7 Best szn Alternatives in 2026
szn is the iMessage agent from an ex-Siri engineer. Each customer gets an assistant with its own name, email address and phone number. It launches in October and is free during early preview.
If your to-do list is the dinner booking and the contractor call, wait for it. If your to-do list is your inbox, your calendar and your clients, you want something that works as you rather than as a separate person.
The quick answer: Carly is the best szn alternative for work. It lives inside your Gmail or Outlook, sends from your address, starts on events instead of waiting for a text, and carries each request through your calendar, CRM, tasks and files. Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Connect your inbox here.
Quick comparison
| Alternative | Best for | Reaches you by | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carly | Work email, calendar, workflows and agents | Email, text, web, ChatGPT and Claude | Free workflows; agents from $35/mo |
| Wajo Fo | Errands with human assistants for the calls | Email, text, Slack, phone, web | Free with a daily cap; Pro unpriced |
| Meta Muse | Consumer errands with a big-company agent | App, web, WhatsApp, Mac | Free with limits; $20 and $100/mo |
| Instinct | An always-on agent that drives your phone and Mac | Text | Free, invite only |
| Catch | Scheduling, email and calls for one busy person | iMessage, WhatsApp, Slack, email, phone | $99/mo, 10-day trial |
| ChatGPT Dots | An always-on agent inside ChatGPT | ChatGPT | From $100/mo (Pro) |
| OpenClaw | Self-hosted control | Whatever you wire up | Free software, your API bills |
1. Carly: the work alternative
Carly is an AI assistant and agent builder for the part of the day szn does not touch: the inbox, the calendar and the follow-up that happens in your name.
Connect your Google or Microsoft accounts and Carly reads the thread, drafts the reply in your voice and sends it from your address, so the client never sees an assistant’s email. It finds times, sends invites and moves meetings on your real calendar and everyone else’s. It updates the CRM, files the document and creates the task without a second instruction.
The bigger difference is triggers. szn waits for a text. Carly workflows start on their own when a lead form comes in, an email lands from a specific sender, a meeting ends or a Monday morning arrives, and the agents you build run those workflows for a whole team. Carly connects to thousands of apps, from HubSpot and Salesforce to Slack, Linear and Notion, through official connections rather than a browser clicking around.
You can also use Carly from where you already work: text it, email it, or add the Carly plugin to ChatGPT or the Carly connector to Claude.
- Best for: professionals and small teams who want email, calendar and operations handled in their own accounts
- Pricing: free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month
- Limitations: built around work apps rather than restaurant bookings and retail checkouts
2. Wajo Fo
Fo went public on September 28. It runs the same errand list as szn, phones the plumber and books the haircut, and when the model cannot finish a call, a human executive assistant on Wajo’s staff does. Like szn, it emails from its own address and never as you.
- Best for: errands that need a human on the phone
- Pricing: Fo Mini is free with a daily task cap; OG Fo is invite only; Pro has no published price
- Limitations: Gmail, Calendar, Drive and Slack only, and an independent benchmark failed it on a hotel booking. See Wajo Fo alternatives.
3. Meta Muse
Muse is Meta’s personal agent, launched September 8. It opens a browser inside its own cloud computer, fills in forms, sends email and pays, and it now has small-business connectors.
- Best for: consumer tasks in the US and Canada
- Pricing: free with weekly limits, $20 Power, $100 Maximum; a card is required even on free
- Limitations: US and Canada only, and your interactions train Meta’s models by default. See Meta Muse alternatives.
4. Instinct
Instinct is the invite-only agent you text, and it drives your phone and Mac to get things done. It raised at a $10 billion valuation on September 28.
- Best for: people who want maximum autonomy and can get an invite
- Pricing: free, no price announced
- Limitations: outages with no status page, silent stalls mid-task and at least one Resy ban for bot-like traffic. The record is in why people hate Instinct.
5. Catch
Catch is an admin agent for one busy person: scheduling, email and phone calls over iMessage, WhatsApp, Slack and email. It is the nearest paid match to szn’s phone calling.
- Best for: founders and consultants who want calls made on their behalf today
- Pricing: $99 a month with a 10-day trial
- Limitations: one seat, no workflow builder. We compared the field in Catch AI alternatives.
6. ChatGPT Dots
Dots are OpenAI’s always-on agents, launched at DevDay on September 29. Each dot has its own cloud computer, connects to more than 4,000 apps and runs an Auto-review check before it sends an email or changes a file.
- Best for: people already paying for ChatGPT Pro who want one place for everything
- Pricing: included from Pro 100 at $100 a month
- Limitations: the price of entry, and usage rules OpenAI will publish after the first month. See ChatGPT Dots alternatives.
7. OpenClaw
OpenClaw is the open-source agent you host yourself. It can text, call and browse if you wire it up, and you own every credential it holds.
- Best for: developers who want to own the environment
- Pricing: free software; users report $300 to $750 a month in API bills
- Limitations: you are the operator, the security team and the on-call. See Carly vs OpenClaw.
How to choose a szn alternative
- Email, calendar and follow-up in your own accounts: go with Carly
- Errands with a human on the phone: Wajo Fo
- Consumer errands from a big platform: Meta Muse
- An agent that drives your devices: Instinct
- Calls made for one person, paid, available now: Catch
- Everything inside ChatGPT: Dots
- Self-hosted control: OpenClaw
If the calls you want handed off are business calls, Carly Phone gives a company its own numbers, calling, texting and an AI receptionist, set up by the Carly team. Book a call to scope it.
FAQ
Is szn free?
szn is free during its early preview, and no plans or prices have been published. Carly runs Zapier-style workflows free, and its AI agents start at $35 a month.
Does szn send email as me?
No. Each szn assistant has its own name and email address and writes as your representative. For personal errands that is the point. For a client, a candidate or a vendor it is the wrong sender. Carly sends from your own Gmail or Outlook.
What is the best szn alternative for a small team?
Carly. Build an agent once, connect the team’s inboxes and calendars, and let workflows run on events for everyone. szn is one assistant for one person’s life.
Can Carly make phone calls like szn?
Carly Phone handles calling, texting and an AI receptionist for a business. It is set up by the Carly team, so book a call and they will scope it with you.
Ready to automate your busywork?
Carly schedules, researches, and briefs you—so you can focus on what matters.
See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
