Approve what Bric suggests

Any change Bric — or a connected tool — suggests for your household waits until a grown-up says yes. The one thing Bric does straight away is add to the shopping list when you ask him to.

On Bric’s page and in the chat

From version 1.16.0 of the app.

The first suggestion waiting sits on the Bric tab under Waiting for You, as a card. See everything waiting opens Waiting for You (also under More) with the rest, and any forwarded emails. A suggestion also appears under the answer of the chat that asked for it, and that chat’s row on the page says how many are still to approve.

Each card says what it would do (MOVE, NEW JOB, NEW EVENT or CHANGE), which day, how long and whose job it would be, and where it came from: “Bric suggested this when Rachel asked”, “Bric read this from Rachel’s photo” for one read from a photo in a chat, “Suggested through Claude by Tom” for one made through a connected assistant, or “Suggested by Rachel” when it came another way.

Each card also shows how evenly the grown-ups’ jobs for the next 7 days would be shared before and after it, as the Fairness Engine scores them: “Next 7 days 71 → 78” means 71 now and 78 if you approve (higher is more even). It is the household’s number, never one person’s share, and it says which 7 days it covers: one worked out on an earlier day reads, for example, “7 days from Mon 12 Oct: 71 → 74”. Under it is the engine’s reason, such as “Tom has an hour free on Wednesday evening.” Both are worked out from your tasks, rotas and time away, not by AI, so they carry no sparkle; see what the fairness score means.

On Bric’s page it is the same card as under a chat’s answer, where it came from and the engine’s reason included, so on a smaller phone or in a busy week you may need to scroll a little to reach its buttons. Only Bric’s own suggestions are also under a chat’s answer: one made through a connected assistant has no chat, so it waits on Bric’s page and in Waiting for You.

• Approve makes the change.
• Change lets you adjust it before it is made: another day, another person the Fairness Engine could give it to, or a new name. The balance updates as you choose, and Approve with changes makes it. A job kept for one person stays with them, so only they are offered, and the sheet says so. Bric only ever suggests moving a job to somebody who could have it: never a grown-ups’ job to a child, a job to somebody it isn’t open to, or a job kept for one person to anyone else. For a new job nobody is named for, pick nobody and the Fairness Engine chooses when you approve, unless it is a job one of the children could do: then it is left open on their board, and the sheet names whose. If the change can’t be made, for example that person can no longer take it, the sheet says why, keeps your other choices and offers only the people who can take it now, so you can pick again.
• No thanks turns it down. Nothing is changed.
• Not me is what the person a job is for sees beside No thanks. A new job is added with nobody’s name on it. A job being moved to you is left as it was: it stays with whoever has it now, on the day it was already on, and they are not asked to do it on the new day. Only a job that was already yours comes off you, and is left with nobody’s name on the new day. Either way Auto-Balance and a fairer week ahead never give it to you, though you can still take it yourself if you change your mind.

A CHANGE card is a change to an event (or a job) that is already there, and says only what would change: a new day or time, a place, a name, or an event’s kind, such as “Kind: General → Travel”. A change to a repeating event changes every time it repeats, and the card says so. A change to one day of a repeating event says “Just this one: the rest of the series stays as it is.” and only that day changes.

Approve all

From version 1.16.0 of the app.

When Bric suggests several changes at once (filing every train under Travel, say), Approve all sits over them: under his answer when two or more are still to decide, and on Bric’s page under the card in Waiting for You, beside See everything waiting, when two or more are waiting, saying how many, such as Approve all 12. It asks once first, listing every one with what it would do: “Each one changes as its card says. You can undo any of them for 24 hours.” Tap Approve all 12 to go ahead, or Not now to leave them. They are then approved one by one, each card folding as it goes, and the app says how it went, for example “Approved 12.”. One that can’t be approved any more says why on its own card, and one that didn’t go through (no signal, say) says “Didn’t go through. Try again.” on its card until you tap its Approve again. The sheet shows the household balance under each move or new job, as its card does. Under an answer with more than three still to decide, the first three are shown and Show the other 2 (or however many) opens the rest.

Once decided, a card folds to one line saying what happened and who said yes. If somebody else got there first it says so, for example “Tom already approved this.” or “Tom already said not me.”, and nothing is done twice. If you changed it first, the line says “approved with changes”, and a moved job says whose it is now, for example “Moved to Fri 16 Oct for Rachel”.

Undo, and suggestions that wait too long

Undo is from version 1.16.0 of the app. For 24 hours after a suggestion is approved, its folded card has Undo. It puts back exactly what approving changed: a moved job goes back to its day and to whoever had it, a new job or event is taken away again, and a changed event goes back as it was (a whole series too, and a day changed on its own goes back into its series). The card then says so, for example “Back as it was · undone by Rachel 08:20”. Any grown-up can undo it, not only the one who said yes.

If the job has been touched since, Undo says so and leaves it alone, so nothing anybody did since is lost. A job that is done, started, skipped, ticked off or deleted since simply stays as it is. A job that has been changed since (split, made to repeat, moved again, renamed, given to someone else, or given a reminder, a place or pocket money), or that can’t go back to whoever had it (they have left, say), is left as it is too, and the sentence says to change it yourself instead: Open the job (or Open the event) under it takes you there.

Where Undo is: under Bric’s answer in the chat, for the whole 24 hours. On Bric’s page a card you decided stays there, folded, until you next open the tab. In Waiting for You, the message after approving has Undo for 10 seconds, and every suggestion approved in the last 24 hours, wherever it was approved and by whichever grown-up, is listed under Approved in the last 24 hours, folded, with its Undo. That is where to find one made through a connected assistant, which has no chat.

The two checks below are made by Equal House itself, not by the app, so they apply whichever version of the app you have.

Before anything is changed, the suggestion is checked again. If the job it would move has been done or deleted since it was suggested, approving is refused with a sentence saying so, and the card offers only No thanks: on Bric’s page, in the chat and in Waiting for You alike. Before version 1.16.0, the sentence shows as a message and the suggestion keeps its buttons; turn it down with Reject.

A suggestion nobody answers within 7 days expires. It leaves Waiting for You, on Bric’s page and under More, and the counts, and nothing changes. From version 1.16.0, under Bric’s answer it reads “Expired · nobody answered within 7 days”; in earlier versions nothing under his answer says so.

In Waiting for You

1. More → Waiting for You, then Suggestions. Each tab shows how many are waiting.
2. Read what is proposed and who it affects. From version 1.16.0, each also shows the balance and the Fairness Engine’s reason, and then the assistant’s own note, marked with the sparkle because the AI wrote it.
3. Approve, or tap No thanks to turn it down. Before version 1.16.0 it is called Reject there.

What can be proposed

New tasks and events, reassignments and reschedules, and changes to events already on the calendar: their time, place, name or kind, for the whole of a repeating event or one day of it. Each shows what it would do in plain terms before you decide. Adding to the shopping list needs no approval: Bric does it straight away, because it doesn’t change anyone’s share, and a Shopping list chip under his answer opens the list.

Why not just let it act

Because these are shared changes. A task reassigned to your partner is a claim on their evening, and an assistant that could make that claim without anyone agreeing would be a liability rather than a help.

Turning one down

No thanks discards the suggestion. Nothing is changed, and Bric is not offended.

Notifications

You are told when something is waiting, so a proposal does not sit unseen until it expires. Tapping the notification opens Bric’s page. Swipe it away and it is still counted: as a number on the Bric tab, on Waiting for You in More, and in a note on the Tasks tab. Forwarded emails are counted on the More tab.

In versions before 1.16.0 the notification opens Waiting for You, and the More tab counts suggestions as well.

Forwarded email is next door

Waiting for You has two tabs. Suggestions is what Bric or a connected tool proposed; Emails is what was read out of email you forwarded — see review what came in.