Cognition buys Poke to give Devin coding assistant a personality
The AI assistant you text like a friend just got acquired for a nine-figure sum.
Cognition, the company behind the AI coding agent Devin, has acquired The Interaction Company of California, which operates the popular AI assistant Poke, for a valuation in the “low nine figures.” Poke is known for its conversational, personality-driven interactions—users text it like a friend, complete with slang and humor—rather than treating it as a static tool. Cognition plans to infuse Devin with this same natural interaction style, making the coding assistant feel more like a collaborative colleague. “You probably prefer it if you have co-workers that have personality,” said co-founder Marvin von Hagen.
Poke, first launched in March 2026, allows users to interact via iMessage, SMS, Telegram, or WhatsApp, handling tasks across travel, health, finance, scheduling, and education. Over the past three months, users exchanged more than 100 million messages with Poke. However, running Poke had been expensive, making profitability challenging. Post-acquisition, Poke will remain unchanged through the end of the year, then begin integrating Cognition’s newest software engineering model SWE-1.7. In the long term, the teams plan to merge the two products: Poke could orchestrate multiple Devin coding sessions and maintain persistent memory across tasks, while Devin gains a more personable interface.
- Cognition acquires Poke for a low-nine-figure valuation to bring personality to Devin's coding assistant.
- Poke users exchanged over 100 million messages in three months; Poke was first AI agent approved on Apple Messages for Business.
- Future integration could allow Poke to orchestrate multiple Devin sessions and maintain persistent task memory.
Why It Matters
How AI assistants interact with users is now as important as their underlying intelligence.