Cognition acquires Poke to bring personality to its coding agent Devin

Cognition, the startup behind the AI coding agent Devin, has acquired Poke, the conversational assistant that users text like a friend. The deal, confirmed by Poke co-founder Marvin von Hagen in an interview with TechCrunch, values Poke in the “low nine figures.” The acquisition brings Poke’s interaction style and personality to Devin, reflecting a growing belief that how AI assistants communicate with users is becoming as important as the underlying models.

The acquisition also brings Poke’s team, known as The Interaction Company of California, under Cognition. Poke will gain access to Cognition’s models and infrastructure, while Devin will adopt Poke’s more human-like conversational approach.

Por que importa

What Poke brings to Devin
Poke launched in March 2026 as an AI assistant users can text via iMessage, SMS, Telegram, or WhatsApp. Unlike traditional chatbots, Poke responds with slang, humour, and a familiar tone, making interactions feel more like chatting with a friend than using a tool. This personality is what Cognition wants to inject into Devin.

“You probably prefer it if you have co-workers that have personality, rather than if you have co-workers that are just robots,” von Hagen told TechCrunch. “When you have co-workers that are also software engineers, they can also make a joke. And you’ll find it funny and enjoyable.”

Contexto

Cognition co-founder Scott Wu echoed the sentiment in a blog post, saying, “The Interaction team has built an agent that people love: it’s proactive, it knows you, and it’s fun to talk to. That’s exactly how working with Devin should feel, and now we get to build it together.”

Poke’s growth and Apple integration
Despite launching only a few months ago, Poke has seen rapid adoption. Users exchanged over 100 million messages on the platform in the past three months, and hundreds of thousands of people have used the service. In June 2026, Poke became the first AI agent approved to run on Apple’s Messages for Business platform, giving businesses a standardised way to handle customer communications within Apple’s Messages app.

Que sigue

However, running Poke has been expensive. Von Hagen noted that the service’s popularity made it difficult to turn a profit, a factor that likely contributed to the acquisition.

Future plans: Poke and Devin together
For now, nothing will change for Poke users through the end of 2026. Poke will remain on Apple’s platform. Starting next year, the team will experiment with combining the two products. Poke will begin using Cognition’s newest software engineering model, SWE-1.7, for some tasks.

Von Hagen hinted at deeper integration: “I think in the long term Poke can be more reliable with orchestrating all these coding [tasks]…and, at the same time, Devin could become more like Poke.” He added that Poke could help Devin remember tasks across sessions, effectively acting as a “persistent co-worker.” Fully merging the two products has not been ruled out.

What this means for Indian developers and AI teams
For Indian developers using Devin or similar AI coding tools, this acquisition signals a shift. The focus on personality and conversational style suggests that future coding assistants will not just write code but also communicate in a more natural, collaborative way. This could be particularly relevant for Indian startups and tech teams where remote work and asynchronous communication are common. A coding agent that behaves more like a colleague could reduce friction in team workflows.

The deal also highlights the value of user experience in AI products. As competition intensifies, startups that invest in interface design and interaction models may find themselves attractive acquisition targets.

Datos clave
Acquired company	Poke (The Interaction Company of California)
Acquirer	Cognition (maker of Devin)
Deal value	Low nine figures (confirmed by co-founder Marvin von Hagen)
Messages exchanged	Over 100 million in the past three months
Key milestone	First AI agent approved on Apple Messages for Business (June 2026)

Source: TechCrunch – Why Cognition bought Poke: AI personality is becoming a competitive advantage (https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/why-cognition-bought-poke-ai-personality-is-becoming-a-competitive-advantage/)