Alongside vs GiGi

Alongside is a wellness platform for K–12 schools, founded in 2022, with self-guided tools and clinician-built coaching chats. Its student service is designed for grades 4–12, while Alongside for Educators offers self-help resources for faculty and staff. Students can chat confidentially about challenges 24/7 and receive clinically informed techniques drawing on CBT, DBT, ACT and mindfulness. They can track moods, set goals, journal, watch mindfulness and social-skills videos, and complete personalized exercises covering more than 50 common issues, including friendships, self-esteem and anxiety. Schools can add universal mental health screeners and social-emotional competency assessments, and school and district dashboards report usage and student concerns. For detected suicidal ideation risk, the described response can involve a standard assessment, connection to 988, notification of school personnel and safety planning. Alongside says AI is not used for universal screening or crisis-severity assessment. It is available in a browser and through iOS and Android apps. The service is self-help, not therapy, medical advice, treatment or a crisis service; screening does not provide a diagnosis.

GiGi, also called HeyGiGi, is a web-based mental health education membership focused on practical skills for emotions, relationships, parenting and everyday challenges. Its material includes games, brain science, stories, films, tools, an AI coach and live community experiences. Each day brings a rotating game, a Daily Spark and selected articles, videos or activities. GiGi can converse, recommend content and support structured lessons and role-play; those last two modes are Premium features. Free access includes a game each day, up to three games a week, the first Learning Journey milestone, free articles and videos, and ten GiGi messages a day with an account. Premium adds a full archive, custom Toolkit lists, premium modes, a larger daily message allowance and gems each billing period. The listed plans are Free at free, Premium monthly at $9.99 a month, and Premium annual at $99.99 a year. Conversations are for adults and are not therapy, clinical care, diagnosis or crisis support. Signed-in conversations are stored until deleted and sent to an AI provider contractually barred from training on them.