Muse vs Poke
The axis is who let them in. Poke is the only independent agent Apple approved onto Messages for Business, a programme that is customer-initiated and closed to new partners. Meta did not need approval for WhatsApp, because Meta owns WhatsApp.
Side by side
| Muse | Poke | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting in | ||
| Channels | WhatsApp, Web | iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram |
| How you start | Create an account | Create an account |
| Who starts it | Messages you first | Messages you first |
| Price | ||
| Pricing | Meta's own page says free for most of what people need, with subscription plans for people who want to do more, and names no figure. Its chief executive said free up to 100 million tokens a week. CNBC reported paid tiers at $20 and $100 a month. | Free tier; Pro $19/month; Ultra $199/month |
| What it can do | ||
| Can do | Email, Calendar and scheduling, Bookings and reservations, Travel, Payments, Web research, Task management, Persistent memory | Email, Calendar and scheduling, Reminders, Travel, Web research, Task management |
| Policy | ||
| Trains on your conversations | Yes, with opt-out | Yes, with opt-out |
| Who runs it | ||
| Status | Live | Acquired |
| Company | Meta | The Interaction Company of California, acquired by Cognition |
Rows where the two agree are dimmed. Every figure comes from the product’s own public pages, checked 2026-09-08.
What actually differs
They differ on getting in, price, what it can do, and who runs it. They match on policy.
These two are the only agents in this directory that reached a major messaging platform with the platform's blessing, and they got it in opposite ways. Poke was approved onto Apple Messages for Business as the first independent third-party AI agent, on a programme that is invite-only, closed to new partners and structurally customer-initiated. Muse arrived in WhatsApp on launch day with no approval to seek. That difference is not a feature either can add later.
It shows up in what each is allowed to do. Every other WhatsApp agent in this set works inside Meta's business messaging rules: outbound starts from pre-approved templates, free-form replies only inside a window after you write first. Muse describes itself as able to message you without being prompted. Whether the rule simply does not apply to the platform owner is unanswered, and it is the most consequential open question on that channel.
On the things a reader can check today, they are closer than the framing suggests. Both publish a free tier and both charge for more, though Poke names its numbers, at $19 and $199 a month, and Meta names none on its own page. Both say your conversations train a model unless you turn that off. Poke's parent company was acquired by Cognition in July 2026, with the buyer stating nothing changes through the end of 2026; Muse is nine days old at the time of writing and belongs to a company that will still exist next year. The difference in what happens to your data is not in the training row, it is that one of these companies runs an advertising business, and its own security write-up gives the example: ask Muse to buy a shirt from a designer's site, and that designer may use the visit to show you an ad on Instagram.
Poke's advantage is the channel it is in. On an iPhone, in a country where iMessage is the default, an agent that shows up as a blue bubble is a different product from one that lives in an app you install. Muse's advantage is that it did not have to ask anyone, and it never will.
Muse is for
Anyone whose messaging life is WhatsApp, who wants the default that arrives already inside it.
Poke is for
Anyone on iMessage who wants the blue bubble through the one route Apple actually sanctions.
There is no winner here on purpose. These are different products for different situations, and the paragraph above names the question that tells you which you are in. See all nine providers compared or answer five questions to narrow it yourself.