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What Ira learns about you

Ira can learn your routine: when you usually leave the office, how long the drive home takes, whether you like short answers. It is off until you switch it on, it notices only what you choose, and it remembers nothing until you say yes.

Everything here is in the Ira app: menu, What Ira knows about you.

Switch it on

  1. Open What Ira knows about you.
  2. Tick Let Ira learn my routine, and choose where from:
    • My phone, when an iPhone Shortcut says you reached or left a place you named (steps below);
    • What I tell Ira about where you are going ("office se nikal raha hoon");
    • My thumbs on Ira's answers.
  3. Choose how long Ira keeps what it noticed (30 to 365 days; 90 by default). Older notes are deleted every day.
  4. Type your PIN and Save. Switching anything on needs your PIN; switching it off never does.

A Mac or a Windows PC is switched on separately, under Your devices: its routine skill. With it on, the computer tells Ira when it locks, unlocks, sleeps and wakes, and which network it is on, as a code only (see Ira for Mac and Ira for Windows).

Name your places

With a computer's routine on, the networks it joins appear under Places as codes, such as 3f9a2c1b. Ira never learns a network's name or where it is. Give the ones you care about a name, such as Office or Home; from then on, the computer on that network counts as being at that place. An iPhone Shortcut uses the same names.

What Ira looks for, and when it asks

Every night, after 3 a.m. in your time zone (or when you tap Look for patterns now), Ira looks at what it noticed and finds:

  • routine times: when you reach or leave a place, start or stop on your computer, on weekdays and at weekends apart;
  • how long a trip takes, from leaving one place to reaching another;
  • how you like answers: in which language, and short or long, from your thumbs.

Each is written as a sentence from the numbers it saw, for example:

You leave Office at about 18:34 on weekdays (most days between 18:25 and 18:45; seen on 9 of the last 15 weekdays).

The time is the middle one of the days it saw; "most days between" is the middle half of them. Every number in the sentence comes from what Ira noticed, and a sentence with any other number is refused.

Ira asks only when the evidence is strong: at least 8 days, over at least two weeks, with the middle half within 45 minutes. Until then the pattern shows as still checking.

Then it asks you, once, in the chat (and in Telegram, if you paired a chat): "Shall I remember this?"

  • Yes, remember: it is remembered. Ira uses it when it helps ("You usually leave at 18:34; it's 18:20").
  • No: it is never asked again.
  • Reword it in your own words, as long as its numbers stay the ones Ira saw.
  • Forget it: the sentence and everything Ira noticed for it are deleted.

A remembered routine fades when it is not seen for three weeks, and Ira asks again when it changes (your last five days all fall outside its middle half).

At most 8 remembered sentences, 600 characters in all, go into what Ira reads before answering you.

People in your life

Tell Ira who someone is, and it remembers: "Avery Stone mera CA hai", or "remember that Priya runs the Pune office". It says what it saved, and uses it when it helps ("call my CA" finds Avery Stone; with two Averys in your contacts, it asks which one). "Forget Avery" forgets him. People you told Ira about show under What Ira knows, where Forget it works too.

This needs no switch: telling Ira to remember is the yes. At most 20 people, 1,200 characters in all, go into what Ira reads before answering.

Reminders and nudges

Ask in your own words:

  • "kal subah 9 baje yaad dilana, bank ko call karna"
  • "remind me to water the plants when I reach Office"
  • "जब मैं ऑफिस से निकलूँ तो याद दिलाना कि दूध लेना है"

A reminder at a place needs a place you named. Reminders in the panel lists them; cancel any.

Nudges (off by default): 15 minutes before a routine you approved, on a day it has not happened yet, Ira says so. "18:20: you usually leave Office at about 18:34."

Your time zone

Routines and reminders use your own time zone. The Ira app sets it from your browser the first time you open it; change it with PATCH /v1/me/settings and {"timezone": "Asia/Kolkata"}.

An iPhone Shortcut for places

The iPhone tells Ira when you reach or leave a place. It uses a key that can do nothing else: not read your conversations, not ask Ira anything.

  1. In What Ira knows about you, under Your iPhone, type your PIN and tap Make a key for Shortcuts. Copy the key and the address. They are shown once.
  2. On the iPhone, open Shortcuts, then Automation, then + (New Automation).
  3. Choose Arrive, pick the place (your office, say), and choose Run Immediately. Tap Next, then New Blank Automation.
  4. Add the action Get Contents of URL. Paste the address. Tap the arrow to show more:
    • Method: POST;
    • Headers: add Authorization with the value Bearer followed by the key;
    • Request Body: JSON, with two text fields: event = arrive and place = the name you use in Ira, such as Office.
  5. Tap Done. Make a second automation with Leave and event = leave.

Labels differ a little between iOS versions. The place name in the body is all Ira receives: never coordinates, never an address. If learning or the phone source is off, the iPhone's message is accepted and dropped.

To stop it, delete the automations, or tap Revoke under Your iPhone.

What is kept, and for how long

What For how long
What Ira noticed: the kind (left, reached, locked...), the time, the place name you gave, the device as long as you chose: 30 to 365 days
Remembered sentences, with their numbers until you forget them or delete your data
Reminders until they go off or you cancel them
Your thumbs: up or down, the answer's language and length, and your note as long as you chose, like everything noticed

Nobody else sees any of it: not an owner, not an admin. Your data in the menu exports all of it, and Delete my data deletes it with the rest of your data. See Privacy.