I Came Across Poke Today. Here Is What I Actually Think

I do not usually write about tools the same day I encounter them. First impressions flatten into takes, and takes age badly. But Poke is a specific enough thing that I want to get a description of it down while the initial model is still clean in my head.

What It Is

Poke is a personal assistant that lives in your messaging app. Not an app you download. Not a tab you keep open. A contact you text. That framing is doing real work. It means the interface is a conversation, and the conversation is already where you are.

The current channel list includes Apple Messages, iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS, and RCS. Poke launched publicly in September 2025 and is operated by The Interaction Company of California , a Palo Alto-based startup co-founded by Marvin von Hagen and Felix Schlegel.

What It Actually Does

The short version: Poke can read your inbox, manage your calendar, set reminders and automations, call out to connected services via MCP , and take action on your behalf after confirmation.

The longer version is more interesting.

Orchestration Over Feature Lists

Most tools are built around a specific action surface. You open the app, the app tells you what it can do, you do the thing. Poke inverts that. The conversation comes first. Intent is captured in plain language, then routed to whatever tool or service is appropriate. The routing is not exposed to the user.

That matters because most real tasks are not isolated. A reminder that comes from an email is connected to a calendar event which is connected to a reply. Handling those three things separately, in three tools, is friction that compounds. Poke’s value is in reducing the handoff count.

The Confirmation Model

One thing I noticed immediately: Poke distinguishes between lightweight actions and high-stakes ones. A personal reminder is just created. Sending an email, modifying a shared calendar event, or writing to an external service requires explicit confirmation first.

That is the correct design. An assistant that treats all actions as equivalent is not safe to trust with the things that actually matter.

MCP Integration

Poke connects to external services through MCP , which means it is not limited to a closed list of first-party integrations. Tools that expose an MCP interface can be wired in. Once connected, Poke can inspect data, compose drafts, and in some cases execute writes through that interface.

For an AT Protocol builder, that is relevant. The integration model is extensible by design.

Initial Assessment

Poke is not a search box. It is a coordination layer for personal operations. The conversational surface is the front end. The tools are behind it. That design philosophy is sound.

The thing I will be watching is how well the system handles ambiguous intent at scale and whether the MCP integration model stays open as the product matures. Both of those will determine whether it remains a useful infrastructure component or narrows into something more consumer-only.

First impression: worth continuing to evaluate.