How HeySurf Put Its AI Assistant on iMessage and Telegram
Surf used to live in a browser tab. Now people just text it.
HeySurf is a proactive personal AI assistant you text on iMessage and Telegram. Novisurf Labs, the three-person team behind it, launched Surf on the web, where a proactive assistant in a tab you closed can't reach you. So the founders kept their own agent and memory, used Keiki to put Surf on Telegram in about a day and on iMessage within three days, and now Surf texts its users first.
- to launch Surf on Telegram
- ~1 day
- to a working iMessage round trip
- 3 days
- messages over iMessage and Telegram
- 850+
- of Surf’s messages now arrive by text
- 20%
What is HeySurf?
HeySurf (Surf for short) is a proactive personal AI assistant that you text instead of opening an app. It remembers you, acts before you ask, and has its own computer to actually finish tasks: browsing, filling things in, building. It's for busy people who want an assistant, not another app to manage.
The job people give it is simple: "handle this for me." Reminders, follow-ups, looking something up and acting on it, all without opening anything.
Novisurf Labs is bootstrapped, with three founders. HeySurf went live in production on October 28, 2026, iMessage and Telegram launched the next day, and HeySurf 3.0 shipped on November 6. Novisurf is representing at APICTA 2026 in Jakarta, December 7–11, and has applied to Y Combinator.
Why a web-only AI assistant gets forgotten
An assistant in a browser tab only works while the tab is open. At launch, Surf was web-only: you opened the site, signed in, and came back to a tab. Native iOS and Android apps were on the roadmap, but the team deferred them over cost.
Signups came in. People didn't come back.
"An assistant that lives in a browser tab gets forgotten by week two. The proactive messages Surf sent had nowhere to land unless the user had the site open."
Bob, CEO of Novisurf Labs
That's a hard problem for a product whose whole point is acting before you ask. A reminder only works if it reaches you, and Surf had no way to reach anyone who wasn't already looking at it.
Why put an AI assistant on iMessage and Telegram instead of an app?
Texting removes every step between a person and the assistant. There's no install, no login screen and no new habit to build: you save a number and say hi. And a proactive message finally has somewhere to land, in the thread people already check 100 times a day.
The founders watched other proactive agents launch behind US-only waitlists and app downloads, and went the other way. The data on app retention points the same direction (why text keeps users an app loses).
"With an app, most of our signups would have dropped at the download step. With a login wall, a proactive reminder is a notification you swipe away. Once Surf could text you first, being proactive actually meant something."
Bob, CEO of Novisurf Labs
Why not build iMessage and Telegram in-house?
Owning the messaging layer doesn't make an assistant smarter. Novisurf looked at doing it themselves. Telegram meant building on the raw Bot API, and iMessage had no clean path at all. Either way the list was the same: webhooks, line registration, delivery, retries, signing and rate limits. For a three-person team, that's weeks of plumbing.
"Owning messaging plumbing doesn't make Surf smarter. With Keiki we keep our own agent, memory and history, and Keiki handles the channels."
Bob, CEO of Novisurf Labs
So Surf's brain stayed Novisurf's. Surf runs as its own agent on Novisurf's servers, and Keiki carries each message between Surf and the person on the other end, on whichever channel they picked (how to bring your own agent).
How HeySurf works over text
You text Surf's number. It replies in short, natural bubbles, links your account with a code, and from then on it's one continuous chat that shares memory across iMessage, Telegram and the web. Ask it something and it searches, uses its own browser, or sets a reminder. Later, it messages you first when something needs you.
Morning! Your rent is due Friday and the receipt from last month still isn’t in your records.
Want me to pull it from your email and add it to the sheet?
yes pls
Done. Added it and sent you the updated CSV. I’ll remind you Thursday night about Friday’s payment.
lifesaver
Once Surf lived in people's messages, the team tuned it for the channel:
- Reminders go back where they came from. A reminder or proactive message goes to whichever channel you created it on, with the web as a backup.
- Replies reach the phone, not just the web. Novisurf added a reliable delivery outbox after seeing replies land on the web but not on the phone.
- Bubbles feel like texting. The team trimmed pacing to two or three bubbles per reply on iMessage.
Next is a contact card, so Surf shows up by name instead of as a bare number.
Before and after Keiki
How people use an AI assistant they can text
People talk to Surf like a person once it's in their messages. That was the founders' biggest surprise. Messages got shorter and more casual, and people came back unprompted.
One HeySurf user wrote: "It's amazing that Surf knows what I usually do and prepared me a CSV sheet for my latest financial records."
The results
Surf can now reach people first. Reminders and proactive check-ins land in the thread people already read, not a tab they closed, and anyone with a phone can try Surf in 10 seconds.
- Telegram went live in about a day, and iMessage had a working round trip within three days of Novisurf getting its line.
- More than 850 messages have passed between people and Surf over iMessage and Telegram, measured by Keiki.
- About 20% of Surf's messages now arrive by text. Most users still start on the web, but more of them move to iMessage every week.
- HeySurf has about 53 signups, roughly 7 new users a week since the channel launch, and has processed about 46 million tokens.
The support mattered as much as the build.
"Fast and hands-on. Nizzy reached out with a line and credits before we asked. When iMessage was arriving as green SMS and our handler rejected the channel, the team debugged it with us the same day."
Bob, CEO of Novisurf Labs
What's next for HeySurf
Novisurf is rolling out Surf's contact card and taking HeySurf to APICTA 2026 in Jakarta. Its advice for other teams building an AI assistant is short.
"If you're building an agent and you want it where people actually live, use Keiki. Keep your own brain and let Keiki handle the pipes. It's the difference between shipping channels this week and shipping them next quarter."
Bob, CEO of Novisurf Labs
FAQ
What is HeySurf? HeySurf (Surf) is a proactive personal AI assistant from Novisurf Labs that you text on iMessage, Telegram or the web. It remembers you, acts before you ask, and uses its own computer to browse, fill things in and build.
Can you text an AI assistant on iMessage and Telegram? Yes. You save Surf's number or open its Telegram chat and say hi. There's no app to install and no login screen; Surf links your account with a code in the chat.
Does HeySurf remember you across iMessage, Telegram and the web? Yes. All three share one continuous chat and one memory, so you can start on the web and pick up on your phone.
How long did it take HeySurf to launch on iMessage and Telegram? Telegram was live in about a day. iMessage had a working round trip within three days of Novisurf getting its line.
Did Novisurf have to replace its own agent to use Keiki? No. Novisurf kept its own agent, memory and history. Keiki handles the iMessage and Telegram channels around it.
Why text instead of building a native app? Texting needs no install, no login and no new habit, and it gives a proactive assistant somewhere to land. Novisurf expected most signups to drop at an app's download step, and deferred native apps over cost.
Put your AI assistant in their messages
If your product does its best work before people ask, it needs a way to reach them. Bring your own agent, give it a line, and let people start with a single text.
Start building on Keiki, or read how to build a personal assistant on iMessage and Building iMessage Agents: The Complete Guide.