People and voices

Niles knows the people in the house in two ways: who may sign in to the app, and whose voice is whose. Link the two and Niles treats you as the same person whether you speak or type.

Who can sign inCopy Anchor Link

Settings → People → People is the list of who can sign in. Signing in uses GitHub, but anyone can make a GitHub account, so this list decides who gets in, not GitHub.

To add someone, type the email address GitHub has verified for them (GitHub → Settings → Emails) and press Add. Not their username, and not an address they have not verified. They then sign in with Sign in with GitHub. There are no passwords, invitations or roles. Everyone on the list can do everything, including adding and removing people.

Remove someone with the bin next to their address. It takes effect on their next click. You cannot remove the last person on the list, because then nobody could sign in to add anyone back. Undo last change will not take them away either.

The list only works with a GitHub app in the Signing in card above it. Without one, signing in stays off and the card says "Signing in is off while there is no GitHub app".

Change the list here. Niles will not change it when asked, by voice or in the chat.

Next to each address is a choice of voice. Pick the person's voice there to link the two. See Security and privacy for how signing in works.

Teaching Niles your voiceCopy Anchor Link

Say to a satellite "my name is" and your name, or "I am", "I'm" or "this is" and your name. A single first name works best. Niles answers:

1. "Nice to meet you, Mark. Say it once or twice more and I'll know you better."
2. "Got it, Mark. One more would help."
3. "I'll know you now, Mark."

Say it three or four times, from where you usually speak. Ask "who am I?" to check. Niles says "You're Mark.", or that it does not know yet.

If someone already has that name and you sound different, Niles says "I already know a Mark, and you don't sound like them." Once Niles knows your voice, saying your name again adds to your voice, whatever name it hears.

Niles keeps a short fingerprint of each sample, not the recording. Recognising a voice runs on your own Niles. What you say is still sent to the speech-to-text service to be written down, as every command is.

The Voices cardCopy Anchor Link

Settings → People → Voices lists every voice Niles knows, with how many samples it has, when it last heard it, and "thin" if it could use more. You can edit a name in place. The bin removes the voice at once, with the person's notes, birthday and name settings. Their sign-in stays.

Only answer voices Niles knows stops Niles answering anyone it does not recognise. "An unfamiliar voice is told so, and nothing happens, including introducing itself, which is what keeps the television from becoming a resident." An unknown voice that says "Niles" first hears "Sorry, I didn't recognise your voice." "Stop" to a ringing timer always works. To add someone new, switch the lock off, have them introduce themselves a few times, and switch it back on. Typing in the chat is never locked out, because whoever types has signed in.

Off, an unknown voice can still run the house: lights, music, timers and the rest. It has no calendar, mail, notes or Saved items, and what it says goes into nobody's chat.

What Niles knows about youCopy Anchor Link

With your voice linked to your sign-in, My profile → About you has three cards.

What Niles knows about you is a page of notes that Niles reads when it is talking to you, and never for anyone else. Niles adds a line when you say "remember that I…", or when it notices something lasting about you. Edit anything it got wrong, then save.

How Niles speaks to you has:

• Address me as: your name, or something like "Sir". Niles uses it now and then, not on every reply.
• Say my name like: a spelling for the voice to read, when it says your name wrong.
• Birthday: on the day, Niles opens the morning with happy birthday. The year is optional.

Without a linked voice, the page says "Niles does not know your voice yet" and explains how to introduce yourself.

The household's memoryCopy Anchor Link

Settings → Memory holds what Niles remembers for the whole house, in two lists: About the household ("the bins go out on Tuesdays") and What Niles has noted. Niles reads both before it answers. Everyone in the house shares them, so a fact about one person belongs in their own notes instead.

Niles adds to memory when you ask ("remember that the cleaner comes on Thursdays"). With an assistant switched on, it also looks back over what was said once the house has been quiet for five minutes, and may add a note or a skill. Once a week it tidies up.

Delete anything wrong or out of date. Deleted entries wait under Recently forgotten, with Restore.

Who is homeCopy Anchor Link

Niles can tell whether anyone is home, from tado° or UniFi, both under Settings → Add-ons.

• tado° counts anyone whose phone has the tado° app with location on. Connect it with Connect tado and approve at tado°, then switch on Read presence.
• UniFi counts the phones paired to people. Each person pairs their own from My profile → My phone: open the page on your phone, on the home Wi-Fi, and press This is my phone. Pairing only works from the home network. One phone per person.

Niles knows whether anyone is home, not who. The house counts as home as soon as any source says someone is there, and as away only once every source has said nobody is home for five minutes.

Two options sit on the tado° panel once presence is on, both off until you switch them on:

• Lights off when everyone leaves: whatever is on when the last person goes.
• Lights on when somebody comes home: the lights you pick, such as the hall and the kitchen. A light already on is left alone.

Automations can use Home or away as a trigger or a condition. You can also tell Niles the house is empty or occupied. That holds until you tell it to go back to automatic.