A former Apple Siri and Apple Intelligence engineer is bringing an AI agent into iMessage itself. Nikhil Gupta, who worked on Siri and Apple Intelligence at Apple, is launching szn in October as an iMessage-based agent. At first there is no standalone app. Users talk to it in a Messages thread. It is designed to browse the web, complete purchases, and communicate with vendors while the user stays inside the conversation. Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman first reported the project in his Power On newsletter. Each customer is supposed to get a dedicated model plus a virtual assistant with its own name, email address, and phone number. That identity is meant to let szn contact other people and reply independently as a digital representative. Gupta says personal data will not be used for training and that privacy controls will limit data use. Those claims have not been independently audited. The agent is also described as working with shared Apple Notes, Find My location data, and iCloud files, so the iMessage thread could become a front end for tasks that usually require several apps. How szn actually hooks into iMessage is still unclear. Apple has previously blocked unofficial iMessage access (Beeper Mini, for example). Apple did approve Poke earlier this year as the first AI agent on Messages for Business. It is not public whether szn is using that official path or something else. Gurman noted that “We’ll see how the tech giant reacts this time.” Early access registration is already open on the company’s site, with a broader October launch planned and a dedicated app later. Pricing and country availability were not disclosed in the reporting. MacDailyNews Take: Competition in personal agents is crowding in at the same time, including Instinct (iMessage, WhatsApp, and SMS), Meta’s Muse on WhatsApp, and others. Gupta’s pitch for szn is specifically Apple-ecosystem: live inside Messages and pull from Notes, Find My, and iCloud. Whether Apple lets that stand is the open question. Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon. The post Former Siri engineer launches iMessage AI agent ‘szn’ that can shop, talk to vendors, and act on your behalf appeared first on MacDailyNews. You're currently a free subscriber to MacDailyNews. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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