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This is one of the better tools in its category, see below if this tool is right for you! ⤵
Cluely has taken the world by storm via their rage-bait marketing on platforms like X, and while they have some unique and interesting features, it just doesn't feel as baked out as some of their more refined counterparts like Granola.
We believe there are better options available in this category, read below to learn what they do well, and what they could do better. ⤵
It's like Googling Mid-Sentence: Cluely gives you the answers you didn’t study for in every conversation, without you even having to ask.
Cluely is just another AI chat wrapper as many others. The main differentiation is its ability to persist across calls and actively listen, while supplying recommended questions as the meeting goes on.
To explain this in a more tangible way, in comparing Cluely vs Granola (one of the best meeting recorder tools on the market), Granola ultimately sits in the background recording the call and only presents itself when a meeting is active. It then summarizes the transcript afterward and enriches any notes taken, allowing for perfect recollection of what was said in the conversation. Cluely on the other hand makes itself an active participant in the call.
For example, say you're on a call and the topic of another software product comes up, Cluely will begin recommending information to search that will give you more context without leaving the call:
The reality here is that it's no different than using the ChatGPT desktop app, pressing "CMD + Spacebar" and just writing a question. It's just that it's more preemptive taking the entire context of the call into consideration, and most specifically what was said in that moment to suggest showing information that might be relevant.
And this is where their marketing comes up in full force. "Cheat on anything with Cluely". It's no more or less "cheating" than popping open ChatGPT on a call and asking it a question, or Google Search before that. So is it "cheating"? Not really, it just saves you from typing into the chat box while on a call.
The other functionality that tries to pass for "cheating" is that with a quick keyboard shortcut (CMD + \), you can hide/show Cluely. Again, trying to get across that you're "cheating" when using Cluely, or when you share your screen, you don't want others to see. But that feels more like gimmick than anything. And again, a highly conflicted keyboard shortcut yet again. So you wouldn't want to use Cluely when screen-sharing a Figma design or you'll just be toggling Cluely instead of Figma.
What Cluely does well is proactive prompting of what you might want to ask or research based on what is being discussed on the call, allowing you to focus on the conversation, while quickly researching additional details. Or if you're interviewing someone and totally out of questions, it can suggest you follow-up questions to ask based on what was said. And that's pretty clever, not something we've seen before.
They also do a good job at allowing you to immediately ask a question taking into consideration all of the context on your screen.
But this also leads to what is quite frustrating. They're assuming you're all-in on Cluely being the most important thing when it's running. So common keyboard shortcuts like CMD + Enter (used often in tools like Superhuman, or even Gmail to send an email), instead pop open the "ask question" chatbox in Cluely. With no conceivable way to disable or change the keyboard shortcuts. So if you're not actively in a meeting, leaving Cluely running is incredibly frustrating and gets in the way.
Like most of the common AI chat apps, they too have:
If the proactive context bit is particularly interesting to you, then it is one of the only Meeting Recorder and AI tools currently on the market that does this. If this is interesting to you, you can give it a shot for free here.
That said, we're going to continue using ChatGPT to build up the memory knowledge-base across our team, alongside Granola for those meetings when a bot can't join, and Motion for those that can.
It feels like the entire product is more of just a different opinionated UI, and one that will likely just be replaced by ChatGPT in time, especially with their recent "listening mode" that they've introduced.
So the bigger question I'd prompt here is: do we think Cluely is going to be around long enough for all of the historical data and memory from all the meetings to become a valuable asset for you and your team? I'm genuinely not sure. They're burning an immense amount on marketing (often "ragebait") which gets then in the news and viral on X from time-to-time, but what they are is more of a feature that could be made irrelevant overnight by ChatGPT, Granola, and others.
Definitely giving them credit though for some intuitive features and their ability to get eyeballs (in-fact the sole reason we're even writing about them), but as the founder Roy has said:
In the current phase of AI, “distribution is the product” and product quality becomes secondary to grabbing eyeballs.
His thesis is not on building the best product in the space, but rather getting Cluely to be in the minds of those considering what AI chat/meeting recorder they should use, because things that aren't yet possible (that they may market are), will be possible one day as the models get more powerful in time. And while he's sorta right and I wouldn't bet against them, it does feel like they're 1 feature away from being made irrelevant by ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini.
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We've tracked and verified the above companies are using this software in their team's stack.
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