I need the go-ahead before I act.
The human step, in your chat
Bob posts what he is about to do, to whom, and what it says. You approve, edit, deny, or let him stop asking about that one thing. The answer lands on the receipt.
- Relay.app is gone. It announced its shutdown on July 16, 2026, deleted free accounts on August 15 and paid accounts on September 14. Workflows and run history no longer exist on its side.
- Approvals are the hard part to replace. Generic automation tools can move data. Fewer let a named person check an email before it goes.
- Rills offers a free rebuild of Relay workflows. Zapier and n8n both have a human review step. Each fits a different team, below.
- Bob asks before acting, shows the full email on the card, lets you edit before you approve, and posts a receipt on every run with what it cost.
What happened to Relay.app
Relay.app was a workflow tool built around a human in the loop: a step where a person reviews or edits what an AI drafted before it goes out. Here is the timeline, reviewed October 30, 2026:
- July 16, 2026. Relay announced it was shutting down and offered an export of workflows, run history and Tables as JSON, with Tables also as CSV (coverage quoting the announcement).
- August 15, 2026, 11:59 p.m. PT. Data on free accounts was permanently deleted.
- September 14, 2026, 11:59 p.m. PT. Data on paid accounts was permanently deleted.
- August 17, 2026. TechCrunch reported that founder Jacob Bank and some of the team joined Google’s Chrome team, and that Google did not buy the product (TechCrunch).
Relay’s own site now reads: “Relay.app shut down in September 2026. All accounts, workflows, and run history have been permanently deleted.” If you saved the export, keep it; it is the clearest record of what each workflow did. If you did not, you are rebuilding from memory, old screenshots, or the emails and Slack posts your workflows used to send.
Where Relay users can go
Each option below was checked on its own site on October 30, 2026. None of them is right for everyone.
| Tool | Human step | Price to start | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rills | Approval queue on your phone, swipe to approve; learns patterns you always approve | $19/mo Starter; human approvals don’t use credits | Relay users who want their workflows rebuilt for them |
| Zapier | Human in the Loop step pauses a Zap for review, notified by email or Slack | Paid plans only (Professional, Team, Enterprise) | Teams already running on Zapier |
| n8n | Approve or deny before an AI agent uses a specific tool, from chat apps or email | Not reviewed for this page | Teams with someone technical who likes building step by step |
| HeyBob | Bob asks before acting, with the full email, Edit, and named approvers | $75/mo per workspace for 40,000 credits | Teams who want to describe the job in plain words and see what every run cost |
Rills
Rills has a switch page for Relay users with a free migration service: send an export, a screenshot or a written description, and they rebuild the workflow. Approvals arrive in a queue on your phone, and Rills can learn which kinds you always approve and clear those on its own. Pricing starts at $19 a month for 5,000 workflow credits and 200 AI credits, with Professional at $99 and Business at $349, and human approvals don’t count against credits. Best for Relay users who liked the visual workflow builder and want someone else to do the rebuilding.
Zapier
Zapier’s Human in the Loop tool pauses a Zap until a person reviews it, with the request sent by email or Slack. It is on the Professional, Team and Enterprise plans, not Free, and reviewers need a Zapier account. Best for teams already on Zapier who want to add a review step to Zaps they have.
n8n
n8n lets you require approval before an AI agent uses a specific tool. The request can go to Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Outlook, Telegram, WhatsApp and other channels, and the reviewer approves or denies. Best for teams with someone technical who is happy to build and maintain workflows node by node.
HeyBob
Bob is an AI teammate that lives in Slack and in the HeyBob app for Mac, Windows and Linux. You tell him the job in plain words, and he reads what he needs from your apps and asks before acting on anything that changes them. Best for small teams who don’t want to build workflows at all, and who want a receipt on every run that says what it cost.
How Bob handles the human step
Asks before acting
Reads run on their own. Sending an email, adding an invite or changing a record waits for a yes when a person started the job. How approvals work.
The whole email, before it goes
For a Gmail or Outlook send, the card shows who it goes to, cc and bcc, the subject and the full body. On a Slack card, Edit lets you change a detail for that one send.
Named approvers
Admins can name who may approve cards that send something outward, and Bob mentions them on the card. A card about someone’s own mailbox can only be answered by that person.
A receipt on every run
Every finished job shows the credits it used, how long it took, the tool calls and the model, plus who approved what.
Sort runs by cost
The Runs page filters by status and by what started a run, and sorts by cost, highest first. Admins can download every tool call for a date range as a CSV from the Activity page.
Spend caps per person and per workspace
Set a monthly cap for the team and a limit per person. Bob warns you near it and stops at it. Credits and caps.
The honest difference: schedules don’t stop to ask
Relay put the approval step inside the workflow. Bob works differently for jobs nobody is watching. When you set up a schedule, an inbox watch, an inbound email address or a webhook, Bob tells you which apps it may use and whether it may change things in them. Inside that list it acts, and outside it, it refuses and says so. Nobody is up at 3am to press a button, so the list is the limit. How scheduled jobs work.
You still have two ways to keep a person in the loop:
- Draft, then send from the thread. Leave sending off the job’s list. It posts the draft in your channel, and whoever is on point replies “send it”. Because a person started that send, the card appears with the full email and Edit. This is the closest match to a Relay approval step, and it never times out on you.
- Always ask. An admin can set an action to always ask on the Policies page, and a schedule then asks too. If nobody answers, Bob nudges halfway, the card times out, and he carries on without that step.
The migration guide walks through both, one Relay workflow at a time. For the thinking behind approval rules, see our approval workflow playbook.
What it costs
Flex plans start at $75 a month per workspace for 40,000 credits, with no per-seat fees. Unused credits roll over one month, and $40 top-up packs of 20,000 credits never expire. If you bring your own model key, BYOK is $349 a month with 1,000,000 credits included. You start with $100 of work on us. See pricing, or compare Bob with other tools.
Questions Relay users ask
Is Relay.app still running?
No. Relay.app announced its shutdown on July 16, 2026. Data on free accounts was permanently deleted on August 15, 2026, and data on paid accounts on September 14, 2026. Its site now says all accounts, workflows and run history have been permanently deleted.
Can I import my Relay.app workflows into HeyBob?
There is no import button. You describe each workflow to Bob in plain words and he sets it up. If you kept the JSON export Relay offered before the shutdown, attach it in the conversation and ask Bob to read each step back to you before you set anything up.
Does HeyBob ask before it sends an email?
Yes, when a person started the job. Bob reads on his own and asks before acting on anything that changes an app, such as sending an email. For a Gmail or Outlook send, the approval card shows who it goes to, the subject and the full body, and on a Slack card you can edit it before you approve.
Do scheduled jobs in HeyBob stop for approval?
Not by default. When you set up a schedule, Bob says which apps it may use and whether it may change things in them, and it stays inside that list. If an admin set an action to always ask, the schedule still asks, but the card can time out if nobody answers. For work that must wait for a person, have the schedule post a draft and send it from the thread.
Can I sort HeyBob runs by cost?
Yes. The Runs page in the HeyBob console filters by status and by what started the run, and sorts by cost, highest first. Admins can also download every tool call for a date range as a CSV from the Activity page.
How much does HeyBob cost?
Flex plans start at $75 a month per workspace for 40,000 credits, with no per-seat fees. Unused credits roll over one month, and $40 top-up packs of 20,000 credits never expire. You start with $100 of work on us.
Relay.app, Rills, Zapier and n8n are trademarks of their respective owners. HeyBob and Bob are products of Tiny Cloud Ventures, which is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any of them. Details were reviewed October 30, 2026 against each company’s public site and the coverage linked above.