Home Features Remind a Friend

Remind someone else, not just yourself.

You were never only forgetting your own things. Start a message with poke and Poko asks your mum, your flatmate, your colleague. They say yes once, and the reminder lands on their WhatsApp instead of living in your head.

Poke someone on WhatsAppFirst 7 days free.No signup.They never install anything.

The first time, in four steps

Two of them happen in your chat, two on theirs. After this, poking Priya is one message.

  1. Send Poko her contact

    Share Priya’s contact card from WhatsApp’s attachment menu, or type save Priya 919876543210 with the country code. Poko keeps the number, so from now on her name is enough.

    Your chat with Poko
    Priya+9198765432108:30 PM✅ Saved:
    Priya: +919876543210

    To remind Priya, start with poke: poke Priya to call me at 6pm
    8:30 PM
  2. Say poke, then what and when

    The word poke is what sends a reminder to somebody else. Leave it off and the reminder is yours, which is why nothing you write can reach her by accident.

    Your chat with Poko
    poke Priya to take her medicine at 9pm8:32 PM✅ I’ve asked Priya if she’ll take reminders from you. Hers is queued for 9:00 PM and goes live the moment she accepts.8:32 PM
  3. She accepts, once

    Poko asks Priya one time whether she wants reminders from you. Nothing reaches her until she taps Accept, and she is never asked again.

    On Priya’s phone
    👋 Sudhanshu (+91 87703 06377) wants to send you reminders through Pokobot, things like “take your medicine” or “call at 6pm”, delivered here on WhatsApp.

    Would you like to receive them?
    8:33 PMAcceptDecline
    Accept8:37 PM
  4. Her reminder arrives, in your name

    At 9pm the poke lands on Priya’s WhatsApp with your name on it. She can reply stop reminders whenever she likes, which ends yours and nobody else’s, and Poko tells you it happened.

    On Priya’s phone, 9:00 PM
    ⏰ Reminder from Sudhanshu: take your medicine

    Sent via Pokobot. Reply “stop reminders” to opt out.
    9:00 PM

That is the setup done for good. From here on it is one line: poke Priya to call me at 6pm, and Poko takes it from there.

How do I remind someone else on WhatsApp?

Start the message with the word poke: poke Priya to take her medicine at 9pm. That word is the only way a reminder reaches another phone, so nothing else you text can ping somebody by mistake, and remind Priya to take her medicine without it stays a reminder for you. Poko then sends Priya one WhatsApp message with Accept and Decline, and nothing is delivered until she taps Accept. From then on her reminders arrive as “⏰ Reminder from Sudhanshu: take your medicine”, so she always knows who set them, and “stop reminders from Sudhanshu” switches you off without touching anyone else. She needs WhatsApp and nothing else: no app, no signup, no account. Use a name you have saved, or a full number with the country code (poke 919876543210 about the doctor’s appointment tomorrow at 11am). It comes with the subscription, free for the first 7 days along with everything else.

The rest of what you can say

Once the setup above is done, these are the variations. They are here to read rather than tap, since each one needs your own person’s name in it.

poke Kuldeep Visomni to send the invoice every Friday at 4pmfull names work, and so do repeats
poke 919876543210 about the doctor’s appointment tomorrow at 11ama bare number with the country code skips the saving step
listyour reminders, with “→ for Priya” on the ones that aren’t yours
cancel 2yours to cancel, by the number the list gives it
stop reminders from Sudhanshuwhat the person on the other end sends to switch you off

Why it works

One word, and only that word

A reminder can reach another phone only from a message that starts with poke. It is checked in code, before any of the clever bits, so it is not a judgement call that can go the wrong way on a busy day. Everything else you write stays a reminder for you: “remind Priya to take her medicine”, without the keyword, pokes nobody but you.

They have to say yes

The first time you poke someone, Poko sends them a single message with Accept and Decline, and queues your reminder rather than delivering it. Nothing arrives until they accept, and they are only ever asked once. Decline, and the queued reminder is cancelled and you are told, so silence is never mistaken for a yes.

They can switch you off, not Poko

Every reminder carries your name, and “stop reminders from Sudhanshu” is all it takes to end them. It is per person: their other senders keep going, and their own reminders are untouched. You get a note saying it happened, which is better than wondering.

Questions about poking other people

Does the other person need Pokobot?

No. They need WhatsApp, which they already have. The consent ask and every reminder arrive as ordinary WhatsApp messages, so there is no app to install, no account to make and nothing to set up on their side. Tapping Accept is the entire thing they have to do.

What do they actually see?

First one message: “👋 Sudhanshu (+91…) wants to send you reminders through Pokobot”, with an Accept and a Decline button. After they accept, each reminder reads “⏰ Reminder from Sudhanshu: take your medicine”, and carries a line saying it was sent via Pokobot and that “stop reminders” opts them out.

What if they say no?

Decline cancels the reminder you had queued for them, and Poko tells you they declined. They are not asked again, and later pokes at the same person are turned down in the same breath rather than quietly queued. The same is true after they have stopped your reminders.

Can they stop them later?

Any time, by replying “stop reminders from Sudhanshu”. It ends yours only: other people who poke them carry on, and their own reminders are not affected. Poko sends you a note so you know. If they reply to a reminder asking to move it, he tells them it was set by your number and to message you, because it is yours to change.

How many people can I poke?

Up to ten reminders running for other people at once, across at most five different people. That is a limit rather than a target: this is for the handful of people you actually chase, and the caps are what keep it from being a way to message strangers in bulk.

Is it free?

Poking someone is part of the subscription rather than an add-on, and the first 7 days are free with everything included. After that it’s a small subscription, from ₹59/month in India. The person receiving them never pays anything.

Pairs well with

Stop being someone else’s alarm clock.

Let Poko do the nagging. Start with poke, and he’s much cuter about it.

Chat with Poko on WhatsApp