Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

Backed byiMessage infrastructure for reaching people at scale.

Build and deploy AI on iMessage to reach people at scale while maintaining quality, trust, and personalized interaction.

Book a Call→‹ChertiMessageHey! Is the 2BR on Pine still open?Looking for a Sept 1 move-in.Yes, still available.Want to come tour it?Definitely.Saturday morning works for me.Got you on the calendar.Sat 10am — sound good?AUG24Pine Street · TourSat 10:00 AM · ConfirmedDelivered+iMessageTrusted by growing teamsPLATFORM

One API. Many features.

Everything you expect from iMessage. Built for product teams, exposed through a single API surface.

9:41‹ChertiMessageSaw the launch, congrats!Thanks!What's up?We help GTM teams book meetings via iMessage.10x reply rate vs cold email.Interesting.Free Tuesday 3pm PT?Sending an invite over.+iMessage↑Blue bubble messagingReal iMessage threads. Verified senders. End-to-end encryption.👍👎‼️❓Ha9:41First question to your team.On it — pulling the numbers now.Should have a draft by EOD.Perfect. Free for 15 min next week?Typing & tapbacksLive indicators and reactions, captured natively.9:41+Derrickkicking off the launch threadGarywho has the deck?just dropped it 🙌Group chatsMulti-recipient threads with named senders.9:41Heads up, moved you to TuesdayReply Y to confirmSent as SMSSMS / RCS fallbackAuto-rerouted when the recipient is off-platform.9:41Latest menu, ready to ship?menu_v3.pdf · 2.4 MBSending attachmentsPhotos, PDFs, links. Native to the thread.iMessage delivered9:41 AMSMS fallback queued·Live delivery stateSub-second deliverability telemetry per message.EXPLORE THE API+ many moreVerified phone numbersMessage receiptsWebhooksCompliance audits0%average response rate on cold outbound0%response rate on warm outbound<0 minsetup via our API and WebhooksUSE CASES

Used by GTM teams
across these workflows.

Lifecycle

Onboarding

Welcome someone the moment they sign up.

Welcome to Chert!Want a 2 min tour of the dashboard?Yes pleaseSupport

Customer support

Resolve in iMessage. No portal, no ticket queue.

Order #4821 still hasn't shippedLooking now.Left the warehouse this morning. ETA Wednesday.Thanks 🙏Conversational AI

B2C agents

Books, reschedules, answers. Like a real person.

Can I move my haircut to Saturday?Saturday 2 PM works.Confirmed?Yes pleaseOutbound

Cold outbound

Get replies SDRs can't, without the spam flag.

Saw your post on scaling the AE team.Built something that books meetings on iMessage.2 min?Send the linkINTEGRATIONS

One thread, everywhere your team works.

Chert sits between your team's tools and the customer's phone.

SalesforceAttioGoHighLevelSlackCloseVapiHubSpotChertChertiMessageSaw you launched Q4. Worth 15 min?Sure, Tuesday works.Booked you for Tue 3 PMDelivered as iMessageFAQ

Everything you
need to know.

Answers to the questions we hear most.

Is this real iMessage, or just SMS branded as iMessage?

Real iMessage. Outbound and inbound flow over Apple’s iMessage protocol with the blue-bubble UX your customers already trust. We fall back to SMS only if a recipient isn’t on iMessage, and we surface that distinction in the API so you always know which channel a message landed on.

How is this different from sending SMS through Twilio?

Twilio is an A2P SMS pipe: carrier-filtered, 10DLC-registered, and visibly automated. Chert delivers a peer-to-peer iMessage thread that opens with the blue bubble, supports read receipts and tapbacks, and lives in the same inbox as a recipient’s family and friends. Open and reply rates are categorically different because the channel is.

What about deliverability and spam flags?

Because iMessage is end-to-end and tied to Apple ID, it doesn’t inherit the carrier-side filtering that hammers A2P SMS. We rotate sending identities, warm them gradually, and cap volume per identity per day to stay well below the heuristics Apple uses to throttle abusive senders. Anyone promising "unlimited blast" volume is one ban away from disappearing.

How do I connect Chert to the tools my team already uses?

We expose a REST API and webhooks for every inbound and outbound event, so you can wire conversations into your CRM, sales tools, voice agents, or internal data store with a few hours of work. We also ship native sync for the common cases (lead created, meeting booked, opt-out received). If you’d rather not build, we’ll handle the integration during onboarding.

Let's talk

Build with
iMessage.

20-minute kickoff. We'll talk through your use case and work on integrating iMessage into your application.