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Apple Messages for Business

Apple Messages for Business (AMB) lets customers start a conversation with your business from Apple surfaces such as Apple Maps, Spotlight, Safari, and Siri. The conversation opens in the Messages app, where your team can reply from the unified inbox. AMB is a business channel, not person-to-person iMessage. Customers message an approved business identity; they do not use Orbit to send or receive private iMessages. In Orbit, an AMB agent is the sender identity that connects an Apple Business Register business_id to your tenant. The agent’s approval status and capabilities determine which interactions you can use.

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Capability matrix

Apple-specific payloads are not interchangeable with WhatsApp, RCS, or web-chat payloads. Keep each channel’s template and capability checks separate.

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Onboarding at a glance

Before you create an agent, complete Apple’s approval process and collect the values Orbit needs:
  1. Apply for approval in Apple Business Register.
  2. Obtain the approved business’s business_id.
  3. Confirm the Messaging Service Provider (MSP) arrangement and msp_id, if you use one.
  4. Obtain the business HMAC secret key. Orbit encrypts the key at rest and only exposes whether a secret is stored.
  5. Create the agent in Messages → Apple or with POST /api/v1/channels/amb/agents.
  6. Wait for the agent status to become approved before routing live conversations.
Follow Apple Messages for Business onboarding for the dashboard wizard, request bodies, status polling, and secret rotation. Agent records and credentials are tenant-scoped; set only the capabilities and business identities your tenant owns.

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Sending and receiving

Use the unified send surface for an approved agent. A basic AMB message identifies the channel and the Apple business in metadata:
For interactive messages, add the appropriate serialized Apple payload to metadata and ensure the agent capability is enabled. Orbit exposes the AMB agent lifecycle at /api/v1/channels/amb/agents; Apple delivers inbound events to the public /api/v1/channels/amb/webhook, where the registered agent secret authenticates the event. Inbound messages and interaction results are persisted as AMB conversations and appear in the unified inbox. Use the Inbox setup guide to configure routing, assignments, macros, and SLAs for the apple_messages channel.

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Commerce checkout

Use an AMB list picker or form to collect a product or appointment choice, then merge the result into the shared commerce cart. The AMB checkout resolver can return a native Apple Pay request when the agent has applePay enabled and the merchant identifier is configured. Otherwise, send the hosted checkout link in the conversation. Reconcile the payment server-side before marking the order paid. Follow AMB commerce: interactive flows and Apple Pay checkout for the payloads, cart merge, native-versus-hosted response, token reconciliation, and retry flow.

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Limitations

  • Apple approval is required. Orbit cannot approve a business or bypass Apple’s Business Register review. An agent remains pending until it is cleared for live traffic.
  • Availability follows Apple. AMB entry points, Apple Pay eligibility, and supported features vary by Apple policy, merchant setup, device, and geography. Confirm availability for the markets and capabilities you plan to serve.
  • Conversations are customer-initiated. Start with an Apple entry point or an existing customer thread; do not treat AMB as an unrestricted outbound broadcast channel.
  • Capabilities are agent-specific. Rich interactions and Apple Pay require the corresponding capability and, for native payment, a merchant identifier. Unsupported or malformed Apple payloads are rejected rather than rendered by another channel.
  • A valid secret is required for routing. Rotating or deleting an agent changes webhook verification or routing for that Apple business.