In Bland, you can already create SMS agents and connect a number to use the same pathway or persona as your phone agent, giving customers a consistent experience across SMS and voice. But SMS is inherently limited because it’s strictly text-based.
Customers have been asking for iMessage support so they can deliver a richer experience that includes images, reactions, files, voice memos, and everything else people expect from iMessage.
Today, we’re excited to announce that iMessage support is now available. iMessage agents share the same pathways, personas, and persona memory as your voice and SMS agents, so one flow can power all of your conversations.
If you’re on an enterprise plan, you can create a fully branded iMessage agent so your messages don’t come from a random number your customers don’t recognize, but from a verified business profile.
With Bland iMessage:
- Messages come from a branded contact with your company name and profile image, not a random number.
- Messages appear as blue message bubbles.
- Send and receive high-resolution photos, videos, PDFs, spreadsheets, and other documents.
- Take advantage of tapbacks, text effects, Live Stickers, and more.
- Get delivery status, read receipts, and typing indicators for deeper enterprise analytics.
- Send and receive voice memos so replies feel natural for longer or more personal interactions.
- Conversations are fully encrypted.
Customers can send your agent an image of a receipt, a screenshot, a short voice memo, or a PDF, and your agent can read, analyze, and reply to it. For a highly personalized experience, Bland’s long-term memory system stores customer preferences across conversations. For example, it remembers how a customer wants a report formatted so future interactions feel tailored and consistent.
To enable iMessage in your enterprise plan, contact your account manager or FDE and they'll hook you up. If you're not on an Enterprise plan, but want to build your own iMessage agents on Bland, schedule a demo here.
Show me how it works
To demonstrate what’s possible, we extended Norm to work over iMessage. Norm is our helpful AI assistant who can now control the Bland API from the iMessage interface.
You can text Norm to create agents, iterate on pathways and personas, pull analytics, and generate reports. Here’s a demo showing what you can do with Norm in iMessage.
Try it yourself by texting +1 (321) 424-0172. If you don’t have a Bland account yet, Norm will walk you through onboarding. If you already have an account, you can start getting things done in Bland right away.
What can Norm do over iMessage?
- Create or update agents. Ask Norm to build a phone agent to handle patient scheduling, add a new node to authenticate callers before proceeding with a call, or change a prompt.
- Test agents. Run simulations on a change, place a test call, and push updates to production.
- Troubleshoot pathway issues. Have Norm review call logs and pathways for potential errors, then alert you when something needs attention. For example, Norm can detect when authentication is consistently failing and notify you.
- Send reports. Generate PDF reports and Excel spreadsheets and receive them directly in iMessage.
- Query analytics. Ask questions in plain English, like "How many calls have I received in the last 10 minutes?"
- Schedule reminders. Schedule recurring digests, such as a morning summary of call volume, failed calls, or agent performance from the previous day.
How to get started with iMessage
- If you’re an enterprise customer and want to enable iMessage, please contact your account manager or FDE.
- If you want to try out our Norm iMessage agent, text +1 (321) 424-0172.
- New users: Text Norm to build your first voice agent. Norm will guide you through the setup. Once your agent is configured, have it call you so you can test the experience, then iterate from there.
- Existing customers: Text Norm to make changes to your pathways or personas, have the agent call you, and iterate in real time.
We’re excited to see what you build with Bland iMessage. Give it a try and let us know what you think.
To learn more about Bland iMessage, check out the docs.
