Cognition buys Poke, the text-message AI agent, for $100M+
On July 24, 2026, Cognition, the company behind the AI coding agent Devin, bought Poke's maker, The Interaction Company of California, in a deal worth low nine figures. Poke lets people text an AI agent like a friend over iMessage, SMS, Telegram, and WhatsApp, and became the first agent approved on Apple's Messages for Business platform back in June. It had handled over 100 million messages in the three months before the deal.
Why it matters
Cognition is best known for coding agents, so buying a consumer texting agent signals it sees personality and everyday usefulness, not just raw capability, as a real edge. Worth watching whether Poke's product changes now that it's under new ownership.
A bet that a friendly, texting agent beats a formal one