Frequently asked questions about Gravel

It reads your mail and calendar, notices what needs you, and texts you first: a meeting that moved, a bill that went up, a reply someone is waiting for. When you say yes, it takes care of it, like moving an appointment, sending a reply or setting a reminder, and tells you when it's done.

A proactive AI assistant notices what needs your attention and messages you first, instead of waiting for you to open it and ask. Gravel is one: it reads the email and calendars you connect and texts you when something needs you. A reactive chatbot only answers when you write to it.

Yes. Gravel is a personal AI assistant that texts you first on Telegram or WhatsApp when something in your email or calendar needs you, such as a meeting that moved or a reply someone is waiting for. iMessage is coming. Gravel keeps quiet hours and sends at most a few unprompted messages a day.

A regular chatbot waits for you to open it and type. Gravel watches the email and calendar you connect, texts you first when something needs you, and can carry out the task after you say yes. It lives in your messaging app instead of a separate app or website.

During early access, Gravel can also read photos, screenshots and PDFs you send it, keep lists and notes (lists can be shared in Telegram groups), watch prices, restocks, page changes and news, and connect to apps like Notion and Todoist. It understands voice notes. Several of these features are new and have had little testing with real accounts so far. Live voice calls are not built.

Gravel is built in Munich, Germany, by its founder, Victor Gulchenko. It is in early access.

For each possible notice, Gravel weighs how urgent it is, how much it matters and how sure it is of the facts, and it takes into account how you reacted to similar messages before. Then it applies your quiet hours, any meeting you are in and a daily limit on interruptions. Things that can wait go into the morning brief. If you ignore notices, Gravel writes less, never more.

No. It keeps quiet hours (10 PM to 7:30 AM by default, in your time zone), sends at most a few unprompted messages a day and fewer if you ignore them, and saves anything that can wait for a short morning brief. Text “pause” and it stops all background work until you say so.

Gravel carries out exactly what it told you it would do, then tells you it's done. If the errand has several steps, such as canceling one appointment, booking another and updating your calendar, one yes covers the whole plan. If a step fails, Gravel stops there and says so.

Yes. Gravel is an AI, so it can miss something or misread an email. It shows you exactly what it will do before it acts, so you can catch a wrong guess, and it starts read-only.

Yes, but only through Apple's official route for businesses, Messages for Business, which needs Apple's approval. Gravel is coming to iMessage that way and does not use unofficial relay services. Until then, Gravel works in Telegram and WhatsApp.

Yes, through WhatsApp or Telegram. Both run on Android. iMessage works only on Apple devices, and Gravel is not available there yet.

Yes. You can switch to another channel at any time with one message to Gravel. During early access, Gravel works in Telegram and WhatsApp, and iMessage is coming.

Email: Gmail and Outlook, where you sign in with Google or Microsoft, plus iCloud, GMX, WEB.DE, T-Online, freenet, mailbox.org, Posteo and other IMAP mailboxes, which connect with an app password. Calendars: Google, Outlook, iCloud and CalDAV. Gravel texts you on Telegram or WhatsApp during early access, with iMessage coming, so there's no separate Gravel app to install.

Gravel reads the mailbox and calendar you connect: sender, recipients, subject, the text a person would see, attachments when needed, and calendar events with attendees and locations. It mainly keeps the facts it finds, such as a delivery date, plus at most one sentence of summary. Raw email content is cached for no more than 30 days, longer only when an open task needs that message.

Not for the main thing it does. Without a connected mailbox, calendar or documents, Gravel has nothing to read and cannot tell you anything proactively. Connecting is your choice, and whatever you connect starts read-only.

Yes, from your own mailbox and only when you say send. Gravel drafts replies the way you write. It sends a message to another person in your name only after you approve that exact text.

Only if you want it to. For each kind of action you pick one of four levels: just do it, only when I ask, ask me first, or hand it to me. It starts read-only and asks for more access the first time it needs it. Before it acts, it tells you exactly what it will do, and one yes covers the whole plan.

For each kind of action you choose one of four levels. Just do it: Gravel acts without asking. Only when I ask: Gravel acts only when you request exactly that. Ask me first: Gravel proposes and acts after you confirm. Hand it to me: Gravel prepares everything and you do it yourself. By default, anything that reaches other people or costs money asks first, and payments, cancellations, forwarding and deletions can never be set to just do it.

Only with your approval. Gravel sends a message to a third party in your name only after you approve that exact text, and a message from your own mailbox goes out when you say send. Messages to other people can never be set to just do it.

No. Gravel never phones businesses or people on your behalf, and it always presents itself as an AI.

Text “pause”. All background work stops until you say so, including unprompted messages. Gravel still answers when you write to it directly.

Your data is encrypted with a key that belongs to your account only, and it's hosted and processed in the EU. If a person ever has to look, for example because you asked support for help, it's written to your activity log before they can.

Yes. Ask “what do you know about me?” and change or remove anything. You can export all your data with a one-time link, and when you delete your account, your key is destroyed, so nothing that's left can be read.

No. Gravel does not train AI models on your data, and neither do the providers that run its models.

In the EU. Gravel is hosted and processed on European infrastructure, mainly Scaleway and OVHcloud in France, and the AI models run there too. Two things sit outside that and are your choice: your email and calendar provider, and the messaging app you talk to Gravel on. This website and its waitlist are hosted separately.

Yes. Your data is encrypted with a key that belongs to your account only. When you delete your account, that key is destroyed, which makes every encrypted copy unreadable, including copies in backups.

Gravel is built so that an email cannot give it orders. It treats any content that does not come from you as a quote, and a fixed check that the AI does not control runs before every action. For example, Gravel refuses to send to an address that appeared only in someone else's email, unless you typed that address yourself.

One plan, €12 a month, with everything included. That is the current planned price.

Gravel is in early access. Join the waitlist with the early access form on this page and you get one email when your spot opens. During early access Gravel works in Telegram and WhatsApp, and iMessage is coming. Gravel is for people 18 or older.