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

Chert (YC P26) launched a platform that provides an API for integrating Apple's iMessage into business applications, enabling product and go-to-market teams to send automated, personalized messages through real iMessage threads. The service supports features like end-to-end encryption, group chats, typing indicators, and SMS fallback, and is designed to help teams book meetings and handle customer inquiries at scale. Chert aims to offer a higher-response-rate alternative to cold email by leveraging iMessage's native blue-bubble messaging infrastructure.

Backed by infrastructure for reaching people at scale. Build and deploy AI on iMessage to reach people at scale while maintaining quality, trust, and personalized interaction. Chert iMessage Hey 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? Pine Street · Tour Delivered Trusted by growing teams PLATFORM One API. Many features. Everything you expect from iMessage. Built for product teams, exposed through a single API surface. Chert iMessage Saw 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 messaging Real iMessage threads. Verified senders. End-to-end encryption. First question to your team. On it — pulling the numbers now. Should have a draft by EOD. Perfect. Free for 15 min next week? Typing & tapbacks Live indicators and reactions, captured natively. Derrick kicking off the launch thread Gary who has the deck? just dropped it 🙌 Group chats Multi-recipient threads with named senders. Heads up, moved you to Tuesday Reply Y to confirm Sent as SMS SMS / RCS fallback Auto-rerouted when the recipient is off-platform. Latest menu, ready to ship? Sending attachments Photos, PDFs, links. Native to the thread. Live delivery state Sub-second deliverability telemetry per message. EXPLORE THE API + many more Verified phone numbersMessage receiptsWebhooksCompliance audits 0% average response rate on cold outbound 0% response rate on warm outbound <0 min setup via our API and Webhooks USE CASES Used by GTM teams across these workflows. Welcome to Chert Want a 2 min tour of the dashboard? Yes please Order 4821 still hasn't shipped Looking now. Left the warehouse this morning. ETA Wednesday. Thanks 🙏 Can I move my haircut to Saturday? Saturday 2 PM works. Confirmed? Yes please Saw your post on scaling the AE team. Built something that books meetings on iMessage. 2 min? Send the link INTEGRATIONS One thread, everywhere your team works. Chert sits between your team's tools and the customer's phone. Salesforce Attio GoHighLevel Slack Close Vapi HubSpot Chert FAQ Everything you need to know. Answers to the questions we hear most. Is this real iMessage, or just SMS branded as iMessage? How is this different from sending SMS through Twilio? What about deliverability and spam flags? How do I connect Chert to the tools my team already uses? Let's talk Build with iMessage. 20-minute kickoff. We'll talk through your use case and work on integrating iMessage into your application.