Slashy, the AI-native email client, uses iMessage through Photon to reach users the moment work gets done. Slashy drafts replies in your voice, triages your inbox, and preps you for meetings. When something needs you, it texts you. Reply in iMessage to approve a draft, reschedule a meeting, or get the brief, without opening your inbox.

Why an email agent belongs in iMessage

Email is where work piles up. iMessage is where people actually look. Most people have hundreds of unread emails and zero unread texts. An inbox agent that only lives inside the inbox has the same problem as the inbox: you have to go check it.

The most useful thing an email agent can do is come find you. "Your reply to the investor is drafted, send it?" "Your 2 p.m. moved to 3." "Here's what you need to know before your call with Acme." Those messages belong in the one place you'll see them within seconds.

That is exactly why it's hard to build.

iMessage was not built for agents. The common workaround is to bridge it from a personal Mac that has to stay awake and online, sending messages from someone's own number. That's fine for a side project. It isn't fine for a premium product that professionals trust with their inbox, their calendar, and their clients. A proactive email agent needs a dedicated line, continuous uptime, secure handling of sensitive context, and a clean separation between the agent and any one person's device. The bridge approach gives you none of that reliably.

Slashy makes your inbox do the work.

Photon makes sure you hear about it.

How Photon brings Slashy to iMessage

Slashy connected its agent to a Photon-managed iMessage line and turned it on for users. From the user's side, there's nothing to set up beyond saving a contact. Here's what that looks like in practice.

The morning brief. Before you open your laptop, Slashy texts a summary: three emails that need you today, two it already handled, and one follow-up that's gone quiet. You read it in line for coffee.

Drafts approved from your phone. A client emails a question at 9 p.m. Slashy drafts the reply in your voice and texts it over. Reply "send" and it goes out. Reply "make it shorter" and it rewrites.

Meeting prep, right on time. Ten minutes before a call, Slashy texts who you're meeting, the last thread with them, and what's still open. No tab-switching into a call.

Nothing slips. A thread you're waiting on goes quiet for three days. Slashy notices and texts: "Nudge Sarah about the contract?" One reply and the follow-up is sent.

Every one of these is a normal iMessage conversation. The difference is that the contact on the other end is running your inbox.

"Email is one of the few products people still spend hours in every day that hasn't fundamentally changed in decades. We built Slashy around the idea that your inbox should actually do work for you: understanding your context, drafting responses in your voice, preparing you for meetings, and helping you stay on top of everything without constantly managing it yourself. And one of the best ways to reach people to alert them about work is done is via iMessage.

Without Photon it wouldn't be possible for us to be one of the fastest growing premium email clients. Our iMessage integration powered by Photon is one of our killer features, as it allows our agent to be proactive and reach users where they are."

Harsha Gaddipati, Founder, Slashy

Native iMessage behavior that Photon provides

With Photon, Slashy behaves like a native iMessage contact, with RCS and SMS fallback when needed.

• A dedicated line means Slashy shows up as its own trusted contact, not a shortcode or someone's personal number.

• Reply-to-act turns every text into a control surface: "send," "reschedule," "archive it," in plain English.

• Typing indicators show when Slashy is drafting or pulling context.

• Images let users send a screenshot of a thread or doc and ask Slashy to act on it.

• Native iMessage voice notes let users dictate a reply on the go and have Slashy turn it into a polished email in their voice.

Traction

• #1 Product of the Day on Product Hunt at launch (June 2026)

• Backed by Y Combinator

• Slashy is used by everyone including former F500 CEOs, Decacorns, and T1 VCs

Agents should live where people already are

Photon is built on a simple belief: agents should live in the interfaces where people already are. For professionals drowning in email, that isn't another inbox. It's the messages app they check a hundred times a day.

Slashy is a clear example of what that unlocks: not a smarter email filter, but an agent that does the work and then reaches out to tell you it's done. We're proud to be the iMessage layer behind it, and we're actively partnering with more founders and builders bringing agents to the channels people use every day.

Get started

Want Shashy? Get a free month by going to slashy.com, and using code PHOTON.

About Photon: Photon is a unified API that brings agents to interfaces like iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, and more. It's free to start, and it scales as your agent grows.