textagent.io vs Poke

Poke, from Interaction Co., raised $15M to put an assistant in iMessage and has earned the attention it's getting. If you're weighing the two, here's the honest version, including where they beat us.

What's the same

Both live in text messaging. No app to install, no dashboard, no new habit to build. Both connect to your email and calendar and act on them. Both are proactive, which is the thing that actually separates this category from a chatbot: they reach out when something needs you rather than waiting to be asked.

If you only want to know whether an assistant you text is a real thing that works, the answer is yes, from either of us.

Where they diverge

Poke is built for your life. Public descriptions cover daily planning, calendar, health and fitness tracking, smart home control, even photo editing. It's broad on purpose, and that breadth is the product.

textagent.io is narrow on purpose. It does email, calendar and the work around them, for people whose missed email costs them money — a lead that went to whoever answered first, a lender condition found on Monday, a quote request that sat overnight. No smart home, no fitness tracking. The vertical pages for realtors and home services exist because that's who this is for.

Two differences worth knowing before you pick

Mailbox support. Poke's published integrations center on Gmail and Google Calendar. textagent.io supports Outlook fully today, with Google Calendar working now and Gmail in Google's final security review, opening to a waitlist when it clears. If you live in Gmail right now, that's a real point for Poke. If you live in Outlook, we're the one that works.

Pricing model. Poke's pricing is reportedly negotiated with the assistant itself and lands somewhere around $10 to $30 a month. textagent.io is $299 a year, one price, the same for everybody, no tiers and nothing to haggle over. Which you prefer says more about you than about either product.

The thing we won't do

No email goes out under your name without you approving it. It drafts, it reads the draft back over text, and it sends when you say send. People ask for the fully automatic version regularly and the answer stays no, because the first time a client gets an email you never saw, the leverage becomes a liability.

That's a design stance, not a limitation we're working around. If you want an assistant that handles exchanges end to end while you sleep, we're the wrong choice and you should say so early.

Who should pick which

Pick Poke if you want one assistant across your whole life, you're in Gmail, and the breadth is the appeal. Pick textagent.io if your problem is specifically the email you're losing money on, you're in Outlook, and you'd rather have something narrow that never sends anything without asking.