AI features and your data

How permission works

• Asher asks first. Before you use AI help, the app explains what will be sent to OpenAI and why. Related features share one clear choice, with the details below.
• You choose. Turn on AI help opens one short review. Where a question is waiting, Allow and ask Asher allows the reviewed choice and sends that question. Not now cancels that attempt in one tap and saves no choice. You can finish setup, join your family, read past chats, and use the available manual Handbook and Plans features without turning on AI help. Joining does not turn it on.
• One AI-help choice per adult. Your choice covers Ask, Handbook, Plans and requested help in Family Chat, including relevant saved family information. Family Chat opens once every adult has turned on AI help. One adult cannot turn it on for another, and private Ask chats stay private.
• You can change your mind. Turn AI help off in Settings. This also pauses Family Chat for your family: past messages stay readable, but nobody can post until everyone has AI help on. It does not recall information already sent or delete your saved records. Turning it back on does not send an old question.
• We ask again when things change. If we change what a feature sends or why, the app asks you again.

AI help

Your choice covers your private chats, their follow-up tools, help with Handbook and Plans, requested help in Family Chat, and understanding explicit changes you ask Asher to make when those features are available. Required safety checks are part of that choice. Saving a suggestion or making a consequential change still uses the feature’s review and confirmation steps.

Relevant saved family information

AI help includes relevant saved Handbook cards, family profiles and Plans, including shared records added by either adult. There is no extra saved-information switch. Asher includes what a request needs, and with every reply it also includes your family’s reviewed care details (such as allergies, medicines and conditions) and a few of your most important notes, so it doesn’t miss them. Another adult’s private Ask conversation is not shared context.

Turning your AI help off stops your new AI requests, including their use of saved information. Another adult’s private AI help can remain on. Earlier chats stay readable and manual Handbook and Plans remain available.

Requested help in Family Chat

The same AI-help choice covers the shared conversation; there is no second Family Chat switch. While anyone has AI help off, past messages stay readable but nobody can post. If yours is off, Turn on AI help replaces the composer and opens the review in place. If another adult’s is off, the app names them: “Family Chat opens once Sam turns on AI help.” It does not show their private chats or permission history. Once everyone has it on, adults can post short notes to each other. Asher replies only when addressed.

When chat memory is available, Asher may remember relevant details between chats under the same AI-help choice; there is no separate memory switch. Gmail remains a separate connection. AI help does not enable a feature marked Not available yet. Before making one available, we’ll update this page and our Privacy Policy and ask you to review AI help again; a new provider or materially different information use also requires another review.

Asher is in beta, and some features on this page may not appear for every family yet.

How OpenAI handles your information

• Asher sends each request from our servers, not from your iPhone, and includes only what that feature needs.
• OpenAI uses the information to produce the reply or suggestion and send it back to Asher.
• We use OpenAI under business terms, not a consumer chatbot service. Those terms don’t allow OpenAI to train its models on your family’s content. OpenAI may keep request data for up to 30 days to monitor for abuse, and then deletes it.
• Asher treats text that comes from emails, calendars and other outside sources as information, not as instructions.

Our Privacy Policy explains how Asher itself keeps and protects your information.

Ask and Family Chat

Replies in Private Ask

What’s sent: your message and eligible context from your private conversation, including the text of a scanned note in it (see Scanned notes and forms); relevant saved Handbook, family profile and Plans information; your family’s reviewed care details (such as allergies, medicines and conditions) and a few of your most important notes, included with every reply so Asher doesn’t miss them; and your chosen response style when applicable. These are included under your AI-help choice, not separate switches.

Why: so Asher can write its reply. Only you see a Private Ask chat.

Asher’s replies in Family Chat

What’s sent: the message asking Asher to reply and eligible messages from that Family Chat, including the other adult’s; relevant saved Handbook, family profile and Plans information; your family’s reviewed care details (such as allergies, medicines and conditions) and a few of your most important notes, included with every reply so Asher doesn’t miss them; and your chosen response style when applicable. Private Ask conversations are not included.

Why: so Asher can write a reply the adults see together when addressed. Every adult must have AI help on before anyone can post to Family Chat. If not, past messages stay readable, but nobody can post until everyone has AI help on.

Safety check before Asher replies

What’s sent: the message you just sent, and the text of a scanned note in that chat (see Scanned notes and forms).

Why: an automated check sorts the message by topic, so stricter rules apply to health, legal questions and anyone’s safety. It runs only when the AI choice for that request allows it; it is not a separate switch. Asher keeps a basic label for how the message was handled, without the message itself.

Scanned notes and forms

If you scan a note, flyer or form, or choose a photo or file, and tap Ask Asher about this, your iPhone reads the text and shows it to you first. Asher keeps only the text you check, encrypted, for up to 24 hours, and never the photo. That text goes to our AI provider, OpenAI, with your question, for Asher’s safety check and to write the answer, and Asher can use it again for follow-up questions in that chat. In a private chat, the other adult can’t see it. It’s removed when you discard the scan, after 24 hours, when you leave the family, or when you delete your account. Asher’s replies stay in the chat.

You can also scan or choose a photo or file in Plans or the Handbook, or share text or a link to Asher from another app. Asher keeps that text the same way and works with it using its own rules, not our AI provider, unless you tap Ask Asher about this.

Follow-up buttons in Private Ask

What’s sent: the private chat you’re in, your family’s Handbook and profiles, and how you’ve asked Asher to speak to you.

Why: to write what you asked for when you tap a button such as Give me the script, Make a quick plan, Draft a message or Summarize what we decided.

Follow-up buttons in Family Chat

What’s sent: the Family Chat conversation you’re in, including the other adult’s messages.

Why: to write what you asked for when you tap a follow-up button. Both adults see the result.

Handbook

Creating a Handbook card with Asher

What’s sent: what you type while creating the card, the template you picked, if any, your family’s Handbook and profiles, and how you’ve asked Asher to speak to you.

Why: to draft a card for you to review. Nothing is saved until you save it.

Safety check on a new card

What’s sent: what you type while creating the card.

Why: to check for health, legal and safety topics before Asher drafts the card, so stricter rules apply.

Handbook Builder conversations

What’s sent: the messages in your private Handbook Builder conversation, your family’s Handbook and profiles, your family’s plans, and how you’ve asked Asher to speak to you.

Why: so Asher can reply in a conversation about building your Handbook. Only you see it.

Handbook suggestions from a conversation

What’s sent: the private conversation you’re in, your family’s Handbook and profiles, and how you’ve asked Asher to speak to you.

Why: to draft a Handbook card from the conversation when you ask. You review it before anything is saved.

How Asher uses a card

What’s sent: the Handbook card and related details from your family’s Handbook.

Why: to write or refresh the short note on a card that explains how Asher uses it.

Summaries of profile notes

What’s sent: the note you saved about a family member and related details from your family’s Handbook.

Why: to write an optional short summary after you save the note. Your note is saved either way.

Suggesting a note’s priority

What’s sent: the note you’re writing about a family member and related details from your family’s Handbook.

Why: to suggest how important the note is before you save it. You decide.

Offers to save a detail from chat

What’s sent: the message you just sent and related details from your family’s Handbook.

Why: to check whether your message includes a detail about a family member that you might want to save, and offer to save it. Nothing is saved unless you review and save it.

Plans

Prep checklists

What’s sent: the event, related plans, your family’s Handbook and profiles, and how you’ve asked Asher to speak to you.

Why: to suggest things to get ready for an event. You pick which items to add.

Reminder wording

What’s sent: the event and related plan details.

Why: to suggest wording for an event reminder when you tap Generate wording. Nothing changes until you tap Use wording.

Reading forwarded email

What’s sent: the subject and text of an email you forward to your Plans Inbox address, or that a sender you trust emails to it, and the text of any PDF attached to it, when Asher’s own rules find nothing in it, or clearly fewer dates and deadlines than it mentions. Asher always looks with its own rules first.

Why: to find suggestions for you to review. This only happens for an adult who has turned on AI help. Suggestions wait in your Plans Inbox until an adult adds them. Connecting Gmail is a separate feature and is not processed this way.

The Plans digest isn’t written by AI. Asher puts it together with automated rules on our own systems.

Not available yet

These features aren’t available yet, so Asher doesn’t send anything to OpenAI for them. Before making one available, we’ll update this page and our Privacy Policy, and the app will ask you to review AI help again.

Conversation memory

Not available yet. Short summaries of earlier conversations, so you don’t have to repeat yourself. When available, this is part of AI help, not a separate switch. Clear chat memory will let you remove those remembered details without turning AI help off or deleting your saved Handbook and Plans.

Web searches

Not available yet. Searching the web to answer time-sensitive questions in Ask and Family Chat.

Plan with Asher outing ideas

Not available yet. Ideas for outings built from nearby places and local events.

Adapting a shared Handbook card

Not available yet. Public links to Handbook cards, and adapting a card someone shares with you, aren’t available yet.

Changes you ask for in Plans

Not available yet. When you ask Asher in Ask or Family Chat to change Plans, for example to add to a list or move an event, Asher will send the message you send to OpenAI to find the changes you asked for in Plans. What Asher changes is in Plans for your family to see, and for a day afterward the person who asked can undo most changes.

Questions

Email [email protected]. See also our Privacy Policy and AI & Safety Disclaimer.