When Tobey gets it wrong

Tobey reads what you tell it, works out what you meant and where it belongs, and then does it. Most of the time that is right. Some of the time it is not, and it will not always know. Nothing here asks you to trust it blindly — the product is built so that you do not have to.

How it goes wrong

The mistakes are ordinary ones, and they tend to be the same few:

• A date or a time. “Next Friday”, “at 4”, “the day after” can each be read two ways. Tobey picks one, and it can pick the other one.
• The wrong place. Something you meant as a reminder is saved as a task, or a note lands in a list.
• A detail dropped or added. A name, an amount or a label that was in your sentence is missing from what was saved, or something you did not say is there.
• An answer about the world. Facts change, and an answer can be out of date or simply wrong while sounding sure. Answers that used the web are only as good as the pages they read.
• A file or a photo misread. A number on a blurry page, a handwritten line, a table with merged cells.
• Something misheard. When you speak instead of type, a word can be taken for another.

What stands between a mistake and your data

• It shows you what it saved. When Tobey writes something, the reply carries the row itself — the task, the reminder, the day — as it now stands. What you see is what is stored, not a description of it.
• Most saves have an Undo beside them. Tap it, confirm, and the change is taken back. Changes are undone newest first.
• Some things always ask first. Deletes, money, a guessed date, changing something you already have when you asked for a new one, and anything Tobey suggests itself always ask first — whichever you pick.
• You choose how much it may do. In Auto: Can look things up and save. Still asks about deletes and money. In Ask: Answers only. Never saves anything.
• Web answers list their sources. The pages Tobey read are under the answer, so you can read them yourself.

What to do when you spot one

• Read the row, not just the sentence. The reply says what Tobey thinks it did; the row under it is what happened. If they disagree, believe the row.
• Undo it, or just say so. “No, Friday — not Thursday” is enough to go on. Tobey can change what it saved, and shows you the row again when it has.
• Fix it by hand. Everything Tobey saves is an ordinary row in its section. Open it and edit it the way you would anything else.
• Thumbs-down the reply. It is kept against that exact reply, which is how a mistake becomes a test Tobey has to pass from then on.
• Check what it remembers. If Tobey has learnt something about you that is not true, it is in Settings → Memory, where every fact can be read, changed or deleted. How memory works.

Where to be careful

Check anything that matters before you act on it: a deadline you cannot miss, an amount of money, a dose, a date on an official document. Tobey is not a doctor, a lawyer or an accountant, and an answer from it is a place to start — never the last word on your health, your money or the law.

Tell us

If Tobey got something wrong in a way that cost you, or keeps making the same mistake, write to [email protected]. A person reads it.