Bird

Overview

Bird was founded in 2011 as MessageBird. It offers APIs for email, SMS, WhatsApp, Apple Messages for Business and voice. It also ships an MCP server, a CLI and skills so AI agents can set up channels and send messages directly.

Key features

• Apple Messages for Business with registration, entry points from Apple Maps and Safari, forms, appointments, Apple Pay and Sign in with Apple
• Handoff of Apple Messages threads from an AI agent to human agents
• SMS with two-way messaging and 10DLC registration
• WhatsApp API with templates, groups and coexistence
• Voice with SIP trunking, AI voice and recordings
• Webhooks, an email sandbox and idempotent retries
• SOC 2 Type 2 documentation and ISO/IEC 27001:2022, through its Trust Center

Pricing

From bird.com/pricing:

• SMS: $0.0035 per US outbound long-code segment, plus carrier fees
• WhatsApp: $0.005 per US marketing message, plus Meta fees
• Apple Messages: pay as you go, or wallet funding from $100/month for lower contact rates
• US local numbers: $0.50 per month

Email has free and paid plans. Voice is priced per minute.

How it compares to Linq

Bird does not offer phone-number iMessage like Linq. Its Apple channel is Apple Messages for Business, where customers start the conversation and brands go through Apple's registration. Bird adds email and WhatsApp. It prices per message, while Linq uses flat monthly plans. Both say they have SOC 2 Type II reports.

Best for

Developers who want email, SMS, WhatsApp and Apple Messages for Business from one vendor, with tooling for AI agents.

Sources

• bird.com
• bird.com/pricing
• bird.com/apple-messages-api
• bird.com/enterprise/security/soc-2
• bird.com/about