Talking to Niles
What you can say to a satellite or type in the chat, and which phrasings Niles answers without a language model.
Say "Niles" to a satellite, wait for the ring to light up white, and say what you want. The same sentences work typed into the app's chat.
How Niles answers
Niles knows a set of fixed phrasings: lights, blinds, scenes, music, the TV, timers, heating, the weather and the clock. One of those is answered straight away, without a language model. Anything else goes to Niles's own model (Cerebras, unless you changed it under Settings → Voice & AI), which understands free speech and can use every tool Niles has. It is slower, a second or so, but you can say things your own way.
A few things help the fixed phrasings catch more:
- Politeness is fine. "Can you turn off the kitchen lights, please" is the same as "turn off the kitchen lights".
- Leaving out the room means the room the satellite stands in. "Lights off" in the kitchen turns off the kitchen. This needs the satellite to be in a room under Settings → Satellites.
- In the chat there is no room, so name it: "turn off the kitchen lights".
- A sentence with "when", "whenever", "every time", "as soon as", or one that starts with "if" or "once", is never acted on at once. Niles treats it as a rule to make. See Automations.
When a reply ends in a question, the satellite listens again without the wake word, so you can answer "yes" or "the kitchen". It does this for the voice it asked, and for three questions in a row at most.
If Niles heard only a word or two that do not look like a command, it says "Sorry?" and does nothing. Just after a restart it may say "Still waking up, try again in a moment." while it learns what devices there are.
Lights
| What you want | Say |
|---|---|
| A room on or off | "turn off the kitchen lights", "turn on the lights in the bedroom", "office lights off" |
| The room you are in | "lights off", "turn on the lights" |
| The whole house | "turn off all the lights", "all lights on", "everything off", "lights off everywhere" |
| One light | "turn on the floor lamp", "turn off the ceiling light in the bedroom" |
| A level | "dim the kitchen lights to 30%", "set the desk lamp to 50 percent", "dim the lights to 20%" |
| A step brighter or dimmer | "kitchen lights brighter", "make the bedroom dimmer", "brighter" |
| Warmer or cooler | "make the living room warmer", "kitchen lights cooler", "warmer" |
| A named white | "living room lights warm white", "cool white", "daylight" |
| The last thing again | "turn it back on", "turn them off again" |
| Back to the daily curve | "back to normal", "back to normal in the kitchen", "kitchen back to normal" |
A step is 10% brighter or dimmer. Warmer and cooler move 200 K. Warm white is 2200 K, cool white 4000 K and daylight 5500 K.
Colours by name ("make the kitchen lights blue") and WLED effects ("put the fire effect on the shelf strip") work too, through the model. A level, warmth, colour or effect set that way puts the light in manual mode, the same as the fixed phrasings do.
"The lights" in a room includes lamps on smart plugs that you have marked as lamps under Settings → Lighting → Lamps on plugs. Other plugs are switched only when you name them.
Lighting and scenes explains the daily curve and what "back to normal" undoes.
Blinds
- "close the living room blinds", "open the blinds in the office"
- "open the blinds halfway", "fully open the blinds"
- "set the office blind to 40%"
- "close all the blinds"
Curtains, shades and shutters work the same way. A plain "open" takes a blind to its normal level, set under Settings → Lighting → Blinds. Saying "open" again when it is already there opens it all the way.
Scenes
- "save the living room as cosy", "save this as cosy in the living room", "save this as movie night"
- "cosy scene", "apply cosy", "turn on cosy", "apply cosy in the living room"
- "list my scenes", "delete the cosy scene"
See Lighting and scenes.
Music and speakers
This needs Sonos, and Spotify for anything beyond radio and Sonos favourites. Both are under Settings → Add-ons.
| What you want | Say |
|---|---|
| Something to play | "play John Mayer in the kitchen", "play Gravity on Spotify", "play Abbey Road" |
| The radio | "play the radio", "play P1 on the radio in the bedroom" |
| More rooms | "play it in the kitchen too", "play it everywhere" |
| Pause or carry on | "pause the kitchen", "stop the music", "resume music in the living room" |
| Skip | "next song", "skip", "previous", "kitchen next" |
| Volume | "set the kitchen volume to 30%", "volume up in the kitchen", "living room volume down" |
Volume steps are 10. "Play the radio" with no station plays what that room had last. With no room, music plays where you said it. Playing in a room replaces what was on there, the TV's sound included.
The TV
This needs the LG TV add-on, paired once from Settings → Add-ons.
- "turn on the TV", "TV off"
- "put on Netflix on the TV", "open YouTube on the TV"
- "switch the TV to HDMI 2"
- "pause the TV", "play the TV"
- "set the TV volume to 20", "turn the TV up", "TV volume down"
- "mute the TV", "unmute the TV"
"Television" and "telly" work as well. In a room with a Sonos, the TV's sound plays through it. "Stop the music" never turns off the TV.
Timers
- "set a timer for 10 minutes", "timer for 30 seconds", "5 minute timer"
- "20 minute timer called pasta"
- "how long is left", "how much longer"
- "list my timers", "what timers do I have"
- "cancel the pasta timer", "cancel the timer"
- "stop"
Units are seconds, minutes and hours, in whole numbers. A finished timer rings with a chime every few seconds in the room it was set from, until you say "Niles, stop". If nobody answers it gives up after 10 minutes.
"Stop" stops a ringing timer first. With none ringing it cancels the next timer still counting down, and with no timers at all it stops the music.
Timers ring on the satellite you set them from. A timer typed in the chat has no room to ring in, so for now set timers by voice.
Timers are not reminders: "remind me at five" has no clock time to go on. An automation can do something when a timer finishes.
Heating
This needs tado°, under Settings → Add-ons.
- "set the heating to 21", "set the bedroom to 19 degrees"
- "heat the office to 20.5 degrees", "set the bedroom heating to 21 and a half"
- "turn the heating up", "turn down the bedroom heating"
- "turn off the heating", "put the heating back on the schedule"
- "what's the temperature in the bedroom", "how warm is it in here"
- add "everywhere" for every zone
A set temperature holds until you put the heating back on its schedule. "Turn the heating on" means back to the schedule. tado° accepts 5 to 25 °C.
Weather, time and date
- "what's the weather", "what's the weather tomorrow", "will it rain today"
- "do I need an umbrella", "how cold is it outside"
- "what time is it", "what day is it", "what's the date"
The weather is for the house, so its location under Settings → Home must be set. "The weather in Paris" goes to the model, which looks the place up.
Everything else
These go to the model. Say them however you like:
- Shopping: "we're out of milk and eggs", "what's on the shopping list", "when are my groceries coming"
- Your calendar and mail: "what's on my calendar tomorrow", "any mail from the school". See Add-ons and accounts.
- Training: "how was my week", "what's my run today". See Training and Strava.
- Memory: "remember that the bins go out on Tuesdays", "remember I take my coffee black", "what do you know about me".
- Who is home: "is anyone home". You can also tell Niles the house is empty or occupied. That holds until you tell it to go back to automatic.
- Announcements: "what just happened" lists what Niles announced lately, including before its last restart.
- Devices: "when did the kitchen light turn off", "why is the bedroom light at 30%".
Your calendar, mail and notes are yours only, so Niles has to know your voice first. See People and voices.