Dispute
A referee for arguments going in circles.
SupportOne phone, two people, about fifteen minutes. If something has gone wrong, or you want to know what the app does with what you type, it is all below — and you can always just email me.
One phone, two people, about fifteen minutes
Some arguments go in circles. You have both made the same point four times, you both feel unheard, and neither of you can say what you are actually disagreeing about any more. Dispute is for that one.
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Say your side
Each of you takes the phone and writes what you think, on your own, with the other person not reading over your shoulder.
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Tick the same list
Both sides are broken into one combined list of plain statements, shuffled, with the names taken off. You each go through it and tick what you agree with. Because you cannot tell whose point is whose, you end up judging the point.
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Take the other side
Still on your own turn, you pick one point you crossed out, make the best case for it, and say what would change your mind.
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See the crux
Where your ticks match is common ground — usually more than either of you expected. What is left is one question, chosen so that either of you would change your mind depending on the answer, and one thing you could actually go and do to settle it. Then the whole thing is written up.
Dispute does not tell you who is right, does not score the argument, and has no opinion about either of you. If it ever reads as though it does, that is a bug and I want to hear about it.
There is no account and no sign-in. Only one of you needs the app — there is no second device, no invite and no code to share.
The app asks before it sends anything
The AI is off until you turn it on. The first screen you ever see is the one drawn here, and nothing leaves the phone until you answer it.
The list of points and the crux are written by Mistral Medium 3.5. What you both write is sent to Mistral, a French AI company, to be read by the model. It is on Mistral's free tier, and it is not used to train anything — the account this app uses has opted out. The app says so on that first screen, before you type anything.
Nothing leaves the phone at all. You each write your own points, and the two of you name the crux together from a filled-in draft. It is a complete way to use the app rather than a stripped-down one, and it is how the app started.
- The names you type are never sent. The app calls you "Person A" and "Person B" and puts your names back in on the phone.
- No account, no sign-in, no analytics, no advertising identifier, no crash reporting.
- No server of mine holds anything with your name on it, because there is nowhere to put a name.
Shall the AI do the hard parts?
Mistral Medium 3.5, free, nothing to sign up for. Needs a connection, and what you both write goes to Mistral.
Either way, you can change it in Settings.
The first screen, drawn to scale
Something went wrong
If none of these is your problem, the next section is a real person.
01It says the AI can't be reached
The list of points and the crux are written by Mistral's model, which needs a connection. If you are offline, or the request fails, the app says so and offers to carry on by hand — you write your own points, and the two of you name the crux together from a filled-in draft. You do not lose the argument you were part way through.
02It says the free limit has been used up
The AI is free, and the free allowance is shared between everybody using Dispute. On a busy day it can run out, which is not something you did. Wait a few minutes and try again, or press Carry on without the AI and finish the argument by hand.
If you would rather have an allowance of your own, Settings has a slot for a Mistral API key. It is optional and most people will not need it.
03It refused to work with what I wrote
Arguments get heated, and the model's safety filter can refuse a particular wording. The app asks you to reword that bit, and the session is kept — nothing you have already done is lost.
04How do I stop anything being sent to Mistral?
The app asks before it sends anything. The first screen you ever see offers two buttons — Use the AI and Do it by hand — and until you pick the first one, nothing leaves the phone.
To change your mind later, open Settings in the app — the gear in the top right — and turn Use the AI off. The app then runs entirely on your phone: you each write your own points, you name the crux together, and no network request is made at all.
05Where is my argument stored, and how do I delete it?
The one argument you have open is kept in a single file on your phone. There is no cloud copy, no sync and no account. Settings → Delete this argument removes it, and deleting the app removes it too.
What the two of you type is sent to Mistral to be processed while the AI is on. See the privacy policy for exactly what that means.
06It named a question that wasn't really what we were stuck on
That is the most useful thing you can tell me, and the hardest thing to test without you. Email me what it said, and — this is the important half — what the right question would have been.
07Do we need two phones, or an account each?
No. One phone, passed over twice. No accounts, no invites, no second device, and nothing is shared between users of the app.
08I'm testing it through TestFlight and the app has stopped working
TestFlight builds expire 90 days after they are uploaded, and the argument saved in one goes with it. That is Apple's limit rather than a fault. If a new build is available, TestFlight will offer it; if you think it has expired early, tell me which build you were on.
09Accessibility
Every screen works with VoiceOver and Dynamic Type, and the app follows the system light or dark appearance. Haptics can be turned off in Settings. If something is unusable at a text size you rely on, that is a bug — please send me a screenshot.
Contact
I read everything that arrives. Email is much the best way to reach me, and it is the one thing I can be relied on to answer.
The single most useful thing is what was on the screen when it happened — a screenshot says more than a description. Along with it, if you have them:
- What you were doing just before, and which step you were on.
- Whether the AI was on or off.
- Your iPhone model and iOS version (Settings → General → About).
- The version of Dispute, from the bottom of the app's Settings screen.
You do not need to send the argument itself, and please do not feel you should.