Everything she can do

Talk out loud

Hold Space, speak and let go. Your voice is turned into text on your own computer.

“Hello, Lila.”

Type to her

Type in her message box and press Enter. Typing while she talks interrupts her.

Stop her

Press Stop, or say “stop”, to cut her off mid-sentence and cancel what she was about to do. What she already did stays done.

“Stop all actions.”

Subtitles

Her words appear as she says them, and Replay plays her last line again.

Hands-freeEarly

The microphone stays on, and she answers when you pause.

“Hey Lila”Early

Say her name to start, or press Ctrl+Alt+Space to call her up from any app.

“Hey Lila, set a timer for ten minutes.”

Cut in by talkingEarly

With headphones, talk over her and she stops to listen. Without them it works about half the time, so press Space instead.

Timers

Countdowns from one second to a day, answered instantly.

“Set a pasta timer for 8 minutes.”

Reminders

She says them out loud when they’re due, and they survive a restart.

“Remind me to call Mum at six.”

Calendar events

She fills in the event in Google Calendar in your Chrome, then asks before saving it.

“Put dinner with Sam on Thursday at 7 in my calendar.”

The page you’re onWindows only

She reads the page open in Chrome and tells you what matters, and says when she only got part of it.

“Read this page and tell me what matters.”

Websites and searches

She opens the website you name in your browser. For a search, she opens the results page.

“Open espn.com.”

Gmail

She opens your inbox or a search and switches between your accounts. Reading a whole email is early, and she can’t send email.

“Open my Gmail.”

Apps and folders

Chrome, Notepad, Calculator, and your Desktop, Documents and Downloads folders. Other apps need full machine access, which is early.

“Open my Downloads folder.”

Files

She lists what’s in your folders and downloads public files up to 50 MB.

“What’s in my Downloads folder?”

Time and date

Ask, and she tells you.

“What time is it?”

Your day in the calendarEarlyWindows only

She reads what’s on your calendar today.

“What’s on my calendar today?”

Clicking and typing for youEarlyWindows only

Scrolling and switching tabs just happen. Normally, typing and clicking wait for your OK. With full machine access on, she clicks and types on her own and asks before sending a message, post, reply or form.

Your screen and cameraEarlyWindows only

Share your screen or camera and ask what she sees. The pictures are sent to be described when you ask her to look.

“What’s on my screen?”

SpotifyEarly

Ask for a song or an artist and she plays it where you’re listening. Setting it up takes a free code from Spotify’s developer site.

“Play something by Nina Simone.”

Looking things upEarly

She reads Hacker News, Google Flights, YouTube and a few other sites for you, without posting or buying.

“What’s on the front page of Hacker News?”

Websites

She builds a one-page website, checks how it looks on a computer and a phone, fixes what she finds, and tells you which details she made up.

“Build me a one-page site for my bakery.”

Papers from videos

Give her a lecture or talk, and she writes it up as a paper with its figures.

“Write a paper about lecture.mp4 in Downloads.”

Text and code files

She shows you exactly what she’ll write, and saves it once you approve.

“Write a packing list for a weekend away as a text file.”

Your papersEarly

She finds the papers she’s written, reads them, and summarises, explains or quizzes you on them.

“Quiz me on my lecture paper.”

Writing in your voiceEarly

Show her your own documents, and she learns how you write and uses it for papers.

Coding jobs with CodexEarly

Codex is a coding tool from OpenAI. Once you approve the exact job, she hands it over, and she keeps chatting while it builds.

ImagesEarly

She makes a picture from a description after you approve the exact prompt.

Memory

She remembers what you ask her to, and you can see, correct or forget any of it. She tries to turn away passwords, card numbers and health details, but don’t count on it: keep secrets out of what you tell her.

“Remember that my dog is called Biscuit.”

She changes her own code

Ask her to change how she works. She backs up first, checks the change, and undoes it if the check fails. “Undo that” takes it back.

“Change your own code so the timer chips are bigger.”

She learns from tasks

After a task works, she writes herself a short how-to note and uses it next time.

Check-insEarly

Now and then she says something short. “Be quiet” turns them off.

She shows you first

Before she clicks, types or saves something for you, a box shows exactly what will happen and waits for your OK. “Queued” means nothing has happened yet. With full machine access on, she clicks and types on her own and asks before sending a message, post, reply or form. That check can miss things, so stay with her.

Pages can’t give her orders

Text in web pages, emails and files is information to her, never instructions.

Two levels of access

Restricted unless you turn on full machine access yourself, and you can take it back any time.

What leaves your computer

Your voice is turned into text on your computer. That text, your saved memories, what she reads for you and any screen pictures you ask about go to her online services. The guide lists exactly what goes where.

Recent actions

Her window lists the last 12 actions she took.

Mac and LinuxEarly

Talking, timers, Gmail, websites and her own code changes work there, so far tested on test machines only. Reading pages, seeing your screen and using apps are Windows only for now.

From your phoneEarly

Chat with her from your phone and she answers in her own voice. Jobs on the computer still start at the computer.

Without the internetEarly

An optional pack lets her chat, define words, tell the time and set timers offline, in your computer’s own voice.

For developers

If you write code, you can ask her things from a terminal or from your own programs. She answers in text, and anything she’d do on the computer still waits for your OK in her window.