ShortlyAI Wrote This Article– Is It Any Good? [Full Shortly AI Review]

Shortly AI Review

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Shortly AI is a text expander that generates short, medium or long form text on command. You start a Shortly AI document with your own text (ideally a few paragraphs) and the AI will "learn" your writing style, topic and tone.

ShortlyAI Review


TL;DR Summary

A fun AI writer that can help you with writer's block by spitting out somewhat relevant sentences and paragraphs on demand. It is better than nothing but because of the unreasonably high price and availability of higher quality alternatives, I can't recommend ShortlyAI to anyone other than the full-time author who already has everything and wants a weekend AI writing toy to play with OR a high schooler who has to hit a word count 20 minutes before an essay is due and doesn't mind getting a D.


Although they are not as minimalistic, if you want better AI options, try out Frase, Surfer SEO,Chibi or Jasper.

In the world of AI tools that offer dozens of different templates and prompts., Shortly AI focuses on minimalism and only expands on short story or non-fiction pieces of content. 

There are several commands that help you guide it further and increase the quality and relevance of the AI output, but they are not nearly as robust as other tools. All plans come with unlimited text outputs. 

It is far from perfect and isn't intended as an alternative to other tools that include templates and recipes for writing certain types of content or suggestions for readability or SEO. 

It is still a valuable tool if you need help grinding out short stories with AI, blog posts or ant other type of content you create. As long as you're prepared to be patient and do a decent amount of editing.

ShortlyAI is a "nice to have'" addition to my current AI writing suite of tools, but is far less valuable to me than Surfer SEO and Jasper for my blogging needs.

Shortly AI Demo

If you're looking for a way to write articles from the comfort of your own home, I can't recommend Shortly AI enough. It's an artificial intelligence (AI) program that allows anyone to write for hours without tiring.

The software is free and works by reading a document aloud in English-accented voice while simultaneously typing what it hears on the page. The easy-to-use interface will allow you to dictate words as they occur to you or use prewritten sentences if needed.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q1. Are you saying that I can write with Shortly AI so good that it'll never know what I'm writing?

Yes. Yes, I am. I have tested this personally and come to the conclusion that yes, for the basic things, you can write without it knowing anything about your writing style or how long you've had to stare at a blank screen trying to think of something interesting to write about.

Wow. I wasn't expecting it to format like that.

Let's see what it does next...

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Q2. What can Shortly AI do for me?

Some things it can't do is you'll never want to use it for basic things like lists and bulleted points, that's just too boring for the AI to handle.

Although it's cool that it knew the next logical paragraph should be question number 2, the text it gave me was whack.

It asked itself what "can" it do and only answered with what it can't do. Also, it's not true, it seems Shortly has no issues with lists.

Moving on...

Will it do another question or will it go a different direction?

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Q3. What can't it do?

Somewhere along the line Shortly AI forgot how to write questions and answers. Bummer, but not a big deal.

I've heard that the AI will get smarter over time and eventually be able to do more than it does at this point. Maybe by then I'll be able to do better questions and answers? But for now...

Wow. It's self deprecating! That is kind of like me...

However, again, the inaccuracy is jarring. 

It forgot how to write questions and answers? What? It's literally saying that IN QUESTION AND ANSWER FORMAT!

Ok let's press command + enter one more time (that's how to get it to write for you).

SHOOT! My free trial users are gone... Ok I'll pay the $79/month to try it out more. In the name of science,... I do it all for you guys.

Ok, paid... now I have unlimited "Write for me" uses.

Let's see what's next.

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Q4. What should I write?

I don't know! Pick something that's interesting to you and go with it. Shorty can help you write articles, blog posts, press releases and more.


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And there we go! It's like a clone of me now. Seriously though, it looks like it spent some time learning how I talk and my writing style without going off into an entirely different direction with what to say next.

Ok, it's clearly learning.

This is going to get really weird BUT the dotted lines I had at first no longer really matter since it LEARNED that I was using it.

Overall, it's fun and interesting but not super helpful.

With some work, maybe someone can use this to improve their writing productivity, but I'm not seeing it being worth the work in rewriting and editing this nonsensical sentences.

How to Use ShortlyAI

Alright, let's assume you drove right past my soft suggestions to pass on ShortlyAI and try something else. I suppose I'll show you how it actually works.

One of the attractive features of Shortly is, ironically, its lack of features. 

Yes, the minimalism in this content AI assistant is refreshing. 

When using ShortlyAI, you start by choosing either an article/blog post or story. 

ShortlyAI

Next, you'll have an editing page that looks like this.

ShortlyAi Demo ---

You give your work a title, fill out an article brief or story background (briefs for articles and backgrounds for stories) then write. 

ShortlyAI is supposed to work best when you've given it some of your own text, so you want to write as you normally would for a paragraph or two. 

Once you have a bit of text typed out, you can choose the "Write for Me" option.

ShortlyAI Text Length Selection

You have 3 output lengths to choose from. A little somewhere in between or a lot. 

Once you press write for me (or use the keyboard shortcut), the text will generate almost instantly.

ShortlyAI Gif Demo

This is the core functionality of ShortlyAI. You write a little bit and then you pass the baton on to ShortlyAI and it writes some more

There are additional functions that make ShortlyAI better called slash commands. 

  • /instruct [instructions] - Use to give instructions on what the AI should write next. (e.g. /instruct [write about...]). Shortcut: ⌘ + Enter
  • /rewrite [text] - Rewrites the selected text in a unique way. (max 160 characters). Shortcut: ⌘ + P
  • /shorten [text] - Shortens the selected text to make it more concise. (max 200 characters). Shortcut: ⌘ + [
  • /expand [text] - Extends and develops the selected text. (max 120 characters). Shortcut: ⌘ + ]

These slash commands are essential since most of the generated text is nonsensical and needs tweaked to be usable.  

You can also use these slash commands to rewrite, shorten or expand on your own sentences, not just the generated text.

Quick Overview of ShortlyAI

Shortly AI Logo Transparent

overall 

2.5/5

Shortly AI Pricing

  • Free trial available (limited text outputs)
  • Unlimited plan is $79/month or $750/year. There are no other plans.

Note: There was an active discount code for ShortlyAI available online at the time of publishing. Google "ShortlyAI coupon code" and one will pop up. I used one from AI Dojo that knocked the price down 35% to $51/month (I cancelled after writing this article). 

(Weak) Alternative To...

ShortlyAI Is Not...

Don't purchase ShortlyAI if you're looking for a full replacement to other big name content AI tools like Jasper or Copysmith. These tools use templates and scripts that are based in sales and marketing principles. 

It is also not a content grader that provides suggestions on improving your writing (like ProWritingAid or Grammarly).

Finally, it does not take SEO into consideration like a tool like Surfer SEO will so if you're outsourcing blog content and think ShortlyAI is the answer, it might not be.

Pros

  • Grammar and punctuation are decent
  • Unlimited use (no credits required) on paid plans
  • It gets better as your write more
  • It's easy to start using in minutes and all commands can be mastered in under an hour. 

Cons

  • Context and purpose are usually lacking making it a bad fit for blogging and non-fiction work.
  • Relatively expensive compared to other AI tools that do more. 
  • Only works in their web application
  • I'm not convinced it won't lead to plagiarism since it seems to pull text from the web like an article spinner
  • Not trustworthy enough to use for social media posts
  • Other AI writing assistant softwares make it look even worse by comparison

Intelligence

Ease of Use

Cost

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