Introducing ally (public beta)

Hi Everyone,

Hope you're having a great start to your holidays! Earlier this year, we introduced the very first prototype of what was then called Envision Assistant. You can find the original post here: link to original post.

Our goal was to create a conversational, personal, and ubiquitous AI assistant that helps you access visual and non-visual information around you in the easiest and fastest way possible. Since then, we’ve received invaluable feedback from many of you. Thanks to your input, we’re excited to announce that we’re moving from private to public beta! No forms, no waiting—just click the link and download.

Before You Start Using Ally

Here are a few things you should know about ally:

1. Ally is conversational: Optimized for back-and-forth conversation, ally allows you to start speaking with your question, and it will respond. You can interrupt ally at any time or ask follow-up questions, making the interaction snappy and as close to human conversation as possible.
2. Ally is personal: You can share information about yourself, which ally will use as context to provide personalized insights. During onboarding, you’ll answer a few basic questions, but you can edit or add information later in preferences. Over time, ally learns more about you to offer a truly tailored experience. You’ll also choose from one of four initial personalities, which you can later customize—right down to the name, language, voice, personality, and communication style.
3. Ally is ubiquitous: Ally is already available on iOS, Android, Web, and Envision Glasses, with plans to expand across even more platforms to ensure accessibility wherever you are.
4. Ally recognizes intent: Ally’s intent recognition algorithm ensures it understands the purpose behind your questions and chooses the best pathway to find answers. For example:
   • Ask “What am I holding in my hand?” and ally will take a picture and use vision to answer.
   • Ask “Should I carry my umbrella today?” and ally will check the weather to respond.
   • Ask “What’s playing in the cinema this weekend?” and ally will perform a web search for local listings.

What Ally Can Do Right Now:

• General questions: Uses basic LLM to answer.
• Current affairs: Uses web search to respond.
• Image-based questions: Uses the camera and vision tools.
• Weather queries: Checks local weather data.
• Calendar-related questions: Accesses your calendar for answers.

Our aim is to continuously add more functions, making ally your interface to all kinds of information around you.

How to Get Started

Install the ally beta app on your phone using this TestFlight link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/VyjHwsMA.

Please remember that ally is still in beta, so you might encounter bugs, UI issues, and missing features as we work towards a production version. Your feedback is crucial to help us improve!

How to Provide Feedback

The best way to share your feedback is through our beta Slack channel. Join here: Slack Invite Link.

On the Slack channel, we also share our future roadmap, behind-the-scenes updates, and early previews. We encourage you to join and be part of shaping ally’s future!

Thanks for being part of this journey. We can’t wait to hear what you think!