Talking to your companion

You can reach your companion in six ways. It is the same companion each time, with the same knowledge of you, so use whatever is easiest at the moment.

Text messages

Text your companion's phone number, which you find in the Telephone app. Your companion answers only texts from the mobile number in your profile, so add your mobile first (see Getting started).

Phone calls

• When your companion has to look something up, you hear "One moment." If it takes long, your companion offers to text you the answer, and you can hang up. Hanging up does not stop the work.
• Your companion never reads links aloud. It texts them to you.
• Say "No, that's it" to end the call.

Your companion can also call you back. When a long request that you made on a call is finished, your companion calls you during your working hours, or between 07:00 and 22:00 soon after you last talked. At other times it texts you. Callbacks always ask for your passphrase. If you miss a callback, your companion leaves a short voicemail and texts you the details. Say "Call me back" on any channel to get a call now, or "Don't call, text me" to get texts instead.

jChat

Open jChat from its icon on your desktop. Each time you open the app, you start a new chat. The avatar in the taskbar opens a chat panel on the right that keeps its conversation.

• Click the microphone to talk instead of typing. Say "wait until I finish" if you want to dictate a longer message.
• Say "open mail" or "open browser" to open an app. Your companion can also open files and apps on your screen for you.
• A message appears when an answer arrives while jChat is hidden.
• If an answer comes back as an error, type continue.
• Your old chats are in the history list.

Email

• Ask by email. Email your companion a request. It does the work and replies in the same thread, with files attached if needed (for example a PDF or a slide deck). If it needs something from you, it asks.
• Copy it on emails. When you add your companion in To or CC, or when you write "copying my assistant" in an email, your companion can act on that thread, for example to schedule a meeting. If you do not include it, your companion only files the email into the right project.

See Mail, calendar, and meetings for more.

Slack and Telegram

In Slack, send your companion a direct message. To talk with your companion in a channel, invite it first with /invite @<companion>, and then mention it. In Telegram, send it a direct message.

To connect Slack, you need a Slack workspace where you can add apps. In most small workspaces, the person who made the workspace can add apps.

1. On your desktop, open the Safety app.
2. Under "Slack chat with <companion>", click Connect Slack. The jWeb browser opens a Slack page.
3. Sign in to Slack in jWeb, as you do in any browser. If Slack asks for a code from your authentication app, enter the code in jWeb. If the code page opens in a new tab, click that tab at the top of jWeb. The Safety app shows what your box sees and tells you when it needs you. When you are signed in, for example when Slack shows "Launching <your workspace>", your box goes on by itself. You don't need to click Open Slack.
4. Wait while your box makes your companion's Slack app. The Safety app shows each step.
5. When Slack asks you to allow the app, click Allow.
6. Wait for your companion's direct message in Slack. It usually comes within a minute. If your companion is in the middle of a task, the Safety app tells you so, and the message comes when the task ends, at most about 10 minutes later.
7. Open Slack and answer your companion. Your companion answers in the direct message itself, not in a thread, and the whole direct message is one conversation.

Here is what you see in Slack:

Sometimes the box needs your help on the way:

• If Slack asks which workspace to use, pick your workspace and click Generate. Slack asks when you are signed in to more than one workspace.
• If the Safety app shows the name of a button, click that button in jWeb. Slack changes its pages from time to time, and your box then cannot find the button by itself.
• If you are signed in and the Safety app still asks you to sign in, click I'm signed in.
• If Slack asks you to prove that you are a person, do that in jWeb.
• If Slack shows "Request to install" instead of Allow, your workspace needs an admin to approve new apps, and Connect Slack cannot finish. Use Set up by hand instead: create the app, request the install, and after your admin approves it, install the app and copy the two codes into the Safety app.
• If your companion is using the browser to wait for you on another task, the Safety app asks you to finish that task first.
• A connection stops after 30 minutes, and it also stops when your box restarts. If the Safety app says that the connection stopped, or shows Connect Slack again, click Connect Slack again.
• Your companion has no picture in Slack at first. To add one, open the link "Portrait of <companion>" in the Safety app and save the picture. Then open the link "Slack app settings" and upload the picture as the app icon.

If Connect Slack does not work, click Set up by hand in the Safety app and follow the steps there. You copy two codes from Slack into the Safety app. If your companion then answers your first Slack message with a pairing code, enter the code in the Safety app under Pairing code.

• Each channel has its own conversation, and a conversation starts fresh after 30 minutes of quiet. In Slack, type !new to start fresh at once. In Telegram, type /new.

Ask now, get the answer later

Many requests take some time, for example "Find me a flight to Chicago next Tuesday" or "Book a table for four on Friday." When you ask for something like this by text, phone, Slack, or Telegram, your companion says that it is on it, and you can keep talking or go on with your day.

• Add details or change your mind. For about a minute after you ask, more details join the same request, and "never mind" stops it before it starts.
• Cancel. Say "never mind", "cancel that", or "forget it" to stop your latest request. If more than one request is open, your companion asks which one.
• Check progress. Ask "How's that going?"
• Answer questions. If your companion needs a choice from you, it asks one question, and your answer goes to the right request.
• Follow up. Up to two days later, you can add to a request, for example "nonstop only".
• Get the result. The answer comes where you are: on your call, in the chat where you texted recently, or by a callback. If your companion cannot finish, it says so honestly, and you can reply "try again" or "cancel".

If a request needs you on a website, for example to pay, your companion texts you a link (see When your companion needs you in the browser).

Next: Mail, calendar, and meetings.