Reminders, weather and places nearby

A reminder with a schedule

In a Reminders list, or another list whose due-date field has alerts enabled, give an item a due time, choose who receives it, and set it to repeat daily, weekly or monthly. Every other week is a weekly reminder with an interval of two. Choose weekdays and an end date or number of occurrences when you need them.

Reminder times follow the household’s time zone. Completing an occurrence leaves the repeating schedule in place. You can stop following a reminder without deleting it for everyone else.

Alerts you can return to

The bell on Home expands your alerts. Read or dismiss an alert without changing another person’s inbox. Notification preferences control device delivery; the alert remains available in the app.

iPhone and Android use native push notifications after you allow them. Desktop notifications work while Ridgeback is running. A provider accepting a notification does not guarantee that your device displays it. Reminder notifications follow the reminder preference rather than quiet hours.

More room to write

The message box stays compact until you start writing, then grows with your draft. File and photo controls sit above it. On your phone, drag the composer down to dismiss the keyboard and collapse it without losing your draft.

GIFs and emoji in the conversation

Choose a GIF from GIPHY, add an emoji, or attach your own GIF. A selection goes into your draft so you can review it before sending. Sent GIFs appear in the conversation. Messages support formatting, lists, links and code; you can copy a message and select text such as a number or address. You can edit your own messages without asking Bobby to run the original request again. Desktop and supported Android devices have play and pause controls; iPhone previews follow Reduce Motion. GIPHY searches use its general-audience rating and send only the search words you enter; GIPHY also receives your IP address when loading results or playback.

Readability and dictation update

Open lists on Home now have clear dividers. Tap a row to open that list; returning refreshes its open-item count. The latest builds also keep weather text readable when your phone uses dark mode. Larger text reflows on the weather card, and its Apple Weather link has a clear screen-reader label.

Mobile dictation now keeps earlier phrases when you pause and continue. Tap Stop to finish the draft; your last words have time to arrive before you review and send. On desktop, a failed send preserves any newer text you wrote while it was waiting.

Speak, review, send

Dictation on supported iPhones and Android 13 or later puts recognized words into the composer. Edit them before sending. The microphone in the bottom navigation opens My Personal Space.

Speech recognition stays on the device and requires an available on-device language. Ridgeback asks for microphone permission when you use it; iPhone also asks for speech-recognition permission. Dictation never sends a message on its own. Desktop dictation is not included in this release.

Ask about weather and nearby places

Bobby can fetch current conditions from Apple Weather and search nearby places with Apple Maps. Home uses the household’s saved location. Weather answers include the observation time; nearby results include addresses, map links and approximate straight-line distances.

When a question needs your current location, Bobby offers a Share current location button in the conversation. Tap it to grant permission, then review and send the follow-up. You can remove the location before sending. It expires after five minutes and does not replace your home address. Ridgeback asks for foreground location permission for this one-time share. Background location sharing with your home is a separate, opt-in feature; see the privacy page for how it works.

If a location is missing or the provider cannot answer, Bobby reports that. This release provides current weather, not a forecast. Nearby distances are not driving or walking directions, and results do not confirm opening hours.

Where the information goes

Apple receives the location needed for a weather or places request, and the search phrase for a places search. A location shared from your phone is held for that question; exact coordinates are not saved in its message or tool-call history. Place results and Bobby’s answer remain in the conversation.

Apple and Google deliver native push notifications using device tokens. Notification text is generic so private message and reminder contents are not copied into a push. The alert inbox keeps entries for 30 days by default. Dictation audio is not uploaded by Ridgeback.

Recover a reply without repeating an action

A dropped connection checks for the saved answer. Retry is offered when Bobby can safely try again without repeating a calendar or list change. You can report a reply, remove a message, or delete a thread if you have permission.

The optional language filter asks Bobby to avoid profanity and masks strong language in displayed replies. It starts off. Settings also includes account and personal-data deletion; deletion requests by email are available without the app.

One private place to ask about your homes

In My Personal Space, name another home when asking Bobby to change its calendar or lists. Bobby checks your permissions in that home before acting and identifies where the change happened. Open that home to review or undo a change; cross-home thread undo is not available.

Tapping a checked All homes control leaves only your personal home selected. New shared homes start with a Daily digest conversation. This is a starting thread, not an automatically scheduled daily summary.

Keep conversations and lists organized

Organize a home’s threads into categories. Link an existing home list inside a thread, or create one there. Linked lists retain the home’s existing access rules.

Tap a list item to open its details; use its checkbox to mark it complete. Reminders and alerts have separate cards, and reminder details let you change the schedule and recipients. Destructive actions ask you to type delete before continuing.

The weather card links directly to the household address editor. If a Gemma download gets stuck, delete its downloaded files in settings and download it again.

Get the build

iPhone builds arrive through TestFlight. Android, macOS and Linux downloads are on the home page. See also on-device photo reading and My Personal Space and settings.