Shalev - User Guide
Shalev has two kinds of features, and knowing which is which tells you where to control it - and whether it costs anything:
- On-device (no AI, no plan needed) - reminders, dictation, maps, viewing and editing your list, greetings/small talk. Instant, private, works offline and as a guest. Zero AI cost, ever.
- 🤖 Agentic - the assistant (needs Plus/Pro) - anything where Shalev reads, decides, drafts, watches, or acts for you: your mail, calendar, documents, and the standing jobs it runs in the background. These are the AI actions, and they are flagged with 🤖 throughout this guide.
You drive them two ways:
- Just say/type it in Ask or Voice ("draft a reply…", "watch for…").
- Toggle it in Settings, for the background automations.
Signing in
Sign-in is Apple, Google, or Microsoft - there is no email/password form. Your name comes from the account you sign in with, and:
- Microsoft (Outlook.com, Hotmail, Microsoft 365) is the full experience - reading and organising your Outlook mail, managing your calendar, and reading your OneDrive documents, in one approval.
- Google connects sending mail + your full Google Calendar. Reading your Gmail inbox and Drive documents needs Google's restricted permissions, which aren't enabled yet - so for the mail-reading and document features today, connect Microsoft.
- Apple gives you an account with no mailbox - connect Google or Microsoft later from Settings to add the mail, calendar and document features.
- Guest - no account at all; all the on-device features work immediately.
Logging out wipes your data from the device (items, conversation, profile, plan display). It all comes back when you sign back into the same account. iOS permissions (mic, location, contacts) are never touched by logout.
Languages
Speak or type in English, German, Hebrew, Spanish, Italian, or French - and switch freely between them. The assistant replies in the language you used, with a matching voice.
The instant on-device commands (reminders, greetings) understand all six; times work in local formats too - "15.30", "15 Uhr 30", "15h30", "a las 8", "alle 8".
Voice recognition language is set in Settings → Voice language. Leave it on Device language (it follows your phone's language and keyboards automatically) or pin a specific one - useful if you speak German on an English phone and the auto-guess picks wrong. The list is built from the languages you actually have on the device, and updates when you add a keyboard.
Plans
| Features | Free | Plus (€14.99/mo) | Pro (€29.99/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reminders, dictation, maps, task list, small talk | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 🤖 Conversation, morning brief, inbox sweep, urgent alerts, email watches, follow-up watchdog | ✗ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 🤖 Read your documents (Drive / OneDrive: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) | ✗ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 🤖 Calendar create / move / cancel | ✗ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 🤖 Threat Guard (phishing protection) | ✗ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 🤖 Money Guard (refunds, price drops, subscription audit, renewal alerts) | ✗ | ✗ | ✅ |
| Agent actions/day | ✗ | 30 | 75 |
| 🤖 Document & photo understanding (photograph a letter) | ✗ | ✗ | ✅ |
| 🤖 Standing goals | ✗ | ✗ | ✅ |
| 🤖 Expense tracker | ✗ | ✗ | ✅ |
| Urgent-mail & phishing check frequency | ✗ | every 30 min | every 10 min |
New accounts start on Free - upgrade to Plus or Pro any time in Settings → Plan.
What YOU can do on-device (free, instant, private)
These never touch the AI and never cost anything - they work as a guest and offline.
| You do this | How |
|---|---|
| Set a reminder | Say/type "remind me tomorrow at 10:30 to call the bank" (or "in 20 minutes") |
| Edit a reminder's text | Tap the card, edit the text, Save - applies instantly |
| Complete / delete a reminder | Swipe the card (Undo appears for a few seconds) |
| See your list | The Items screen; ask "what's overdue?", "what's on today?" |
| Navigate | "navigate to Eden", "open Waze", "take me home" |
| Dictate / take a voice note | Tap the mic and talk |
| Small talk | "hi", "thanks", "how are you" - answered on-device |
Reminders are durable. The moment you set one, Shalev schedules it on the device - so it fires at the right time even with no signal, even if the server is down, and it is never lost while a save is "in flight". If you're signed in, it also syncs to your account so it shows on your other devices.
🤖 What the ASSISTANT can do for you (Agentic - Plus/Pro)
Everything here is an AI action. Reads are instant; anything that sends or changes goes to Approvals first.
| You say / do… | 🤖 What the assistant does |
|---|---|
| "What needs my attention today?" | Reads mail + calendar and briefs you |
| "Draft a reply to the landlord" | Writes a threaded draft reply, held for approval |
| "Reply to Elke and tell her Friday works" | Drafts it; you Approve to send |
| "Sweep my inbox" | Drafts replies to mail that needs one (all held for approval) |
| "Add dentist Tuesday at 3pm" | Creates a calendar event (approval-gated) |
| "Move my 2pm to 4" / "Cancel the dentist" | Edits / deletes the event (approval-gated) |
| "What's in the Darlehensvertrag in my Drive?" | Finds the document and reads it back (Word/Excel/PowerPoint/PDF) |
| "Track emails from the landlord" | Creates an email watch that pings you |
| "Tell me when the lawyer writes about the Sagmeister case" | Watch on a name/topic |
| "Remove the GLS watch" | Cancels that watch by name |
| "Always make sure I never miss a school email" (Pro) | Stores a standing goal |
| (photograph a letter) (Pro) | Reads it, extracts the deadline, drafts a reply |
| "Is this email from my bank safe?" | Runs a phishing/spoofing check |
| "Check my inbox for threats" | Scans recent mail for phishing |
Say it in your language - a practical phrasebook
Shalev understands English, German, Hebrew, Spanish, Italian and French. Below are real phrasings you can say or type. Switch languages any time.
Free (on-device, instant, no account needed)
These are recognised on the device in all six languages - no AI, no cost, they work offline and as a guest.
Set a reminder
- 🇬🇧 "remind me tomorrow at 10:30 to call the bank" · "remind me in 20 minutes"
- 🇩🇪 "erinnere mich morgen um 10:30 die Bank anrufen" · "erinner mich in 20 Minuten"
- 🇮🇱 "תזכיר לי מחר בשעה 10:30 להתקשר לבנק" · "תזכיר לי בעוד 20 דקות"
- 🇪🇸 "recuérdame mañana a las 10:30 llamar al banco" · "recuérdame en 20 minutos"
- 🇮🇹 "ricordami domani alle 10:30 di chiamare la banca" · "ricordami tra 20 minuti"
- 🇫🇷 "rappelle-moi demain à 10h30 d'appeler la banque" · "rappelle-moi dans 20 minutes"
Ask about your list
- 🇬🇧 "what's overdue?" · "what do I have today?" · "what do I have next week?"
- 🇩🇪 "was ist überfällig?" · "was habe ich heute?" · "was steht nächste Woche an?"
- 🇮🇱 "מה באיחור?" · "מה יש לי היום?" · "מה יש לי בשבוע הבא?"
- 🇪🇸 "¿qué está vencido?" · "¿qué tengo hoy?" · "¿qué tengo la próxima semana?"
- 🇮🇹 "cos'è in ritardo?" · "cosa ho oggi?" · "cosa ho la prossima settimana?"
- 🇫🇷 "qu'est-ce qui est en retard ?" · "qu'est-ce que j'ai aujourd'hui ?" · "qu'est-ce que j'ai la semaine prochaine ?"
Navigate & Open maps
- 🇬🇧 "navigate to Eden" · "take me home" · "open Waze"
- 🇩🇪 "navigiere nach Köln" · "bring mich zum Bahnhof" · "öffne Waze"
- 🇮🇱 "נווט לתל אביב" · "קח אותי הביתה" · "פתח וייז"
- 🇪🇸 "navega a Madrid" · "llévame a casa" · "abre Waze"
- 🇮🇹 "portami alla stazione" · "naviga verso Milano" · "apri Waze"
- 🇫🇷 "emmène-moi à la gare" · "navigue vers Paris" · "ouvre Waze"
Check connection / Small talk
- 🇬🇧 "are you connected?" · "hi" · "thanks"
- 🇩🇪 "bist du verbunden?" · "hallo" · "danke"
- 🇮🇱 "אתה מחובר?" · "היי" · "תודה"
- 🇪🇸 "¿estás conectado?" · "hola" · "gracias"
- 🇮🇹 "sei connesso?" · "ciao" · "grazie"
- 🇫🇷 "es-tu connecté ?" · "salut" · "merci"
Paid (the assistant - Plus/Pro)
The assistant is fully multilingual, so any natural phrasing works - these are just examples. Anything that sends or changes waits on your Approvals.
Draft / send an email
- 🇬🇧 "reply to Elke that Friday works" · "email Dan I'll be there at 8"
- 🇩🇪 "antworte Elke, dass Freitag passt" · "mail an Dan: ich bin um 8 da"
- 🇮🇱 "תשיב לאלקה שיום שישי מתאים" · "שלח מייל לדן שאני אגיע ב-8"
- 🇪🇸 "responde a Elke que el viernes va bien" · "envía un correo a Dan: llego a las 8"
- 🇮🇹 "rispondi a Elke che venerdì va bene" · "manda una mail a Dan: arrivo alle 8"
- 🇫🇷 "réponds à Elke que vendredi convient" · "envoie un mail à Dan : j'arrive à 8h"
Calendar (create / move / cancel)
- 🇬🇧 "add dentist Tuesday at 3pm" · "move my 2pm to 4" · "cancel the dentist"
- 🇩🇪 "Zahnarzt am Dienstag um 15 Uhr eintragen" · "verschieb meinen 14-Uhr-Termin auf 16 Uhr"
- 🇮🇱 "תוסיף רופא שיניים ביום שלישי ב-15:00" · "העבר את הפגישה של 14:00 ל-16:00"
- 🇪🇸 "añade dentista el martes a las 15:00" · "mueve mi cita de las 14:00 a las 16:00"
- 🇮🇹 "aggiungi dentista martedì alle 15:00" · "sposta il mio appuntamento delle 14 alle 16"
- 🇫🇷 "ajoute dentiste mardi à 15h" · "déplace mon rendez-vous de 14h à 16h"
Your day / inbox brief
- 🇬🇧 "what needs my attention today?" · "sweep my inbox"
- 🇩🇪 "was ist heute wichtig?" · "räum meinen Posteingang auf"
- 🇮🇱 "מה דורש את תשומת ליבי היום?" · "עבור על תיבת הדואר שלי"
- 🇪🇸 "¿qué necesita mi atención hoy?" · "revisa mi bandeja de entrada"
- 🇮🇹 "cosa richiede la mia attenzione oggi?" · "controlla la mia posta"
- 🇫🇷 "qu'est-ce qui demande mon attention aujourd'hui ?" · "trie ma boîte mail"
Watch for something / stay on top of it
- 🇬🇧 "tell me when the landlord writes" · "never miss an invoice"
- 🇩🇪 "sag mir, wenn der Vermieter schreibt" · "verpass keine Rechnung"
- 🇮🇱 "תגיד לי כשבעל הבית כותב" · "אל תפספס אף חשבונית"
- 🇪🇸 "avísame cuando escriba el casero" · "no te pierdas ninguna factura"
- 🇮🇹 "avvisami quando scrive il padrone di casa" · "non perdere nessuna fattura"
- 🇫🇷 "préviens-moi quand le propriétaire écrit" · "ne rate aucune facture"
Where every feature is controlled
🤖 = an AI/agentic action (needs Plus/Pro, counts toward your daily agent actions). Everything else is free and on-device.
| Feature | Type | Turn on/off | How to use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Timed reminders | on-device | always on | "remind me at 19:00 to…" |
| Edit / complete / delete a reminder | on-device | always on | Tap a card to edit; swipe to complete/delete |
| Voice dictation | on-device | always on | Tap the mic; speak |
| Voice recognition language | setting | Settings → Voice language | Device language, or pin one |
| Smart turn-taking | setting | Settings → Smart turn-taking | Waits a touch longer when you pause mid-thought |
| Maps / navigation | on-device | always on | "navigate to Eden", "open Waze" |
| View / query tasks | on-device | always on | Items screen; "what's overdue?" |
| Connection test | setting | Settings → Connection → Test connection | Checks if your phone can reach the server |
| 🤖 Conversation (the assistant) | agentic | needs Plus/Pro | Ask or Voice tab - type or talk |
| 🤖 Calendar create / move / cancel | agentic | needs Plus/Pro | "add…", "move my 2pm to 4", "cancel…" |
| 🤖 Read your documents | agentic | needs Plus/Pro | "what's in the contract in my Drive?" |
| 🤖 Morning brief | agentic | Settings → Notifications → Daily brief (+ time) | Delivered daily; tap the brief card |
| 🤖 Inbox cleanup (auto-archive) | agentic | Settings → Inbox cleanup (+ frequency) | Auto-archives newsletters/promos |
| 🤖 Urgent-mail alerts | agentic | Settings → Automations → Urgent-mail alerts | Pushes genuinely urgent mail |
| 🤖 Follow-up nudges | agentic | Settings → Automations → Follow-up nudges | Drafts polite follow-ups in the daily review |
| 🤖 Email watches | agentic | say "track emails from X" | Remove: "remove the X watch" |
| 🤖 Money Guard (Pro) | agentic | Settings → Automations → Refund hunter / Renewal guardian | Finds money owed + drafts the claim; see below |
| 🤖 Standing goals (Pro) | agentic | say "always make sure I never…" | Manage in Settings → Standing goals |
| 🤖 Document / photo reading (Pro) | agentic | send a photo in Ask/Voice | Extracts deadlines, drafts replies |
| 🤖 Expense tracker (Pro) | agentic | Settings → Automations → Expense tracker | See below |
| 🤖 Threat Guard (phishing) | agentic | Settings → Threat Guard | Warns about spoofed/phishing mail; see below |
| Quiet hours | setting | Settings → Notifications → Quiet hours | Silences alerts in the window |
| Alert sound | setting | Settings → Voice & localization → Alert sound | Tap to preview + set |
Mail, calendar and documents
With Microsoft connected, the assistant can:
- Mail - search and read; draft a reply that threads into the original conversation; archive; and send (only after you approve).
- Calendar - read your events, and create, move, or cancel them. Any change is approval-gated - moving or cancelling a meeting always asks first.
- Documents - search your OneDrive and read a file back: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF. So "remind me what the deadline in the contract is" works against the actual document. (Scanned/image-only PDFs have no text to read - Shalev will say so rather than guess.)
On Google, the assistant sends mail and fully manages your Google Calendar (create / move / cancel). Reading your Gmail inbox and Drive documents - and the mail-reading automations below - need Google's restricted permissions, which aren't enabled yet; use Microsoft for those today.
The background automations that read mail - morning brief, urgent alerts, inbox cleanup, expense tracker, Money Guard, email watches and Threat Guard - run on Outlook / Microsoft 365 (and on Google automatically once full mail access is enabled).
🤖 Threat Guard - phishing protection (Plus & Pro)
New mail is checked for phishing and spoofing on the same schedule as the urgent-mail check: every 10 minutes on Pro, every 30 on Plus - the useful window, since a phishing mail is only dangerous until you open it.
It reads facts, not vibes: whether the sender really is who the display name claims, whether the message passed the checks proving it came from that domain, whether a link goes where its text says, whether an attachment is a type used to fake a login page, and whether you have ever heard from that sender before.
When it finds one it tells you exactly why:
This looks like a phishing attempt.
From: PayPal Service <service@paypal-sicherheit-verify.com>
- The sender name says "PayPal" but the mail was sent from paypal-sicherheit-verify.com, which is not a PayPal domain.
- A link displays "paypal.com" but actually goes to paypa1-login.com.
Don't click anything in it or reply.
It never deletes anything. By default it labels the message Suspected phishing and warns you; the mail stays in your inbox. Switch When one is found to Move out of inbox and it also files it into a Suspected phishing folder. Both are reversible from your normal mail app.
Settings → Threat Guard: on/off, Warn vs Move out of inbox, and Standard vs Strict sensitivity (Strict also flags near-miss lookalike domains, at the cost of the occasional false alarm).
Ask any time: "Check my inbox for threats" or "Is this email from my bank safe?"
Scanning uses none of your monthly assistant allowance - the checks are arithmetic on the message itself, not an AI call.
🤖 Expense tracker (Pro) - full lifecycle
The tracker is scan-driven: on the 1st of each month (and whenever you tap Run report now) it scans your mail for recurring invoice/subscription payments, emails you a clean HTML table (Service · Amount · Last paid · 12-month trend), and lists any new senders as Pending - nothing is tracked until you approve it.
All controls live in Settings → Automations → Expense tracker (requires a mailbox connected so it can email you the report).
| Goal | How |
|---|---|
| Activate / deactivate | Toggle Expense tracker on/off |
| Run it now | Tap Run report now |
| Approve a flagged expense | Pending approval → Approve → now tracked |
| Ignore a flagged expense | Pending approval → Ignore → skipped forever |
| Remove one after it was added | Tracked → Remove → drops from reports |
| Re-add one you ignored | Ignored → Re-add |
| Correct a mis-flag by voice | Say "ignore <Sender>, it's not a bill" |
It tracks recurring payments it can see in your email; there is no "add a made-up expense" form (by design - it learns from real mail). It runs once a month on the 1st, plus Run report now on demand.
🤖 Renewal Guardian (Pro) - never auto-renew by surprise
The Guardian scans your mail for upcoming auto-renewals, free trials about to convert to paid, and contract or document expiries, and warns you before the cancel window closes - so you renew on purpose, not by forgetting.
- Each upcoming renewal shows the service, the date it charges, and how long you have left to act.
- You get a heads-up push when a cancel window is within a week - once per renewal, never nagging.
- It only surfaces things it can see in your mail; it never cancels anything for you - it just makes sure the decision is yours.
Turn it on in Settings → Automations → Renewal guardian. Like every mail feature it needs a readable mailbox - live on Microsoft today.
🤖 Money Guard (Pro) - refunds, price drops & subscriptions
Money Guard reads your mail for money you can claim back, and for spend you can cut. It finds it and drafts the claim - you tap send. It never moves money or submits anything on its own.
| It catches | Example |
|---|---|
| Price drops | Something you bought is now cheaper - claim the difference |
| Delay compensation | A delayed or cancelled flight/train - EU261 and similar |
| Double charges | The same thing billed twice |
| Unpaid refunds | A refund promised or a return accepted, but the money never arrived |
| Expiring warranties | Cover about to lapse on something you own - use it or lose it |
Money Guard also includes the Subscription Auditor (forgotten subscriptions, silent price hikes, duplicates - "Found €X/yr to cut") and the Renewal Guardian (auto-renewals and free-trial conversions flagged before the cancel window closes).
Turn it on in Settings → Automations → Refund hunter (plus Renewal guardian and Expense tracker). Like every mail feature it needs a readable mailbox - live on Microsoft today.
Voice
- Tap into Voice and it's hands-free: it listens, you talk, it replies aloud, then re-arms for the next turn (a light tap + the ring turning to "listening" is your cue). Replies stream - it starts speaking the first sentence while still composing the rest.
- The ball tells you the state: still = idle, faster spin + breathing = thinking/working, swelling = speaking.
- It auto-sends about 0.5 seconds after you stop talking (tap the ball to send immediately, long-press to cancel), gives up after ~8s of pure silence, and tapping the ball while it speaks interrupts it. Keep talking while it's still thinking and it drops the premature send and waits for your full sentence. Turn on Smart turn-taking (Settings) if it ever cuts you off mid-thought - it waits a little longer when it hears you're not finished (it never makes the end snappier, only more patient).
- Greetings and reminders answer instantly (on-device, even as a guest); 🤖 questions that need your mail, calendar, documents or the web take a few seconds while the ball works. Reply voices (per language) are chosen in Settings → Reply voices - download a premium/enhanced voice once in iOS Settings and it shows up there automatically.
Links
Any link the assistant gives you - a Drive document, a maps route, a source it cites - is tappable right in the conversation.
Notifications for free users
Even without a plan, Shalev quietly keeps you on track with on-device notifications (no data leaves the phone, no AI):
- A morning note only on days you actually have items due ("3 items on your agenda") - no items, no notification.
- A single nudge if the app hasn't been opened in ~48h.
Both arrive silently in Notification Center. Plus/Pro users get the real 🤖 Morning Brief instead.