Chatlet

gist

Chatlet is a research prototype that sits beside a group chat and turns the conversation into an interface the group decides with, without anyone asking for it. Instead of regenerating UI each turn, it keeps one shared decision object per room, made of things, slots, and views, which an agent patches as messages arrive. Demos cover a Friday brunch poll, a 10:30 brunch clashing with an 11:00 opening, cross-time-zone scheduling, a cover vote, and a New York trip plan.

ideas

• The interface takes shape from the conversation. A poll appears as soon as dates come up, and a constraint such as a deli that opens at 11 lands on the map so the group can move the plan.
• One decision object per room, not a new UI per turn. Things are typed objects like a restaurant with location, hours, and price; slots are facts to settle and decisions with alternatives, preferences, and constraints; views choose cards, a map, a compare table, a calendar or time pool, a dashboard, or custom code.
• Small merges keep everyone on the same thing. An agent decides whether a message changes the decision and merges small updates, so the interface evolves in real time instead of being regenerated.
• A calendar is a few lines of spec. "Can we meet wed or thu?" becomes a time decision rendered as a calendar; mentioned meetings become context events, a meeting length yields proposals that dodge them, answers live on candidates, and a London viewer sees relabeled hours.
• Renderers swap over the same data. The calendar can switch to a time pool with the same alternatives and answers, nothing copied; the 3:44 video adds that Chatlet can sit in the thread, float, or dock, and that the work is sponsored by a Microsoft Research Fellowship.

quotes