Using the Vinci app

Hosted services under maintenance: Vinci Chat, Mobile, Platform and the managed API are under maintenance. The instructions below are retained for when the relevant features are available; they do not promise access or a return date. This notice does not apply to public model downloads or Vinci Code’s bring-your-own-key setup. See the current products page .

This guide covers the basics of chatting with Vinci and getting better results — from your first message to the features most people find a week in.

Your first five minutes

Open vinci.getsimpledirect.com — you can try it right away with a few free messages a day, no sign-up needed.
Type anything in the message box and press Enter. Ask a question, paste an email to rewrite, or describe something you want explained.
Keep the conversation going — Vinci remembers the earlier messages in the same conversation, so follow-ups like “shorter” or “now as bullet points” just work.
When you switch topics, start a new conversation (in the sidebar). Fresh chats keep answers focused.
Liked it? Create a free account — verify your email to claim trial credits and use your memories and settings.

On a phone or tablet? Get Vinci from the App Store (iPhone/iPad) or Google Play (Android) — everything below works the same in the app.

The model

Every chat uses one of three classes. Click the model badge at the top right of the chat to open the class panel: it lists Vinci Mezzo, Vinci Forte, and Vinci Fortissimo from lightest to deepest, with Forte marked as the default. Switch there without leaving the conversation, or choose under Settings → Personalization. You can set a per-app override if one app should use a different class.

These are hosted-service class labels from the existing app guidance, not a ranking of the current downloadable models. Hosted access is under maintenance.

See What is Vinci? for a plain-language description.

Do more in a conversation

Depending on your device, you can:

Attach files and images

Use the attach button in the message box to add up to 5 files (max 8 MB each) — PDFs, documents, images, code, or data — then ask about them: “summarize this,” “what’s the total in this spreadsheet,” “explain this error log.” Data handling depends on whether a file is a conversation attachment or a document saved for retrieval. See Your data & privacy and the published Privacy Policy before uploading.

Search the web

Vinci automatically searches the web when a question needs current information, such as news, prices, releases, or weather. For bigger questions, it performs deeper research across multiple pages before answering. Answers based on web results include source citations.

Searches run mainly through our own Canadian infrastructure.

Weather, news, and other quick lookups

For questions with a real-time answer — “what’s the weather in Ottawa this weekend?”, “what’s the latest news on…” — Vinci automatically reaches for a live tool instead of guessing from memory, and shows the answer as a small card (current conditions, real headlines with sources). There’s nothing to turn on; Vinci decides per message when a quick lookup beats a plain answer.

Vinci asks before diving in

If you ask for something open-ended that’s missing a key detail — “plan a party,” “build me a website” — Vinci may ask one clarifying question first rather than guessing and doing the wrong thing. Answer it and Vinci picks up right where it left off.

Bigger decisions: Vinci Council

For a genuinely weighty, open-ended call — “should I raise a seed round or bootstrap?”, “is it worth switching careers?” — Vinci can convene a Council: a few independent takes on your question, reconciled into one honest answer that doesn’t paper over disagreement. You see the separate perspectives, not just the final take, so you can judge the reasoning yourself. This is reserved for genuinely tough calls — everyday questions still get a normal, direct reply.

Memories

Vinci can remember durable facts about you — your name, what you’re working on, that you prefer short answers. Two ways it happens:

You tell it. Say “remember that I’m vegetarian” and it’s saved.
It notices. When you mention something durable, you’ll see a small “Remembered: …” note with an Undo — nothing is kept if you undo.

Memories are stored on your device. If you turn on device sync, they’re also saved to your Vinci account so they’re available across your devices. See, edit, or delete any memory under Account → Memory — the whole list is right there, plainly readable, and deletions apply right away.

Custom instructions

Under Account, you can set standing instructions that apply to every chat — “answer in French,” “I’m a beginner, avoid jargon,” “always show code examples.” Vinci keeps them in mind everywhere, and you can change them anytime.

Private chat

For a one-off or sensitive question, start a private chat: nothing from it is saved anywhere — not on our servers for that mode and not even in your device’s history. Close it and it’s gone.

Not every option appears on every device yet — the app shows what’s available to you.

Get better answers

A few habits make a big difference:

Be specific. “Rewrite this email to sound friendlier and shorter” beats “fix this.”
Give context. Paste the relevant text, describe your audience, or say what you’ve tried.
Ask for a format. Bullet points, a table, a step-by-step list — just ask.
Iterate. If the first answer isn’t right, tell Vinci what to change rather than starting over. “Good, but make the second paragraph more formal” works.
One topic per conversation. Long threads that wander muddy the answers.

Things to keep in mind

Double-check important facts. Like all AI assistants, Vinci can occasionally be wrong or out of date — and sound confident about it. Verify anything that matters (numbers, names, legal or medical details).
Your conversations stay on your device by default. They aren’t stored on our servers unless you turn on device sync — so history won’t follow you to another device until you do. See Your data & privacy.