Meta Muse vs Poke: Which Personal AI Agent to Pick
Pick Meta Muse if you are an adult in the US or Canada and want a free agent that shops, books and fills in web forms for you, from an app, the web or a WhatsApp chat. Pick Poke if you want an assistant that lives in your text messages, works through the apps you connect, and is open to sign up outside North America.
Both message you first, remember what you tell them and act inside your email and calendar. They split on where you talk to them, how they finish a task, what they cost and who ends up holding your data. If the messages that fill your day come from clients, Carly is a third option, covered near the end.
Meta Muse vs Poke side by side
| Meta Muse | Poke | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Meta | The Interaction Company of California, owned by Cognition since July 2026 |
| Launched | September 8, 2026 | Open to everyone since March 2026 |
| Who can use it | Adults in the US and Canada | Open signup from age 13, Europe and the UK included |
| Where you talk to it | iOS and Android app, web, Mac app, WhatsApp | Apple Messages, SMS, RCS, Telegram; WhatsApp in some markets |
| How it does the work | Its own cloud computer: connectors first, then public APIs, then a browser | Connected apps and recipes, plus any MCP server you add |
| Phone calls | The AI calls US businesses, in beta since mid-September | Poke Human, a real person, on Ultra |
| Shopping | Checkout with Link by Stripe or Shop Pay, plus retail connectors | Poke Human places orders on Ultra |
| Price | Free with usage limits (card required); Power $20/month; Maximum $100/month | Free (no card); Pro $19/month; Ultra $199/month plus pay-as-you-go |
| Training on your chats | On by default, switch off in Data controls | On unless you choose Maximum Privacy |
| Scale | No. 1 on the App Store in late September | ”Hundreds of thousands” of users as of July |
Where Muse wins
- It finishes jobs on sites with no app. Every Muse user gets a dedicated cloud computer with a browser. Where there is no connector or public API, Muse opens the website and fills in the form itself. Poke stays inside the apps you connect.
- Shopping is built in. Muse checks out with Link by Stripe, which issues a one-time card number, or with Shop Pay, and shows an approval card before any order goes through. Shopping is now one of Muse’s biggest uses, a Meta spokesperson told CNBC, with Walmart, Best Buy, Sephora and Wayfair signed up, though not every retail connector is live yet.
- The AI places its own calls. Muse can phone US businesses in a beta Meta began widening in September. Poke routes calls to a human, and only on its $199 plan.
- A second agent guards the exits. Per Meta, nothing Muse does reaches the internet unless Sentinel, a separate agent on the same machine, approves it. Muse asks before it sends an email or buys anything.
- It reaches the small-business stack. Meta’s September 29 Muse for Small Business update added Slack, QuickBooks, HighLevel, Shopify, Stripe, Klaviyo and Zoom, plus Facebook Pages, Instagram analytics and Meta ad accounts.
The longer rundown is in our Meta Muse guide.
Where Poke wins
- It lives in your texts. Poke is a contact in your messages, so there is no app to open. In June it became the first AI agent Apple approved for Messages for Business, and it also works over SMS, RCS and Telegram, so Android users are covered. Muse needs its own app, a browser tab or WhatsApp.
- It is open beyond North America. Poke signs up users in Europe and the UK (its privacy notice carries EEA and UK disclosures). Muse is limited to adults in the US and Canada, and Meta has given no date for a third country. More in where Muse is available.
- Free means no card. Poke’s free plan asks for no credit card and never stops replying; past its allowance it drops to a lighter mode until the allowance refills. Muse’s free tier wants a payment card on file before you start.
- It is built for tinkerers. Recipes bundle an integration with a starting behavior, such as a morning summary of your Linear issues. Poke connects to Notion, GitHub, Linear, Todoist, Asana, Ramp and Oura, and developers can plug in any MCP server.
- A human when software runs out. On Ultra, Poke Human hands reservations, phone calls, orders and rides to a real person, who sees only the details the task needs. Real-world costs are charged at cost.
- It isn’t Meta. For anyone wary of giving Meta their inbox, that settles it.
One catch on WhatsApp. Meta barred general-purpose AI assistants, Poke among them, from WhatsApp’s business platform on January 15, 2026, and only reopened in places where regulators pushed, starting with Europe and Brazil, TechCrunch reported. So Poke’s WhatsApp access depends on your country, while Meta’s own Muse runs inside WhatsApp.
How each one gets a task done
Muse works like a person at a computer. Its browser fallback gives it reach no integration list can match, and websites push back. Amazon blocks Muse from buying on its site, alleging it stores customer credentials and scrapes account data, CNBC reported. YouTuber Matt Robb said Muse shared his home address with a Facebook Marketplace buyer who then turned up at his door; he later admitted granting a permission that allowed it, per TechCrunch.
Poke works like an app with permissions. It acts through the official connections you grant and the recipes you add, and texts you when something in your inbox or calendar needs you. What it can touch is narrower and easier to see. It still slips: Unite.AI’s September 9 review found its email triage “isn’t very sharp yet, so it can bury something urgent while forwarding something trivial,” and called Ultra “steep for a product that’s still occasionally unreliable.” Poke’s status page logged several spring outages, including one where users could not see their email.
For “find it, buy it, call them,” Muse reaches further. For “watch my inbox and text me what matters,” Poke is the lighter touch.
Privacy: both train on your chats unless you switch it off
Muse. WIRED found users are opted in to AI training by default; the switch is “Help improve our AI models” under Data controls. There is no toggle to turn memory off. Meta says Muse does not share your conversations with its ad systems and will add an encrypted Confidential VM, with a key only you hold, later this year. Trust is the open question: Inc columnist Jason Aten reported that Muse read his iMessages without permission, and Meta disputes it, saying Mac Messages access needs both Full Disk Access and the Messages connector switched on.
Poke. Its privacy notice, updated September 11, 2026, says user data may be used to train its models unless you choose Maximum Privacy. Google data falls under Google’s Limited Use rules and is not sold or used for advertising. Since July, the company holding that data belongs to Cognition.
Meta vs Cognition: who stands behind each
At Meta Connect, Mark Zuckerberg called Muse “the centerpiece” of what Meta is building and said Meta expects to profit over time “by taking a small fee from transactions,” TechCrunch reported. Transactions through Muse are part of the business model. The question is how much of your life you want inside one more Meta product.
Poke’s maker was bought by Cognition, the company behind the coding agent Devin, in a deal TechCrunch put in the “low nine figures.” Co-founder Marvin von Hagen said Poke had been expensive to run and hard to make profitable. Nothing changes for users through the end of 2026, and fully combining Poke with Devin has not been ruled out. Background in Poke is joining Cognition.
If the texts are about work
Muse and Poke are personal agents: one person, their own errands. Neither is built to run the client side of an inbox, and when we tested Muse, its Gmail and Outlook connectors each held a single account.
Carly is built for work email, calendar and follow-ups across all of your inboxes. It runs on the web and over SMS, so you can text Carly the way you would text Poke.
- All of your inboxes at once. Gmail and Outlook, as many accounts as you have. Carly triages, labels, drafts and sends across all of them.
- It acts when something arrives. A new email, a new lead or a form fill starts a workflow on its own, with no chat open.
- Scheduling with other people. CC Carly on a thread and it finds a time across your calendars, sends the invite and handles the reschedule. Booking pages are included.
- Leads get answered. Texts and AI voice calls to inbound leads, sequences from your own Gmail or Outlook that stop on reply, and a built-in CRM.
- Your business apps. Carly connects to thousands of apps, from HubSpot to QuickBooks to Slack, and you can set up agents by describing the job in plain English.
Say a lead fills in Michael’s contact form at 9pm. Carly texts them back, offers times from his calendar, books the call, logs the lead in the CRM and texts Michael a summary. Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Get started with Carly, or book a call with the team.
FAQ
Is Meta Muse better than Poke? For errands on the open web, shopping and calls the AI places itself, Muse reaches further and its free tier is generous. For an assistant that lives in your texts, works outside North America and starts free without a card, Poke is the easier pick.
How much do Meta Muse and Poke cost? Muse is free with usage limits and needs a payment card on file. Power is $20 a month and Maximum $100 a month. Poke is free with no card, Pro is $19 a month, and Ultra is $199 a month with pay-as-you-go usage once its credits run out. The full Muse breakdown is in Meta Muse pricing.
Can I text Muse like Poke? Not over SMS or Apple Messages. Meta offers Muse in its iOS and Android app, on the web, on the Mac and in WhatsApp. Poke works in Apple Messages, SMS, RCS and Telegram, and on WhatsApp in some markets.
Is Muse or Poke available outside the US? Muse is available to adults in the US and Canada. Poke signs up users more widely, Europe and the UK included.
Do Muse and Poke train on my data? Both do by default. In Muse, turn off “Help improve our AI models” under Data controls. In Poke, choose Maximum Privacy.
What should I use for work email and calendar? Carly. It works across all of your Gmail and Outlook inboxes, starts workflows when a new email or lead arrives, and you can text it. It connects to thousands of apps.
Related: Meta Muse alternatives · Poke alternatives · Instinct vs Poke · Meta Muse vs Instinct · Carly AI vs Poke
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