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What does sideBar know about me when I chat?

Quite a lot, automatically. Every conversation includes the current date, time, and your timezone, your location and weather (if you’ve granted permission), your device, and your profile details. It also includes a snapshot of your tasks, any content you have open (a note, website, or file), and recent activity across the app. See Chat for the full breakdown of what’s included.

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Does sideBar remember previous conversations?

Not directly. Each conversation starts fresh, but sideBar builds up Memories over time: persistent notes it creates automatically as it learns about you, your preferences, and how you work. These are included in every conversation, so sideBar gets better at knowing you even without remembering specific past chats.

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What are memories and how do they work?

Memories are reference documents sideBar draws on during every conversation. sideBar creates them automatically as it learns more about you. You can also add, edit, or search them manually in Settings. You don’t need to mention them; sideBar reads relevant ones automatically.

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Can sideBar take actions, not just answer questions?

Yes. Through skills, sideBar can do things as well as say things: search the web, transcribe audio or video, send emails, create calendar events, and more. Skills run automatically during a conversation when they are relevant. You can see a full list of what is available in the Skills Store.

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How do skills work in chat?

When sideBar uses a skill during a conversation, you’ll see it displayed inline as a pill showing what it’s doing. Once complete, it shows whether it succeeded or hit an error. You don’t need to invoke skills by name; sideBar picks the right ones automatically based on what you’re asking.

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How do I start a new conversation?

Tap the compose button in the Chat view. Previous conversations are saved and you can swipe to delete ones you no longer need.

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Can sideBar rename a conversation for me?

Yes. Ask directly and sideBar can rename the current conversation or another saved conversation by title or context. For now, it only renames conversations when you ask. If your request could match more than one chat, sideBar asks a follow-up instead of guessing.

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Can sideBar notify me when a reply is ready?

Yes. Turn on Assistant reply notifications in Settings and sideBar can notify you when a reply finishes while your device is away. These alerts still follow your Apple system notification settings and Focus modes.

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Can I attach files to a chat message?

Yes. Tap the attachment button in the chat input to attach a note, file, website, or image. Attachments go through three stages (uploading, queued, then ready) before you can send.

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Can sideBar use my notes when answering questions about a file?

Yes. sideBar has access to all your content at once: notes, tasks, saved websites, and files. It can cross-reference between them during any conversation. For example, you could upload a contract and ask sideBar to check it against notes you have already written, or ask it to create tasks based on an article you saved. This cross-content awareness is one of the things that makes sideBar different from a standalone chatbot.

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Which AI model does sideBar use?

It depends on your chosen provider. sideBar uses a recent, capable model from whichever provider you have configured: a Claude model for Anthropic, a GPT model for OpenAI, and a Gemini model for Google. The specific version may update over time as newer releases become available.

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What happens if a conversation gets too long?

Every AI model has a context window, which is the amount of text it can consider at once. If a conversation grows very long, older messages may be summarised or trimmed to stay within that limit. If you notice responses becoming less accurate, start a new conversation. Your memories carry forward automatically, so sideBar does not lose the important things it has learned about you.

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Does sideBar use my conversations to train AI models?

No. sideBar does not train on your conversations. When you send a message, it is processed by your chosen AI provider under your own API account, subject to that provider’s terms. sideBar does not store or use your conversation content for model training. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

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Is there a message limit?

sideBar does not impose its own message limits. Your usage is subject to the rate limits of your chosen AI provider, which vary by plan and account tier. If you hit a rate limit, you will see an error in the chat. Switching providers or upgrading your provider plan resolves this.

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Why did sideBar get something wrong?

sideBar works from the context it has available. If something is missing or unclear, its response may be off. If a skill wasn’t enabled, a piece of content wasn’t open, or your profile is incomplete, that can affect the quality of the response. It’s also worth checking which AI provider you’re using, as capability varies.

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Can I retry a failed assistant response?

Yes. For temporary issues like provider overload or timeouts, the latest eligible failed assistant bubble shows a retry icon next to the error pill. Retry replays your latest message and removes the failed attempt from the conversation.