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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:

  1. Just say/type it in Ask or Voice ("draft a reply…", "watch for…").
  2. Toggle it in Settings, for the background automations.
The golden rule for agentic actions: Shalev reads instantly, but it never sends or changes anything without you. Every email it would send, every calendar event it would create/move/cancel, waits on your Approvals list - you tap Approve or Modify first.

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"
Free vs paid, at a glance: if it's a reminder, your list, navigation, a maps app, or small talk, it's free and instant. If it touches your email, calendar, or documents - reading, drafting, sending, watching - that's the assistant (Plus/Pro), and a free/guest account is gently nudged to upgrade rather than charged.

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 approvalApprove → now tracked
Ignore a flagged expense Pending approvalIgnore → skipped forever
Remove one after it was added TrackedRemove → drops from reports
Re-add one you ignored IgnoredRe-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 dropsSomething you bought is now cheaper - claim the difference
Delay compensationA delayed or cancelled flight/train - EU261 and similar
Double chargesThe same thing billed twice
Unpaid refundsA refund promised or a return accepted, but the money never arrived
Expiring warrantiesCover 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.