Gravity drainage processes, such as SAGD and VAPEX, aim at exploiting viscosity reduction of the target oil, either through thermal diffusion or dilution. Thermal diffusion being much faster than molecular diffusion, production rates from a steam process are expected to be higher than a solvent-alone process. Despite this apparent drawback, solvent-alone processes promise to be attractive owing to lower heat losses and energy requirements, lesser impact to the environment, possible down-hole upgrading, etc. One is naturally led to thinking of combining the benefits of SAGD with that of the solvent-alone process. The resultant process, aimed to improve the performance of SAGD by introducing hydrocarbon solvent additives to the injected steam, is the subject matter of this paper and is called the "Solvent Aided Process" (SAP). With the combined potential benefits come the combined',challenges of the two processes. Although substantial understanding has been developed around SAGD in recent years, a number of unknowns associated with solvent processes exist. This paper, drawing heavily from the authors' extensive investigation of SAP, dwells on the estimated benefits of SAP over SAGD, discussing possible mechanisms at work, optimal design of injectant (involving lighter alkane additives), and operational aspects and issues such as solvent retention, etc.