How do I switch the Assistant on?

Open Settings → Assistant and tasks and switch on Show the Assistant. The Assistant is off on a new install, and while it is off it has no entry anywhere in the app. Running on this computer needs 16 GB of memory and a one-time download of its model.

The Assistant is a Beta: it works, and we are still improving it. Tell us what you notice.

#Switch it on

1. Open Settings → Assistant and tasks. The first card is called Assistant, and its first row is Show the Assistant.
2. Switch it on. With the engine that runs on this computer, which is the default, a dialog called Before you turn on the Assistant says the Assistant may feel slow and asks whether to turn it on. Press Turn it on. Not now leaves it off. A cloud engine skips the dialog.
3. Look at the row Model for the Assistant on this computer. If it says “Not downloaded yet.”, press Download. The model is about 2.7 GB, and it downloads once.

#The first open

The first time you open Assistant in the sidebar, a short card asks three things, one at a time. The first two steps have Skip this step.

1. A name (“What should I be called?”, up to 24 characters) and a picture: Lotus, Ember, or your own PNG, JPEG or WebP.
2. About you: “What fills most of your days?” and an optional line, “How do you like to work?”. The Assistant uses them to write in a way that suits you. It never asks for your age, gender, family, health, money or who you work for.
3. A first hello that is the same for everyone, with your name filled in. Press Start chatting.

#Where it appears once it is on

• The sidebar, in the Do group, as Assistant with a small Beta label.
• The floating icon: hover it and the Ask the Assistant button is on the strip.
• The menu bar icon’s menu, on a Mac, and the notification area’s menu on Windows: the line Ask the Assistant..., second in the list under Open Dictate Safe.
• The AI Models page, which gains an Assistant section for its model.

Switch the same row off and the sidebar entry, the icon’s button and the menu line go away. The Assistant section on AI Models stays while its model is downloaded. The floating icon’s button is explained in asking from the floating icon.

#If this computer has less than 16 GB

The Engine row shows how much memory the Assistant needs and how much this computer has. With less than 16 GB, the Assistant page says This computer is short of memory and gives the figures. Dictation and cleanup, Tasks, reminders and goals, and your History, notes and snippets all keep working. You can run the Assistant on a cloud engine instead, with your own key. See which cloud engines it can use.