI that acts rather than just answers. The trade-off is that convenience depends on deep account access, and on platforms whose owners can restrict third-party assistants at any time. For the industry, the funding and the Cognition deal suggest investors see the messaging inbox as a new distribution channel for AI, competing with apps from the large model makers. The open questions are whether consumers will pay monthly fees at scale, and whether Apple and Meta will keep the door open to independent agents as their own assistants grow.

For more on how autonomous agents behave and where they are heading, see our report on [OpenAI's finding that its AI agents weakened internal monitoring](https://bullquill.com/openai-agents-weakened-internal-monitoring/), our coverage of [agentic payments and AI agents that spend money](https://bullquill.com/tether-leads-mural-series-a-agentic-payments/), and the topic pages for [AI Agents](https://bullquill.com/tag/ai-agents/) and [WhatsApp](https://bullquill.com/tag/whatsapp/).

## Frequently asked questions

### What is an AI agent you can text?

It is a personal AI assistant you reach through iMessage, SMS, RCS, WhatsApp or Telegram instead of an app. You message it like a contact, and if you connect your email, calendar or other accounts it can take actions such as adding events, drafting emails or booking reservations.

### How much do texting AI assistants cost?

As of 25 October 2026, Poke offers a free plan, Pro at $19 a month and Ultra at $199 a month; folk Pro costs $9.99 a month; Maverick Pro costs €27 a month; and Ask Proxy charges $1 a day after 30 free messages. Tab and Instinct have not published consumer prices.

### Is it safe to give a text-message AI agent access to my email?

It depends on the provider's permissions and privacy policy. Connect only the accounts you need, prefer services that ask for confirmation before sending, booking or paying, check whether your data is used for training, and remember that standard SMS is not end-to-end encrypted.

### Can AI chatbots run on WhatsApp?

Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform terms prohibit AI providers from offering general-purpose AI assistants as a primary function on the platform, while customer-service bots for businesses remain allowed. Availability of third-party assistants on WhatsApp can therefore vary.

## Sources

- [TechCrunch: Here are the top AI agents that can live in your text messages (24 Oct 2026)](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/24/all-the-ai-agents-that-can-live-in-your-text-messages/?ref=bullquill.com)
- [Poke: official site and pricing](https://poke.com/?ref=bullquill.com)
- [Maverick: pricing](https://usemaverick.io/pricing?ref=bullquill.com)
- [folk: official site and pricing](https://folk.com/?ref=bullquill.com)
- [Ask Proxy: official site](https://askproxy.com/?ref=bullquill.com)
- [TechCrunch: Viral AI agent Instinct raises $1B Series C at a $10B valuation (28 Sep 2026)](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/28/viral-ai-agent-instinct-raises-1b-series-c-at-a-10b-valuation?ref=bullquill.com)
- [The Star / Reuters: AI agent firm Instinct raises $1 billion in latest funding round](https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2026/09/28/ai-agent-firm-instinct-raises-1-billion-in-latest-funding-round?ref=bullquill.com)
- [Dealroom: Devin maker Cognition acquires Poke](https://dealroom.co/news/140804-devin-maker-cognition-acquires-poke-the-ai-agent-native-to-apple-message/?ref=bullquill.com)
- [Dealroom: Tab exits stealth at $300M valuation](https://dealroom.co/news/160851-tab-exits-stealth-at-300m-valuation-in-crowded-ai-assistant-race/?ref=bullquill.com)
- [Crypto Briefing: Tab exits stealth with an AI agent that lives in your texts](https://cryptobriefing.com/tab-ai-assistant-300m-valuation-stealth/?ref=bullquill.com)
- [Meta: Terms for WhatsApp Business Platform (section 4.7, AI Providers)](https://www.facebook.com/legal/Meta-Terms-for-WhatsApp-Business-Platform)
- [respond.io: WhatsApp general-purpose chatbots ban explained](https://respond.io/blog/whatsapp-general-purpose-chatbots-ban?ref=bullquill.com)
- [Apple: Messages for Business documentation](https://register.apple.com/resources/messages/messaging-documentation/?ref=bullquill.com)