Launch
Shop with Allowance in iMessage
Describe what you need, send a photo, or forward a link. Allowance shops from the context in iMessage while every purchase still requires your approval.
Allowance is now available in iMessage.
Shopping rarely begins with a perfect search query. It begins with a screenshot, a link from a friend, your size, your budget, or a text that says, “I need something for Saturday.”
That context matters. A search box makes you translate it into keywords and filters. In a conversation, you can just explain what is going on.
Send Allowance a question, photo, or product link. Alfie, your personal shopper, can understand the context, find what works, and prepare the purchase without making you leave iMessage.
Tell it what matters
Real shopping questions contain more than a product name:
“I’m 6'2 and 180 lbs. What size should I get?”
“Going to a Knicks game tomorrow. Check MSG’s bag rules and find one under $100.”
“I need a wedding gift under $100 by Friday.”
Allowance can search with your size, destination, deadline, budget, and preferences in mind. If the first answer is not quite right, reply the way you would to a knowledgeable friend: “more polished,” “not that color,” or “show me three options.”
Your first message does not need to be perfect. Your next message can make the answer better.
Show it what words cannot
Sometimes the important context is already in your camera roll.
Send a selfie and ask which makeup works with your coloring. Send a photo of your outfit and ask for comfortable shoes that match it. Send a screenshot and ask for something similar under a different budget.
The photo is not decoration. It is part of the shopping request.
Send the link instead of starting over
If you are already looking at a product, forward the link and add the question the product page cannot answer:
“I’m usually a medium. Will this work for my beach trip?”
“Is this worth it, or can you find a better option?”
“Will this arrive before Saturday?”
The link and your intent travel together. No reopening ten tabs. No rebuilding the same search somewhere else.
Let it shop. Keep the approval.
Allowance can search, compare, add the right variant, and prepare checkout. It cannot approve its own purchase.
Before anything is bought, you see the merchant, item, and maximum total. You approve the exact request with Face ID. Only then does Allowance create a new one-time card for that purchase.
The shopping can feel magical. The payment boundary should feel boring: you approve every purchase, and the agent never receives your real card number.
Start with a text
Describe it. Show it. Send it. Approve it—all in the conversation where the shopping already started.
Allowance is also available on WhatsApp for the same kind of conversational shopping.