What Iris sees

Iris is useful because she knows a little about what you are doing. That also means you should know exactly what she takes in. This page explains it in plain words. If anything here is unclear, write to support@irisforu.com and we will explain.

The short version #

• She listens for her name. To catch it, speech in the room is turned into text as it happens. She only acts when you talk to her.
• She reads your screen on your Mac to understand what you are doing. The raw text of your screen is never saved and is never sent to us.
• She remembers what you tell her, and you can see and delete all of it.
• During the alpha, she sends us diagnostic logs, which can include the words she heard. We use them to fix the bugs you report.
• You can mute her, hide her, and switch memory off at any time.

What she hears #

On your Mac (and Windows PC):

While Iris is running and the microphone is not muted, she listens for her name. To do that:

1. When there is sound in the room, the audio is sent, as it happens, through our server to a speech-to-text service (Deepgram). It turns speech into text. Silence is not sent.
2. Iris looks at the text. If it has her name in it, or you are in the middle of talking to her (about 30 seconds after her last answer), she treats it as a request.
3. Speech that is not for her is not acted on. Iris keeps only the last few minutes of it, in memory on your Mac. When you next talk to her, it can go along with your request so she understands what you mean. For example, if you were talking about a trip and then ask "Iris, how much will the trip cost?", she knows which trip.

Our server passes your audio to the speech service. We do not save the audio.

What you say to Iris on your Mac, and her replies, are saved in your chat history with your account, so you can see them on your phone too. You can delete them there.

So it is honest to say: Iris hears the room while she is on, but she only acts when you say her name. If you are about to have a private conversation near your Mac, mute her (below).

On iPad: while the Iris screen is open, she listens for her name in the same way. When you leave the app, she stops listening.

On iPhone and Android: Iris only hears you when you record a voice note. The voice note and its written-out text are kept in your chat until you delete them.

Mute her: press Command + Shift + M, or click the Iris icon in the menu bar and choose Mute microphone, or use the microphone button in the chat window. While muted she hears nothing at all.

What she reads on your screen #

Only on your Mac (and Windows PC), and only if you give her the Screen Recording permission.

Iris notices:

• which app is in front, and window and page titles,
• the titles of your open browser tabs,
• the text on your screen, which she reads on your Mac to spot things like an error message or a stuck dialog box.

Why: so she can help with what you are actually doing. "You're still stuck on that error" is only possible if she can see the error.

What happens to the screen text:

• It is read on your Mac. Things that look like secret keys, tokens and passwords, card numbers and email addresses are blanked out first.
• The raw text is held in memory only, while Iris is running. It is never saved to disk and never sent to us.
• What goes to the AI is a short note, like "an error is showing", plus app and page titles.

When you ask about your screen: if you ask Iris something about what is on your screen, or ask for a screenshot of your Mac from your phone, a screenshot or the screen text is used for that one request.

Her timeline of today: Iris keeps a list of the apps and page titles you used today, on your Mac. Titles only, never web addresses, and nothing is kept overnight. You can clear it any time: Control Panel (Command + Shift + P) > What she knows about today > Clear.

Other notes she keeps on your Mac about your work (for example, which project folder you are in) are deleted automatically: most after 1 day, some after 7 days, and nothing after 30 days.

Turn it off: open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Screen Recording, and switch Iris off. She then cannot read your screen, and will tell you so if you ask her to.

What she remembers #

Iris keeps a memory for your account: things you told her to remember, and facts she picked up from talking with you. It is shared between your phone and your Mac. It is stored on our server, with your account.

• See it: on your Mac, Command + Shift + C, then Memory. On your phone, tap Iris at the top, then What Iris remembers.
• Delete one thing: in the same place, or say "Iris, forget my address".
• Delete everything: on your Mac, Memory > Forget everything.
• Switch it off: on your Mac, the switch at the top of the Memory view. When off, she neither learns nor uses what she knows.

More on the Memory page.

What leaves your device, and what stays #

All of it travels encrypted. The AI, speech and voice providers named above process what we send them so that Iris can answer you.

Diagnostic logs (alpha only) #

During the alpha, the Mac app sends us its diagnostic logs and crash reports. They can include the words Iris heard and what she replied. They are tied to your account.

Why: when you report a bug, we look at your logs around the time it happened. That is often the only way to see what went wrong on your machine.

This cannot be switched off in the alpha build. If you do not want something in the logs, mute Iris first. You can ask us to delete your logs any time at support@irisforu.com.

How long we keep things #

To delete your whole account and everything in it, write to support@irisforu.com from the email you use with Iris.

Tester mode: Iris shows up in your screen recordings #

Normally Iris hides herself from screen sharing and screen recordings, so she does not appear in a Zoom, Meet or Teams call.

As a tester, you will want her in your screenshots and screen recordings, so your bug reports show what she did. The setting for this is Appear in screen shares/recordings. Switch it on before you record a bug: menu bar icon > Appear in screen shares/recordings.

Be careful: when it is on, Iris also appears when you share your screen in a meeting or class. Before you share your screen, switch it off:

• Click the Iris icon in the menu bar and untick Appear in screen shares/recordings, or
• Open the Control Panel (Command + Shift + P) and switch it off there, or
• Hide her completely with Command + Shift + I.

How to turn each thing off #

Questions #

Write to support@irisforu.com. We would rather you ask than worry.