Command, Dictate, Write: why three modes

Nixi has three buttons: Command, Dictate and Write. We tried to make it one thing and kept finding that people were asking for three different things.

Command: do something

"Open my notes." "Turn the volume down." "Set a timer for ten minutes." You are not asking a question, you are giving an instruction, and you want it done, not discussed. Command works out what you mean with firm rules, and checks it is acting on the window you meant before it types or clicks. It is built for the everyday jobs that are slow to do by hand and boring to describe.

Dictate: turn speech into text, anywhere

Dictate types what you say into whatever you are working in: a document, a message, a form. It takes out the "um"s and restarts, adds punctuation, follows spoken edits like "scratch that", and formats lists when you say you are making one. You can also keep your exact words if you prefer. Free dictation is the part of Nixi we want people to use every day, and it stays free.

Write: say what you want, get the text

Write is for when you know what you want to say but not how to say it: "write a polite reply saying I'll send it on Friday". Nixi writes it into the app you were in, and stops if you switch away halfway. It writes the text; sending it is still up to you.

Why three, not one

One chat box can do all of this, but it makes you say which one you meant, every time, and it puts the result in the chat box instead of where you were working. Three modes mean the pill already knows what you are about to do, so it can get out of the way.

Why Nixi mostly doesn't ask "are you sure?"

A voice assistant that confirms every little thing is exhausting, so most everyday commands just run. The exceptions are the things that are hard to undo, such as clearing all your reminders, where Nixi asks first. The flip side is that Command is like having your hands on the keyboard: use it with the same care.

What we are still improving

Voice control of a PC is a long road, and we say plainly that Nixi is a beta. It will misunderstand you sometimes. When it does, tell us in the Discord, with a screenshot, and we will fix it.