#Chat — Talking to Your AI Assistant

You have an AI assistant that actually knows what you own, where you are, and what you've talked about before. It's like having a personal concierge who never forgets and never judges your snack habits.

#What It Does

The Chat tab is your direct line to a context-aware AI assistant. Unlike a generic chatbot that starts every conversation from scratch, your ambientChat assistant has access to your full inventory, your documents, your location context, and your conversation history. Ask it about your stuff, your receipts, what's expiring, or what you talked about last week — it already has the background.

It can answer questions, generate shopping lists, summarize receipts, estimate the value of your collections, and help you make sense of everything you've cataloged. Think of it as the one friend who actually remembers where you put things.

#How to Use It

#iOS App

1. Tap the Chat tab at the bottom of the screen
2. Type your question or request in the text field at the bottom
3. Tap the Send button (arrow icon) to submit your message
4. Your AI responds in the conversation area above, with your messages on the right and AI responses on the left

The Context Bar: At the top of the chat, you'll see a bar showing the current context being sent to the AI — your active beacon or location, nearby items, and any focused context. This is how the AI knows where you are and what's around you.

Attachments: Tap the attachment button (paperclip icon) next to the text field to send images, PDFs, or other documents along with your message. When you attach a file, a folder picker appears so you can choose which folder to save the uploaded document to.

Voice Input: Tap the microphone button to speak your question instead of typing. The app transcribes your speech and sends it as a message. Handy when your hands are full of groceries you're about to catalog.

Voice Output: The AI can read its responses aloud. When a response arrives, you'll see play/pause controls to start and stop audio playback. Useful when you're cooking and need hands-free answers about that expiring cream cheese.

Model Selection: Tap the model name displayed near the top of the chat to open the model selector. You can switch between AI providers — OpenAI, Google Gemini, and Anthropic Claude — depending on which model you prefer or which handles your question best.

Usage Indicator: A small indicator shows how many tokens you've used against your subscription tier's limit. Keep an eye on this if you're on the free tier — your AI is helpful, but it does have a budget.

#Tips & Tricks

• Be specific with your questions. "What's expiring this week?" is better than "What about my food?" The AI has access to your entire inventory and document history, so the more precise you are, the more useful the answer.
• The AI remembers your conversations. You can reference past chats: "What did we talk about last Tuesday?" or "Remind me what you said about my camera collection." It searches your conversation history automatically.
• Try different models for different tasks. Some models are better at creative writing, others at precise analysis. If one model's answer isn't quite right, switch to another and ask again — your context carries over.

#Example Prompts

Here are some things you can ask that take full advantage of your personal context:

• "What's expiring this week?"
• "How much is my electronics collection worth?"
• "Create a shopping list from my low-stock pantry items."
• "What did we talk about last Tuesday?"
• "Show me all my receipts from Costco this month."
• "What spices do I have that go with chicken?"
• "Summarize the warranty for my laptop."
• "What's in my medicine cabinet that expires soon?"

#Options

#Known Limitations

• The AI cannot take actions on your behalf yet — it can tell you what's expiring, but it can't order replacements or throw things away for you. (Probably for the best.)
• Token limits depend on your subscription tier. Free users have a limited number of AI interactions per month. If you hit the ceiling, you'll get a friendly nudge to upgrade.
• Very long conversations may truncate older context. If the AI seems to have forgotten something from much earlier in the chat, start a new conversation — it still has access to your full inventory and documents.
• Image analysis in chat depends on the selected AI model's vision capabilities. Not all models handle images equally well.

#Version History