Posted in Getting Started · 7 min read
What is Reply Pilots, and what can you do in the first 15 minutes?
What it is, who it is for, and the exact 15-minute path from installing the extension to a first reply you would actually send. Includes the setup checklist.
Farhad
TL;DR
Reply Pilots is a Chrome extension plus a dashboard that drafts comments, DMs and posts inside Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Reddit and Gmail, grounded in your business and written in your voice — and it never posts, sends or messages on your behalf. The first fifteen minutes are install the extension, sign in once so it authorises itself, fill in your business context and voice, and draft a reply on a real post. Everything after that is refinement, and the two settings worth getting right on day one are what you actually sell and the words you never use.
Key takeaways
- Reply Pilots drafts into the composer you are already looking at. You read it, edit it and send it.
- It never posts, sends, likes, follows or messages for you. There is no publishing integration at all.
- The extension holds no AI key and authorises itself from your web session — nothing to copy or paste.
- Fifteen minutes gets you to a first usable draft. Two fields do most of the work.
- A thin business context is the single most common reason a first draft disappoints.
You are reading a post you could genuinely answer well. You know the answer. What you do not have is the four minutes to switch tabs, explain the context to a chat window, paste the result back, rewrite the half of it that sounds nothing like you, and send it. So you scroll past, and someone less qualified answers instead.
Reply Pilots exists for that gap. It is not a content generator and it is not a scheduler — it is a drafting assistant that lives in the box you are already typing into.
What is Reply Pilots?
A Chrome extension plus a dashboard.
The extension puts a button next to the composer on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Reddit and Gmail. Press it, and it reads the post and the replies that are on your screen, then drafts a response in the tone you pick. You edit it inline and insert it with one click.
The dashboard at app.reply-pilots.com is where everything that shapes those drafts lives: what your business does, how you write, which platforms are switched on, your saved prompts, your history, and your usage.
The division matters because it is also the security model. No AI provider key is ever stored in the extension — the AI request is made by the server, not by your browser.
Reply Pilots drafts. You send. There is no publishing integration, no scheduler and no auto-reply, and that is a design decision rather than a missing feature.
Who is it for, and what problems does it solve?
It fits people whose work generates a constant, unglamorous stream of replies.
- Local service businesses answering "does anyone know a good…" posts in neighbourhood groups
- Agencies running several client accounts, each needing a different voice
- Founders and creators who need to be visible in comments without losing a morning to it
- Community and support teams working through group threads, DMs and email replies
The four problems it actually addresses:
| The problem | What it looks like | What Reply Pilots does |
|---|---|---|
| The blank box | You know the answer; the first sentence still takes two minutes | Gives you a draft to react to instead of a page to start |
| Context reconstruction | A forty-comment thread you have to re-read before replying | Reads the post and visible replies, so the draft answers the gap |
| Voice drift at volume | Reply ten is blunter and worse than reply one | The same configured voice on every draft, all day |
| Tab-switching | Copy to a chat window, paste back, rewrite half of it | The draft appears in the composer you are already in |
It is a poor fit if you want unattended automation. There is no bulk send and no scheduled posting, and that is not on the roadmap — those are the behaviours platforms restrict, and the whole product is drawn on the other side of that line.
What do you need before you start?
Three things, none of which take long.
- A Chromium browser. Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc or Opera.
- An account at app.reply-pilots.com.
- Five sentences about your business that you have not written yet — what you sell, who buys it, and what you turn down. This is the one that people skip, and it is the one that decides whether your first draft is any good.
Write the third one before you install anything. It is easier to think about away from a settings form.
What does the 15-minute path look like?
| Minutes | Step | What you end up with |
|---|---|---|
| 0–3 | Install the extension and sign in once at app.reply-pilots.com | The popup shows Connected |
| 3–9 | Fill in business context on /business — what you sell, who buys, what you turn down | Drafts that are about your business rather than your category |
| 9–12 | Set your voice — formality, sentence length, and the words you never use | Drafts that sound like you rather than like a brochure |
| 12–15 | Open a real post, press the button, read the draft, edit one sentence, insert | A reply you would actually send |
Minutes 0–3 — install and connect. Add the extension from the Chrome Web Store, then open app.reply-pilots.com and sign in. The extension exchanges that web session for its own token automatically; there is nothing to copy. The popup flips to Connected when it has worked.
Minutes 3–9 — business context. On /business, describe the business concretely. Not "we provide
high-quality service to our valued customers" — that is a mood, and a draft written from a mood is
generic. Name the services, name the customer, and name what you turn away. What you decline defines
you more sharply than what you accept.
Minutes 9–12 — voice. Formality, sentence length, first person singular or plural, and a list of ten words you would never type. That last list does more work than every other tone setting combined, because a prohibition is checkable where an adjective is not. The full voice guide covers all six fields, plus the feature that derives the description from your own posts.
Minutes 12–15 — the first real draft. Do not test on an easy message. Find a post you genuinely could answer, press the button, and read what comes back. Edit one sentence — usually to add the specific detail only you would know — and insert it.
That last edit is not a failure of the tool. It is the workflow. The draft handles the structure; you add the thing that makes it worth reading.
What is the setup checklist?
Run this before you rely on it for real replies.
- Extension installed and the popup says Connected
- Business context filled in, including what you turn down
- Voice set — formality, sentence length, first person
- Ten words you never use, written down
- The platforms you actually use switched on, the rest off
- One persona per brand, if you run more than one
- A first draft generated on a real post and read end to end
- Rules written for price and timing — see the guardrails guide
- The saying-no test run — see below
The saying-no test is the fastest way to know whether your setup is real. Take a message you had to decline, generate a reply, and read it. A draft built on a thin context will find a way to say yes to almost anything, because agreeableness is the safe default. If your "no" comes back as a soft maybe, go back to business context and write down what you turn away.
What are the common day-one mistakes?
Testing before configuring. The most common one. A first draft from an empty context is a generic draft, people conclude the product is generic, and they never go back and fill the form in.
Describing the business like an About page. Written to impress rather than to be specific. Write it as though briefing a competent new employee on their first morning.
One persona for several brands. It produces drafts that sound like the average of all of them, which is nobody. One persona per voice.
Leaving every platform switched on. The button appears in places you never post, which makes it feel intrusive rather than useful. Switch on what you use.
Sending the first draft unread. Reading each draft is the design, not a beginner's precaution. It is also where the specific detail gets added — see replying to comments in the page for what that edit usually is.
Expecting it to publish for you. It does not, and it will not. If what you want is a place to line posts up for yourself, that is the content planner — which also never publishes.
What are the limits worth knowing on day one?
Being blunt about these now saves a support ticket later.
- It knows what you wrote down. Not your diary, not your stock levels, not the phone call you had on Tuesday. Any reply whose correctness depends on those is a reply you should write yourself.
- It reads only what is on your screen, at the moment you ask. It does not scroll for you, load hidden replies or open other pages.
- It performs no action on any platform. No posting, sending, liking, following or connecting.
- Chromium only. No Firefox, no Safari, no iOS.
- Every draft needs reading. At ten replies a day, even a small error rate becomes a daily event, and the review step is what stands between the two.
Your next step
Do the three-minute version right now: write five sentences about what you sell, who buys it, and what you turn down. Do it in a notes app, before you open any settings form.
That text is the input to everything else in this guide, and it is the difference between a product you use daily and one you tried once.
See the documentation for the exact, step-by-step setup instructions.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an account, or does the extension work on its own?
You need an account. The extension is a client for your Reply Pilots account — it holds no AI keys and makes no AI calls itself, so it cannot work signed out. Sign in once at app.reply-pilots.com and the extension's popup switches to Connected.
Which browsers does it work in?
Chromium-based browsers — Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc and Opera among them — because it is a Chrome MV3 extension. Firefox and Safari are not supported, and there is no iOS app.
Do I need an API key?
No. The extension is built for your account and authorises itself against your web session, so there is nothing to copy, paste or configure. If you would rather run drafts on your own provider account, you can add your own key later in Settings, but nothing requires it.
Will it post anything for me?
No, and it cannot. There is no publishing integration, no scheduler that fires on your behalf and no auto-reply. Every draft is inserted into the composer for you to read, edit and send yourself.
How long until the drafts are actually good?
Usable in about fifteen minutes, and noticeably better after you have edited ten or so and fed the corrections back into your voice settings. The usual pattern is a quick first pass followed by two or three small edits over the first week.
What if the first draft is generic?
That is almost always a thin business context rather than a wrong tone setting. If your description would also be true of four competitors, the draft has nothing to work with except the category. Add what you actually sell, who actually buys it, and what you turn down.
Can I try it without setting anything up?
You can, and the draft will be generic — which tends to give people the wrong impression of the product. Ten minutes of setup before your first real draft is the difference between something you send and something you rewrite.
Does it cost credits to experiment?
Yes, each generation spends credits from your monthly allowance, though a short reply is roughly one credit. If you have added your own AI provider key, runs on that key spend no credits at all.
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