/Tech9h ago

a16z's Justine Moore maps the iMessage AI ecosystem, prompting debate over whether SMS assistants are becoming commoditized

SMS delivery allows users to bypass standalone mobile applications

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Justine Moore@venturetwins#977inTech

New market map: AI assistants in iMessage 📱

The next major interface for consumer AI? Text messages.

People don’t want to open an app every time they need help - they want a contact they can text like a friend.

My roundup of the assistants + infra providers below 👇

9:02 AM · Jun 10, 2026 · 357.4K Views
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Many users praised the market map of AI assistants in iMessage for its insightful graphics and platform accessibility while a few criticized Apple's lack of AI progress and long-term product limitations.

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Justine Moore@venturetwins

Why iMessage and not plain SMS?

1) Deliverability. SMS from unknown numbers gets carrier-filtered or marked as spam.

2) Capabilities. iMessage gives typing indicators, read receipts, link previews, and more.

3) Trust. Blue bubble = a person, green bubble = a marketing blast.

Justine Moore@venturetwins

New market map: AI assistants in iMessage 📱

The next major interface for consumer AI? Text messages.

People don’t want to open an app every time they need help - they want a contact they can text like a friend.

My roundup of the assistants + infra providers below 👇

9hViews 5.8KLikes 33Bookmarks 4
BOOKMARKS42LIKES44
Justine Moore@venturetwins

Companies mentioned:

AI assistants - @interaction, @heyollieai, Folk (@nozomioai), @meetlucasai, @orchid_hq, @tomo, @zocomputer, @getlindy, @joinsauna

Infra providers - @thelinqapp, @Cherthq, @blooio_messages, @sendbluehq, @AgentPhoneHQ

Justine Moore@venturetwins

Historically, it's been hard for AI companies to build on iMessage. Apple has no public API.

Infra providers solved this by running fleets of real Apple devices on real phone numbers.

Now, Apple is opening a front door. Last week, Poke became the first AI agent approved on Apple Messages for Business - more to come here 👀

9hViews 4.4KLikes 44Bookmarks 42
RETWEETS3
Justine Moore@venturetwins

Historically, it's been hard for AI companies to build on iMessage. Apple has no public API.

Infra providers solved this by running fleets of real Apple devices on real phone numbers.

Now, Apple is opening a front door. Last week, Poke became the first AI agent approved on Apple Messages for Business - more to come here 👀

Justine Moore@venturetwins

Why iMessage and not plain SMS?

1) Deliverability. SMS from unknown numbers gets carrier-filtered or marked as spam.

2) Capabilities. iMessage gives typing indicators, read receipts, link previews, and more.

3) Trust. Blue bubble = a person, green bubble = a marketing blast.

9hViews 5.3KLikes 33Bookmarks 8
REPLIES12
Justine Moore@venturetwins

@interaction @heyollieai @nozomioai @meetlucasai @orchid_hq @tomo @zocomputer @getlindy @joinsauna @thelinqapp @Cherthq @blooio_messages @sendbluehq @AgentPhoneHQ More broadly - it's becoming pretty clear that we need to give AI agents / assistants anything a human in the same role would have.

(e.g. phone numbers, credit cards, email addresses)

If you're working on something here at the app or infra layer, please reach out!

Justine Moore@venturetwins

Companies mentioned:

AI assistants - @interaction, @heyollieai, Folk (@nozomioai), @meetlucasai, @orchid_hq, @tomo, @zocomputer, @getlindy, @joinsauna

Infra providers - @thelinqapp, @Cherthq, @blooio_messages, @sendbluehq, @AgentPhoneHQ

9hViews 3.9KLikes 32Bookmarks 6
“paula”@paularambles

aiMessage

Justine Moore@venturetwins

New market map: AI assistants in iMessage 📱

The next major interface for consumer AI? Text messages.

People don’t want to open an app every time they need help - they want a contact they can text like a friend.

My roundup of the assistants + infra providers below 👇

7hViews 4KLikes 36Bookmarks 5
signüll@signulll

@venturetwins @omooretweets doesn’t this mean these are roughly commodity products?

Justine Moore@venturetwins

New market map: AI assistants in iMessage 📱

The next major interface for consumer AI? Text messages.

People don’t want to open an app every time they need help - they want a contact they can text like a friend.

My roundup of the assistants + infra providers below 👇

8hViews 3.7KLikes 25Bookmarks 1
signüll@signulll

@venturetwins @omooretweets the former for sure.

i think the underlying essence of these products is roughly the same. & they all face the same problem which is that there is a blank text box for the user & nothing else.

Justine Moore@venturetwins

@signulll @omooretweets The assistants themselves or infra companies?

Most of these assistants are positioned quite differently - e.g. personal vs. work - and have different target audiences

7hViews 410Likes 10Bookmarks 1
Justine Moore@venturetwins

@signulll @omooretweets The assistants themselves or infra companies?

Most of these assistants are positioned quite differently - e.g. personal vs. work - and have different target audiences

signüll@signulll

@venturetwins @omooretweets doesn’t this mean these are roughly commodity products?

7hViews 1.3KLikes 7Bookmarks 1
Elliott Potter@elliott__potter

@venturetwins @venturetwins 8 of 9 are happy @thelinqapp customers and the remaining one is porting over 📈📈📈

8hViews 11Likes 7
Eric Liu@eric6liu

@venturetwins dont forget @ditto_dates. we are one of the biggest on imessage

4hViews 170Likes 4
nizzy@nizzyabi

@venturetwins imessage is AWESOME.

it's so easily accessible for anyone! there's probably another level agent communication can go to, will see what that is, but i'm so excited for the future!

8hViews 290Likes 3

@venturetwins @interaction @heyollieai @nozomioai @meetlucasai @orchid_hq @tomo @zocomputer @getlindy @joinsauna @thelinqapp @Cherthq @blooio_messages @sendbluehq @AgentPhoneHQ try texting +1 (407) 242-5197 :)

8hViews 22Likes 1

@venturetwins @omooretweets @jgreze iMessage also on the list for @TownAI?

4hViews 51Likes 3
Julie Chen@0xJuliechen

@venturetwins Thanks for the epic market map!

@photon_hq is a provider of infra as well. We’re open source & venture-backed. Officially collaborating with Vercel, Hermes Agent and more, and there are amazing agents building on us. We believe native messaging interface is the future of UI :)

8hViews 84Likes 5
Marvin von Hagen@marvinvonhagen

@venturetwins new Poke logo just dropped

5hViews 35Likes 3
Patrick Sullivan@patsullyyy

@venturetwins hey i know them! our customers are amazing, so much awesome stuff being built in this ecosystem 📈

8hViews 72Likes 6
Sebastian Scott@_sebastianscott

@venturetwins @omooretweets Missing @photon_hq for infra :-)

8hViews 54Likes 2
Bristol@BriggsBuilds

@venturetwins @patsullyyy Don’t forget Sifta as one of the leading iMessage apps!

8hViews 67Likes 1
Cristin Culver@CristinCulver

@venturetwins Love the graphic on this! 😍

9hViews 67Likes 1
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