Your first day with a dot

1. Create your dot

Your dot lives in the ChatGPT sidebar, right under New chat. Until you create one, the entry reads Your dot. Click it.

Create your dot is the first setup screen. Three short points say what you're getting. Click Continue.

Make your dot more helpful offers four Google apps in one go. Connect them now with Continue with Google, or skip with the link under the card. Your pick changes what happens when you hand over a job.

Choose Google plugins to install lists the four plugins, all switched on. On the real screen you can switch off any you don't want your dot to read. Google's own sign-in and consent pages come next: pick your account and tick every box.

A loading screen shows for a few seconds. Its caption is Setting up your dot, Creating your dot or, right after you install the Google plugins, Preparing skills.

Choose where your dot can work. Your dot always gets its own cloud computer. In the desktop app, Your local computer is already switched on when this screen appears. Switch it off if you'd rather keep your dot off this computer, then click Continue.

Your dot writes first. This one conversation is where everything happens from now on. It asks for a name: type one in the message box and send it, or pick one below.

The name is at the top of the conversation now, and it replaces Your dot in the sidebar.

2. Give it a job

Your dot asks what's on your mind. Pick one of three jobs to hand over: keep a project on track, watch an inbox, or prepare for meetings.

A good brief says what you want, where to look, what still needs you, and when to tell you. Read this one, then send it.

Delivered shows under your message at once. A moment later it changes to Read with the time.

You skipped the apps during setup, so your dot can't read your email. It asks in the conversation with a Connect with Gmail button. Click it.

Your dot says back what it will do, then starts. The chip with the spinner is the job. The line under the dot's name says what it's doing right now.

3. Watch it work

Click the dot's name and its profile opens. From the top: ways to reach your dot, its computers, its jobs under Recent activity, and its files under Outputs. Click Pip's computer to watch it work.

This is your dot's own computer, in the cloud. It reads your apps and does its work here, so it keeps going with your laptop shut. Watching doesn't give you control. Take over does.

You have control. Your mouse and keyboard now work inside your dot's computer. Hand it back with Return control.

4. It asks before doing something that matters

Your dot found something and stopped. An approval request is an ordinary message, with no button to press. You answer in your own words. Try any of the three replies.

Nothing was sent. For anything that goes to other people, the approval check wants a clear yes, and your dot writes out the sentence it will accept.

Sent. Your yes covered this one email. The next email brings a new question, unless a rule says otherwise. Open Custom rules to set one.

Declining is just saying no. Your dot keeps the draft and carries on with the rest of the job. The next email brings a new question, unless a rule says otherwise. Open Custom rules to set one.

5. Set one rule

Custom rules is in Settings, under Personalization. A rule tells your dot what to do every time it wants to take one kind of action. Click Add.

Add rule has two parts: the action, and what your dot should do about it. The action is filled in. Pick one of the four behaviors, then click Add rule.

Your rule is in the list, with its behavior at the end of the row. Your dot will always try to follow it, and can still get it wrong. Go back and see what the rule changes.

Another email comes up that afternoon. Under Take action without asking, your dot sends it and tells you afterwards. You find out once it's gone.

Another email comes up that afternoon. Under Take action when you say so, your dot sends without asking only when you asked for that email yourself. Nobody asked for this one, so it checks.

Another email comes up that afternoon. Under Ask before taking action, your dot asks every time. Your earlier answer doesn't carry over.

Another email comes up that afternoon. Under Hand off to you, your dot never sends email itself. It gets the draft ready and leaves the sending to you.

A plain "Yes, send it" is a clear answer, so the email goes.

You said no, so the draft stays where it is.

6. It delivers

At the end of the day your dot reports in the same conversation: the result first, then what it sent and what it left alone. The file also sits under Outputs in its profile.