# Poke alternatives for email, calendars and everyday work Canonical page: https://pearmcp.com/ai-assistants Official product documentation checked 26 September 2026. Published by Pear. This is a guide to documented capabilities, not a hands-on ranking or a claim that every product connects to Pear. Compare Poke with OpenClaw, Pally, Martin and other assistants. See which ones can call Pear, and which publish a separate MCP server. Pear supplies provider tools to another AI client. It is not a standalone chat assistant, household coordinator or automatic scheduling engine. ## Poke — Messaging assistant Manage requests from the messaging apps you already use. Poke works in Apple Messages, Telegram, WhatsApp and RCS. Cognition, the company behind Devin, acquired Poke’s maker on 23 July 2026. Poke remains available, with email, calendar and reminder features, plus recipes and custom MCP servers. Pear connection: **Pear setup guide available**. Poke documents an API-key field that becomes a Bearer header. Pear has a recipe and manual setup guide; a complete authenticated Poke lifecycle is still unverified. [Poke overview](https://poke.com/docs) · [Poke MCP setup](https://poke.com/docs/mcp-servers) · [Cognition acquisition](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/why-cognition-bought-poke-ai-personality-is-becoming-a-competitive-advantage/) · [Pear setup guide](https://pearmcp.com/guides/poke) ## OpenClaw — Self-hosted assistant Run an assistant on your own machine and reach it from the chats you already use. OpenClaw is the self-hosted assistant people compare with Poke. It can reach WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Signal, iMessage and other channels, and it can call a remote MCP server over Streamable HTTP. Pear connection: **Pear setup guide available**. Pear documents an environment-backed Bearer header for OpenClaw. A complete authenticated OpenClaw lifecycle is still unverified. A separate ClawHub skill is an external Apple-focused package, not this hosted connection. [OpenClaw MCP commands](https://docs.openclaw.ai/cli/mcp/registry) · [OpenClaw MCP configuration](https://docs.openclaw.ai/gateway/config-extensions) · [Pear setup guide](https://pearmcp.com/guides/openclaw) ## Pally — Messaging assistant Text an assistant from iMessage or Android RCS. Pally is the closest hosted texting assistant to Poke. It works over iMessage on Apple devices and RCS on Android, and it connects mail, calendars and other apps through its own product. Pear connection: **Separate MCP server**. Pally publishes its own MCP server so another AI app can read Pally conversations. That does not make Pally a client of Pear. A compatible AI client may connect to each service separately. [What Pally publishes for AI apps](https://pally.com/ai) ## Lindy — Team assistant Bring an assistant into team workflows and connected apps. Lindy advertises external MCP connections alongside its app integrations. Its MCP page describes asking Lindy to connect, approving the connection, and using the tools from Slack. Pear connection: **MCP advertised; Pear setup unverified**. The reviewed page does not specify the API-key or custom-header configuration Pear needs. Confirm that authentication path in Lindy before supplying a Pear key. [Lindy MCP integration](https://wf.lindy.ai/integrations/mcp) ## Martin — Personal assistant Reach an assistant by text, phone, email or Slack. Martin is the Poke comparison people use when they also want a phone call. It presents inbox search and drafts, scheduling, reminders and briefings, and it can call you or place calls. Pear connection: **No Pear setup documented**. The public integration documentation reviewed here does not establish a custom Pear MCP connection. Check Martin’s own account integrations against the services you need. [Martin product](https://www.trymartin.com/) · [Martin documentation](https://docs.trymartin.com/) ## Ohai — Household assistant Coordinate family calendars and turn incoming information into plans. Ohai connects Google, Apple or Outlook calendars. It can organize information shared by text, forwarded email, screenshots, PDFs and photos into events, tasks and reminders. Pear connection: **No Pear setup documented**. Its reviewed setup page describes Ohai’s own connections, rather than a custom MCP endpoint. Apple calendar support by itself does not establish iCloud Mail or Pear support. [How Ohai works](https://www.ohai.ai/how-it-works/) ## Motion — Work planning and scheduling Organize tasks and projects around a connected calendar. Motion’s integration page lists Google, Outlook and iCloud calendars alongside services such as Gmail and Zapier. Start with those native integrations when evaluating a Motion workflow. Pear connection: **No Pear setup documented**. The reviewed integration page does not establish a custom Pear MCP client. Confirm each required service instead of treating a calendar integration as full mailbox access. [Motion integrations](https://www.usemotion.com/features/integrations) ## Reclaim — Calendar and scheduling assistant Manage scheduling from Reclaim or a connected AI client. Reclaim documents its own MCP server for bringing Reclaim scheduling capabilities into clients such as Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor. Pear connection: **Separate MCP server**. Reclaim exposing an MCP server does not make it a client of Pear. A compatible AI client may connect to each service separately, using that service’s setup and permissions. [Reclaim 2.0 and MCP](https://help.reclaim.ai/en/articles/14846468-reclaim-ai-2-0-overview) ## Choose around your workflow For a self-hosted assistant, consider OpenClaw. For texting, compare Poke and Pally. For phone calls as well as text, consider Martin. For household coordination, Ohai. For team workflows, Lindy. For calendar planning, Motion or Reclaim. If you already use a compatible AI, connect your providers through Pear using its client-specific setup guide. Compare the exact provider and service, plan and workspace restrictions, action approval and revocation, and the full assistant/model/connector/provider data path. Start with a bounded read before trying writes or scheduled automation. ## Did Poke shut down when Cognition bought it? No. Cognition acquired The Interaction Company, Poke’s maker, on 23 July 2026. Poke remains a messaging assistant. Pear’s Poke setup guide is unchanged, and a complete authenticated Poke lifecycle is still unverified. ## What are people using instead of Poke? The public comparison is OpenClaw for a self-hosted assistant, Pally for another assistant you can text, and Martin when you also want phone calls. OpenClaw can use Pear’s hosted endpoint. Pally publishes its own MCP server, which is a different connection. Martin’s public docs do not show a custom Pear MCP client. ## Is Pear an alternative to Poke? Pear supplies provider tools to an AI client through MCP. Poke is an assistant you talk to. You can use the documented Pear connection in Poke, or choose another compatible client for your connected iCloud and Microsoft 365 accounts. Pear does not replace an assistant’s chat, memory or scheduling engine. ## Can I connect any AI assistant to Pear? The app needs a remote Streamable HTTP MCP client and an authentication method Pear supports. A product offering its own MCP server is not enough. Follow a named client guide or check the custom MCP requirements; a documented configuration is not a completed interoperability test. ## Which providers can I use with Pear? Apple iCloud Calendar, Contacts and Mail, plus Microsoft 365 Calendar, To Do, Contacts and Outlook Mail are live. Apple Reminders access is limited to legacy CalDAV data, not Apple’s upgraded Reminders store. Google Workspace is coming soon. Available tools depend on your accounts, permissions and plan. ## Does a local AI keep all connected data on my computer? No. A local AI application can still call a hosted MCP server and a cloud model. With Pear, requests reach Pear and the connected provider; what the client sends to its model depends on that client. Review the full data path before connecting sensitive accounts. ## Next steps - [All client guides](https://pearmcp.com/docs) - [Client compatibility and evidence](https://pearmcp.com/mcp-compatibility) - [Other MCP client requirements](https://pearmcp.com/guides/custom-mcp) - [Apple iCloud](https://pearmcp.com/icloud-mcp-server) - [Microsoft 365](https://pearmcp.com/microsoft-365-mcp-server) - [Data handling](https://pearmcp.com/data-handling) - [Pear plans](https://pearmcp.com/pricing)