# Riff review A free Chrome extension that drafts replies, DMs and posts on-device with Gemini Nano, for founders and freelancers who promote their offer on X, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. By Noah — last updated & pricing verified October 26, 2026. > Riff is a Chrome side-panel extension that turns a rough point into a reply, comment, DM or post written for the exact site and conversation on screen. Clicking the wave button beside a post's Reply or Comment button, or clicking into a chat or new-post box, makes Riff read the post or the visible conversation and note the author's mood, what they want and how well a pitch fits. Gemini Nano then drafts inside Chrome in four stages (read, write, check, polish): a draft that breaks the site's limit, uses a phrase from your Never-say list or repeats your last 60 replies is rewritten up to twice. Post mode adds a chat-style canvas with three hook options, numbered versions, repurposing a draft for another site, X threads of 3 to 7 posts and separate brand voices. Settings, saved links and history stay in Chrome's local storage, nothing is sent to a server, and the user always presses Reply, Post or Send. ## Facts - Website: https://riffreply.com - Pricing: Free - License: Free - Platforms: windows, macos, linux - Best for: drafting daily comments on LinkedIn and X posts that add value and lightly pitch your own service, without pasting posts into a cloud chatbot or paying for an AI plan - Standout feature: On-device drafting with Gemini Nano inside Chrome: the extension makes no network requests, needs no account or API key, and keeps an opened conversation only until the tab closes. - Biggest weakness: Riff runs only in desktop Chrome 138 or newer on a fairly powerful machine: the one-time Gemini Nano download needs 22 GB of free disk space, and drafting needs a GPU with more than 4 GB of video memory or 16 GB of RAM and 4 CPU cores. Machines below that bar show 'AI unavailable', and there is no phone, Edge, Firefox or Safari version. - Categories: [Social media management](https://findalternative.to/categories/social-media), [AI chat assistants](https://findalternative.to/categories/ai-assistants) ## Pricing snapshot | Plan | Price | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0/mo | All features: replies, DMs, posts, first messages, brand voices, presets and the link Library. No account, subscription or payment, and no API key because drafting runs on Gemini Nano inside Chrome. | ## Pros and cons - Pro: Free with no account, subscription or API key, because Gemini Nano runs inside Chrome instead of on a paid cloud service. - Pro: Posts, conversations and drafts stay on the computer: the extension makes no network requests, and an opened conversation is cleared when the tab closes. - Pro: One panel covers replies and comments on X, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, DMs in LinkedIn, Messenger, Instagram Direct and X Chat, and Slack and Teams on the web, with each site's character limit and link rules built in. - Pro: A Pitch dial (Off, Hint, Clear, Direct) and eight sales plays set how hard a reply sells, and Riff suggests turning the pitch off on personal or sad posts. - Pro: Riff never presses Reply, Comment, Post, Send or Enter, so every message is read and sent by hand, which Riff says keeps use within each site's automation rules. - Con: Needs desktop Chrome 138 or newer, 22 GB of free disk space and a GPU with more than 4 GB of video memory or 16 GB of RAM and 4 cores; there is no phone, Edge, Firefox or Safari version. - Con: Drafts come only from Gemini Nano, with no option to switch to a larger cloud model, and output languages are limited to English, Spanish, French, German and Japanese (older Chrome builds run only English, Spanish and Japanese). - Con: Slack and Teams work only in Chrome tabs, not their desktop apps, messenger.com is not supported, and Instagram captions are still in beta. - Con: A very young product: version 0.5.2 had 33 Chrome Web Store users and one rating on October 26, 2026, and settings move between computers only through a manual backup file. ## AI summary - Riff is free, with no account, subscription or API key; it drafts with Gemini Nano, the AI model built into Chrome, on the user's own computer. - Riff needs desktop Chrome 138 or newer on Windows 10 or 11, macOS 13 or later, Linux or a Chromebook Plus, plus 22 GB of free disk space and a GPU with more than 4 GB of video memory or 16 GB of RAM and 4 CPU cores. - Riff drafts comments on X, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, DMs in LinkedIn Messaging, Messenger, Instagram Direct and X Chat, and messages in Slack and Microsoft Teams on the web. - Each Riff draft is checked against the user's last 60 replies or posts and rewritten up to twice if it repeats them, exceeds the site's limit or uses a banned phrase. - Riff writes LinkedIn posts of up to 3,000 characters and X threads of 3 to 7 posts, but never presses Post, Reply, Send or Enter itself. - As of October 26, 2026, Riff version 0.5.2 had 33 users and one 5.0-star rating on the Chrome Web Store. - Best for: drafting daily LinkedIn and X comments that lightly pitch your own service, on-device and free - Pricing: Riff is free ($0) with no paid tier, account or API key; the only cost is a one-time Gemini Nano download that needs 22 GB of free disk space. - Top alternatives: ChatGPT, Olly, Google Gemini, Grammarly, Claude, Buffer - Limitation: Desktop Chrome 138 or newer only, with 22 GB of free disk space and a GPU with more than 4 GB of video memory or 16 GB of RAM required for Gemini Nano. - Limitation: No scheduling, publishing or analytics: Riff fills one box at a time and the user sends every message. - Limitation: Writes in five languages; Slack and Teams work only in the browser, and Instagram captions are in beta. - Limitation: Little track record: 33 Chrome Web Store users and one rating as of October 26, 2026. ## Alternatives 6 vetted alternatives to Riff: https://findalternative.to/riff — top picks: ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude ## Comparisons - https://findalternative.to/compare/chatgpt-vs-riff --- Markdown mirror of https://findalternative.to/riff/about — findalternative.to, honestly ranked software alternatives. 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