Arlo vs April — which AI assistant fits your work?

You text both April and Arlo like a person, but they're built for different jobs. April, from goapril.ai, is a lightweight AI executive assistant that lives entirely in your text messages — no app to install, no dashboard to learn. Arlo is an AI colleague for work that runs across the channels your team already uses, takes real actions through governed tool access, and logs everything it does.

Want a simple personal EA you can text and forget about? April is a clean, honest choice. Want an assistant your whole team can lean on inside real workflows, that checks with you when it matters and keeps a full audit trail? That's the gap Arlo fills. Both are good products; they're just aimed at different people.

What April is (as of August 2026)

As of August 2026, April positions itself as an AI executive assistant that lives in the one app everyone already has open: Messages. From its public materials:

• It works entirely over text messages, with nothing to install and no separate app to open.
• It's aimed at individuals who want a simple, minimalist personal assistant.
• Its pitch is ease: you text it the way you'd text a human EA, and it handles the back-and-forth.
• Public pricing lists a free start (around the first 50 messages) and then a flat monthly plan (about $25/month) for unlimited use.

Public detail on April is limited, so treat the specifics above as its stated positioning rather than an exhaustive feature list. What April clearly does well is keep things dead simple: one thread, one person, no setup. If that's what you want, check April's own site for the current state before you decide.

What Arlo is

Arlo is one AI colleague for the whole workspace, and there's no separate chat app to live in. It works inside the tools a team already uses: iMessage and SMS, Slack, WhatsApp, and live phone calls. It remembers context across conversations and sends a single morning briefing of what changed overnight.

It connects to Slack, Gmail, Notion, Linear, GitHub, and 3,000+ other tools. For software with no API, it logs in once through a secure browser session and clicks, reads, and fills out forms the way a person would. So the work isn't limited to what a chat integration exposes.

Governance is the part that sets it apart. A clear request runs, and Arlo tells you what it did. It asks first when it matters: when a request is unclear, before money moves, or before something that can't be undone. Each tool call, source, and approval lands in a full audit trail you can go back and read. That's a different posture than a personal texting assistant, and it's deliberate.

Feature comparison

Capability	April (personal)	Arlo (work / teams)
Primary audience	Individual consumers	Teams and businesses
Where you reach it	Text messages only	iMessage and SMS, Slack, WhatsApp
Live phone calls	Not a stated focus	Yes — it places calls for you, and you can call it
Persistent memory	Not a stated focus	Yes, plus a morning briefing of changes
Integrations	Not a stated focus	3,000+ tools
No-API tool access	Not a stated focus	Yes — secure browser sessions
Approval before sending	Not a stated focus	Does clear asks, asks first on money or anything unclear
Audit trail	Not a stated focus	Full trace of calls, sources, approvals
Admin policy / roles / SSO	Not a stated focus	Yes, on request
Pricing	~50 messages free, then ~$25/mo (as of 2026)	Free to start ($20 of usage a month) · Plus $20/mo · Max $100/mo

This table reflects each product's stated positioning as of August 2026. "Not a stated focus" for April means its public materials emphasize a simple personal EA over text, not that a capability is impossible.

Which one is right for you

Pick April for yourself. One clean text thread that handles your personal errands, scheduling, and reminders, with nothing to configure and no controls to babysit. If simplicity over a single channel is the whole point, that's exactly what April is for.

Pick Arlo when the assistant acts for a team and the work carries stakes. Its reach across Slack, WhatsApp, and the phone, plus its governance model, are built for shared, accountable work. When an assistant sends an email to a client, updates a CRM, or makes a call on your behalf, you want it to check with you when it matters and keep a record, and that's how Arlo works.

On pricing, both are straightforward but shaped differently. April is a flat personal subscription as of August 2026. Arlo is free to start with $20 of usage a month, then Plus at $20 a month for $100 of usage or Max at $100 a month for $500 of usage, and there are no top-ups to buy; admin policy, roles, SSO, and audit export are available on request for orgs that need them.

Governance is the real difference

A personal assistant optimizes for one user's convenience. An AI colleague has to hold up in front of teammates, customers, and auditors, and that changes what the product has to do. Arlo does what you clearly ask and checks with you where it matters: before money moves, when a request is unclear, or when something can't be undone. The audit trace records what happened and why. That's why you can point Arlo at real, shared workflows and not just personal to-dos — and it's the honest line between the two products.

Still weighing options? See our head-to-head Arlo vs Poke, our roundup of the best AI executive assistants, or the AI executive assistant explainer.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Arlo and April? April is a minimalist AI executive assistant that lives entirely in text messages, built for one person's personal to-dos. Arlo is a governed AI colleague across iMessage and SMS, Slack, WhatsApp, and live phone calls. It asks first on money or anything unclear and keeps a full audit trail. April fits an individual; Arlo fits a team.

Is April cheaper than Arlo? For light personal use, often yes. As of August 2026 April starts with about 50 free messages and no card, then a flat monthly subscription — around $25/month when we last checked, though April doesn't publish the rate prominently, so confirm on its own pricing page. Arlo is free to start with $20 of usage a month, and that includes calls and bookings, not only chat. Plus is $20 a month for $100 of usage, and Max is $100 a month for $500 of usage.

Can April work in Slack? Not as a stated focus — April's public materials describe a single text-message channel with no app to install, which is the point of the product. Arlo works in Slack, WhatsApp, iMessage and SMS, and on live phone calls, with one memory across all of them.

Can April make phone calls? Making and taking calls is not a stated focus of April's public materials. Arlo places live phone calls and keeps a transcript of each one.

Should I choose April or Arlo? Choose April if the assistant serves exactly one person over one channel and you want nothing to configure. Choose Arlo when the assistant acts for a team and the work carries stakes — when it emails a client, updates a CRM, or spends money, you want it to check with you when it matters and keep a record.

Is April's feature list really that limited? No — "not a stated focus" in the table above means April's public materials emphasize a simple personal EA over text, not that a capability is impossible. Public detail on April is limited, so check April's own site for the current state before you decide.

Try Arlo

If you need an AI colleague that works inside your team's tools that asks first when it matters and keeps a full audit trail, try Arlo.