Bric’s page: how we’re doing

From version 1.16.0 of the app. In earlier versions the Bric tab opens on the chat with Pro, or on a hello and See Pro on the Free plan.

The Bric tab opens on How we’re doing: how the last 7 days were shared, how the days ahead look, what is waiting for a grown-up and what is coming up. The top of the page is worked out by the Fairness Engine from your tasks and calendar, not by AI, so opening it costs nothing and works on every plan.

The coloured card

• The white label and the big words look back over the last 7 days, the same 7 days as the dial on Tasks, so the two always agree. A good week says Well shared; a week that could be fairer says A few things to even out.
• The line under them looks ahead: which grown-up is away in the days ahead, such as “Tom’s away Friday and Saturday” (never why), which day looks heavy, who is on nights, and which day is light. It counts grown-ups’ jobs only. Children’s chores never change it.
• When someone was away for three or more of the last 7 days the card says An away week and allows for it. Why they were away is never shown.
• The days along the bottom are the week ahead as a picture: calm, steady, busy or full-on, with a moon for nights and a plane for days away. Tap a day to open it in the calendar, with its events first and the jobs Bric counted for it in one line above them (“9 jobs this day”): tap that line, or Show them, to list them. The clock opens on the first thing that starts that day, not on a night shift carried over from the evening before. Tap anywhere else on the card to open the calendar.
• Under the card it says when it was worked out, and that it came “from your tasks and calendar, not AI”.

How it’s shared

How it’s shared opens one bar in each grown-up’s colour for the last 7 days. It is closed every time you open the page. Hide it takes it off the card for you, on this phone only: nobody else’s page changes, and the dial on Tasks stays as it is. To bring it back, tap ⋮ at the top of the page and choose Show how it’s shared.

Waiting for You and A fairer week

• Waiting for You (Pro) shows the first suggestion waiting for a grown-up’s yes as a card you can decide right there, and See everything waiting opens Waiting for You (also under More) with the rest and any forwarded emails. When only forwarded emails are waiting it is one card that opens Waiting for You. It is not there when nothing is waiting. See approving suggestions.
• A fairer week appears when the Fairness Engine can share the planned jobs more evenly. It says which days it covers (the next 7, or the next 4 on the Free plan) and shows the first moves; See the fairer week opens Fairer Week Ahead, where nothing moves until you say so.

Last week, thanks and how it felt

From version 1.16.0 of the app.

On a Monday, Last week shows how many jobs got done between you last week, and opens your week in review, which says how evenly they were shared. Recent thanks shows the latest thank-you of the last 7 days and opens Gratitude.

From Monday to Wednesday, How did last week feel? asks each grown-up how fair last week felt, from Unfair to Very fair. The numbers only see the jobs; this is where you say how it felt. Your answer is kept with last week’s numbers, Bric doesn’t read it, and nobody else in your household can see it. Not now puts it away for the week on that phone.

Coming up

Tonight’s dinner from your meal plan, a child’s birthday in the next fortnight, and with Pro a renewal that is nearly due. Tap one to open it.

Bric can read…

From version 1.16.0 of the app.

Bric can read… is one place to hand him something to read: Bric picks out the dates and jobs, and the Fairness Engine picks who. Each choice opens the screen that already does that job, which asks the AI permission the first time and has its own allowance — see AI allowances.

• A letter or list opens the camera for Magic Add, and A screenshot your photos.
• Paste text opens Magic Add with what you copied in the box. Nothing is read until you tap Find events & tasks.
• An invitation reads a party invitation and opens a new party with what it said — see planning a party.
• A work rota asks Whose rota?, then reads that grown-up’s rota from a photo — see work schedules.
• Forward an email opens email forwarding. On the Free plan it says Comes with Pro.

The + beside the box at the bottom of the page offers the same choices. In a chat, A letter or list and A screenshot bring the photo into the chat instead: see below. In a new household the section sits higher up, under Set up with Bric.

A photo in a chat

From version 1.16.0 of the app. With Pro.

In a chat, tap + and choose A letter or list to take a photo, or A screenshot to pick one. Anything you have typed in the box goes with it, such as “Leo’s swimming letter”. The photo appears in the chat, and while Bric reads it the chat says Bric is reading the photo…. He reads it the way Magic Add does, so it counts as one Magic Add, not one of your questions. The first time, the app asks permission to send it to our AI provider.

What he finds comes back as suggestion cards under his answer: dates as events and jobs as tasks, each given to whoever the Fairness Engine picks, with Approve, Change and No thanks. Each card says “Bric read this from Rachel’s photo”, and nothing is added until a grown-up says yes. Dates that have already passed are left out, and one photo makes at most 10 suggestions, the first 10 by date: for the rest of a long letter, use Magic Add with the same photo and tick only the ones not suggested yet.

A photo is only ever read for dates and jobs. Whatever a letter says, it cannot tell Bric to do anything else. The photo itself is not kept: in the chat later it shows as Read, not kept.

Ask Bric about your week

With Pro you can also ask Bric things in ordinary language, and he answers from your household’s actual week.

1. Bric tab.
2. Tap one of this week’s prompts, or type in Ask Bric… at the bottom and tap send. The microphone writes your words into the box first, so you can check them before anything is sent.
3. The chat opens as its own screen, with your question, who asked it, and his answer in a white card marked AI. The back arrow returns to the page. Your latest chats are listed under Ask Bric, older ones under Earlier chats, and New chat in the ⋮ menu, on the page or in a chat, starts a fresh one.

Hold a prompt down to put its question in the box instead, so you can change it before it goes.

A prompt that has already been asked opens that chat again rather than asking twice: a birthday or a heavy day’s chat whenever it was started, the others when they were asked this week. A chat started from a prompt is named after it, with the date where it needs one, so it still makes sense next week.

The first time you ask him something on a phone, the app asks permission to send it to our AI provider. Not now sends nothing and leaves your words in the box.

While he works the chat says Bric is looking through your week…, and after 20 seconds A big question can take a minute. You can leave while he is still working: the answer is kept, and the chat’s row on the page says Bric is answering… until it arrives. If a question cannot be answered the chat says why in amber, with Try again where trying again could help.

From version 1.16.0 of the app: the top of the chat says what Bric is doing as he does it, such as Checking who’s around…, and the card under your question lists what he has looked at so far. His answer appears as he writes it, with Writing my answer… at the top; Copy and Report this answer come once he has finished. If the connection drops before he finishes, the top of the chat says I lost you for a moment., the chat says The connection dropped before Bric finished., and the chat’s row on the page says Connection dropped. He carries on with your question anyway: when the page next reads your chats (a pull-down, say) and his answer is there, the chat shows it; opening the chat from its row looks for his answer too, and Try again looks for his answer first. Opening the chat never asks your question again. If you asked something else after it, the earlier question says The connection dropped. His answer will show here when it’s in. If he may still be working on it, the top of the chat says I may still be on it., the chat says Bric may still be finishing this. Try again in a minute. and nothing is asked. If the history cannot be read just then (offline, say), the chat says so and nothing is asked either. Your question is only asked again once he has had time to finish and no answer came.

If your household’s Pro ends while you are in a chat, the sheet that comes up says Asking Bric is part of Pro, with no price on it: See Pro opens the plans. What was already asked and answered stays on screen, and your question waits in the box, which stays closed until the household has Pro again. The top of the chat says Asking Bric comes with Pro., with See what Pro adds, and tapping the closed box or its send button brings the sheet back. The cross in the box clears your waiting question. A chat opened after Pro has ended says Bric’s chats come with Pro too. where the conversation would be.

If asking Bric has been switched off for a while, the page says Asking Bric is resting and everything else on it works as normal. In a chat, Bric says I’m resting just now.

What an answer is based on

From version 1.16.0 of the app.

Under an answer, Based on lists what Bric looked at to write it: the days he read, the jobs and events he talks about or suggested moving, the fairness score, the house notes and family documents he names, and the shopping list when he added to it. Tap one to open it: a day opens with the jobs Bric counts for it listed above its calendar events (the grown-ups’ jobs and ones nobody has yet, never the children’s chores; tick one off there as on the Tasks tab, and a suggestion you approve shows up there straight away), a job opens so you can see or change it, an event opens on its day, and the fairness score opens a sheet that starts with the score itself, such as “Last 7 days: 88 · Well shared”, and then works it out with your own numbers. Under an answer from an earlier day it shows today’s score and says so: “Last 7 days, as of today”.

A house note opens so you can read or change it, and a document opens on your phone just as it does from Family Documents. Only documents the whole household can see ever appear here, never one in a private folder. If a note or a document has gone since (deleted, or a document past its expiry date), the app says “That note isn’t there any more.” or “That document isn’t there any more.”, and the chip stays under the answer. Everything under Based on is your household’s own records, not something the AI wrote.

Changing events, one or many

From version 1.16.0 of the app.

Ask Bric to change an event that is already on the calendar, its time, its place, its name or its kind (General, School, Sports, Holiday, Travel, Health, Social, Birthday, Anniversary, Work or Family), and he suggests the change rather than adding a second event. He never makes an event Away or a Party, and never changes the kind of one that is. A Holiday or Work event with one person on it marks them away, so the Fairness Engine leaves them out of jobs and cooking those days: he doesn’t change an event like that to or from Holiday or Work either. Change those in the app.

Ask about many at once, for example “change all the events with train in the title to Travel”, and he suggests a change to each one, up to 20 at a time. He matches whole words, so “train” finds “Sheffield Train” and “trains to Leeds” but not “Training”. Events that already have that kind, or already have a change waiting, are left out, and if more matched than he could suggest in one go, he says so: ask again once those are decided. With no dates named he looks from today to a year ahead.

A repeating event is one entry, so a change to it changes every time it repeats, and the card says so. To change one day only, say which day, such as “just this Tuesday’s swimming”: the card then says “Just this one: the rest of the series stays as it is.”

No event changes until a grown-up approves. With two or more suggestions under his answer, Approve all (it says, for example, Approve all 12) asks once, listing them all (“Each one changes as its card says. You can undo any of them for 24 hours.”), then approves them one by one. Each one can be undone for 24 hours, as any approval can. See approving suggestions.

Older versions of the app don’t show these suggestions; approve them in the latest version.

Adding to the shopping list

Ask Bric to add something, for example “Add handwash to my shopping list”, and he puts it on the household’s shopping list straight away. It’s the one thing he does without asking a grown-up, because it doesn’t change anyone’s share. If it’s already on the list and not bought yet, he says so instead of adding it twice. Pro households can do this on any version of the app. From version 1.16.0 of the app, a Shopping list chip under his answer opens the list. When it is the only chip there, it is headed See it on rather than Based on: it is where he made the change, not something he read.

Ask Bric why, from elsewhere in the app

From version 1.16.0 of the app.

With Pro, a few other places can put a question in Bric’s box for you. Nothing is sent: you land on the Bric tab with the words in the box, to change or send.

• On Tasks, Ask Bric why under the fairness dial asks about the period the dial is showing.
• On a day in the calendar, tap ⋮ and choose Ask Bric about this day.
• On a grown-up’s task, tap its ⋮ and choose Ask Bric about this. Personal tasks and children’s chores don’t have it: any grown-up here can read the chats, and children’s chores stay off Bric.
• On Bric’s page itself, Ask Bric why under How it’s shared, and Ask Bric why these moves under A fairer week.

If this month’s questions are used up, the box stays closed and says when they come back.

Your plan waits for a yes

Bric proposes; a person approves. If you ask him to move a chore, add an event or change one, he puts the change up for confirmation rather than making it. The one thing he does straight away is adding to the shopping list (above). His suggestions appear as cards under his answer, with Approve, Change and No thanks, and on his page under Waiting for You; they also wait under More → Waiting for You → Suggestions — see approving suggestions.

This is not caution for its own sake. A shared family calendar that changes because software decided something is worse than no calendar at all.

What he knows

Your household: the week, the tasks, who is doing what, the fairness picture, and the short facts you keep for him on What Bric knows. He does not know things nobody has written down.

Where your question goes

To answer, your question and the parts of your household’s plan he needs are sent to Amazon Bedrock, our AI provider, which processes them in the UK and the EU. He cannot see any other family.

He remembers for a fortnight

From version 1.16.0 of the app.

Conversations are kept for about two weeks so you can pick up where you left off, then they go. Any grown-up here can read past chats and see who asked.

If an answer is wrong

From version 1.16.0 of the app.

Tap ⋯ on any answer and choose Report this answer. Say what was wrong if you like, then tap Send report, and the app says Thanks — we’ll read it. The question and Bric’s answer go with it. Our team reads every report; it is kept for 90 days and never used to train AI. Copy in the same menu copies the answer.

About Bric and AI

From version 1.16.0 of the app.

Tap ⋮ at the top of the Bric tab, or of a chat, and choose About Bric and AI: he is an AI helper and can get things wrong, nothing on your plan changes until a grown-up says yes (he can add things to the shopping list when you ask), where your question goes, and how long chats and reports are kept.

Fair use

There is a monthly limit on how much you can ask, and a daily one — see AI allowances. When 10 or fewer questions are left this month, the page says how many. If you reach a limit, Ask Bric says plainly when your questions come back, and the box stays closed until then; the rest of the page keeps working. It is a separate thing from your plan lapsing, and the two say different things.

On the Free plan

Bric is in every household. On the Free plan the page shows the same card for today and the next 3 days, How it’s shared, A fairer week inside those days, and Coming up. Where Pro has Ask Bric there is a card, Ask Bric about your week, with See what Pro adds. The button at the bottom is Snap or paste: it offers the same choices as Bric can read…, each with its own free allowance. Forwarding an email comes with Pro.

On every plan he cheers when jobs get done, reacts on the children’s boards and keeps an eye on how fair things are — see vibration, sounds, Bric and animations. Asking him is what Pro adds.

Included in Pro

Asking Bric comes with Equal House Pro. There is no separate add-on to buy. When a household upgrades, the phone that did it says Pro is on — with “You can ask Bric about your week now.” when the assistant is switched on.