Paste a link into the chat and the tutor now opens it, reads it and answers from it. A web page, a PDF, a shared Google Doc or Drive file, a picture: you no longer have to copy the text across or download the file first. And on the plans that include it, the web search button now has the tutor search the web for you, with every source listed.
Until now a link was just text to the tutor. It could not see what was behind it, so the most it could do was ask you to paste the content. Students sent articles, assignment sheets, shared notes and lecture slides as links every day, so this is the change we were asked for most.
Paste a link, get an answer from it
Write your question and put the link in the same message: "What does this page say about how water moves in plants?", "Summarise this PDF", "Make me five questions from this article". The tutor opens the link, reads what is there and answers from it, and it tells you the answer comes from that link.
It can open:
- Web pages, including pages that build their content as they load.
- Files behind a link: PDF, Word, PowerPoint and other documents. A long document is read from the start; to work with all of it, add it to your subject (see below).
- Shared files from Google Docs, Slides, Sheets and Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint and Dropbox, as long as they are shared with "anyone with the link".
- Pictures: a diagram or a photo of a page is read from the image itself.
- iTutor share links: a quiz, flashcards, an exam or a chat someone shared with you. These are read inside the app. If an exam belongs to someone else, the tutor sees its questions but never its answers.
You can put up to two links in one message, for example to compare two articles.
See what it read
While the tutor is opening a link, a small chip in the chat says so: Opening biology-notes.org…. When it is done the chip changes to Opened biology-notes.org, with the site's own icon, and tapping it opens the page in a new tab.
Under the chip you get a picture of what the tutor read: the top of the web page as it looked when it was opened, the first page of a PDF, or the image itself. Tap the picture and it opens full size inside the chat, with the page's title, an Open the page link and a close button. So you can check at a glance that the tutor read the right page, not a cookie banner or a sign-in screen.
Sources you can recognise
The page the tutor read is listed under the answer as a source, with the site's icon beside its title, so you can tell sources apart at a glance. Tap it and the page opens.
When your question is only about the link, the answer lists only the link. Your subject's own files are not shown as sources for something they had nothing to do with. Ask the tutor to bring them together, for example "Does this page agree with my notes on osmosis?" or "Compare this article with chapter 3", and it reads both, says where they agree and where they differ, and lists the page and your files as sources.
Keep it: add the page to your subject
Under a page or file the tutor has read, a card offers to add it to your subject. Tap Add to subject and the page is saved there as a file (a PDF of the web page, or the document itself), read like anything else you upload. From then on it is part of your material: the tutor answers from it, cites its pages, and you can make flashcards, quizzes or notes from it.
Honest when it cannot open something
Not every link can be read, and when one cannot, the tutor says so in one line and tells you what will work instead. It never describes, summarises or guesses at a page it did not read, not even from its address.
- A page behind a login, such as a class portal: download the file, or save the page as a PDF and upload it.
- A shared file that is not public: share it as "anyone with the link", or download it and upload it.
- A video: the tutor cannot watch videos, so paste the transcript or upload the slides that go with it.
- A site that blocks reading, a page that is gone, or a very large file: the tutor tells you which, and the simplest way round it.
Safe by design. The tutor only opens public pages on the open web. It never signs in anywhere as you and cannot reach private networks. What a page says is treated as information to answer from, never as instructions: a page that says "ignore your rules" is quoted, not obeyed.
Search the web, with sources
Sometimes you do not have a link yet, you have a question your material does not fully cover: a recent discovery, a current event, a second explanation of something your textbook rushes through. Tap the globe button next to the message box (Search the web). A Web search on chip shows it is on, and the tutor searches the web before it answers.
The web adds to your material; it does not replace it. The tutor still starts from what you uploaded and brings in what the search found. The web results are listed under the answer next to your own files, so you can see which is which, and each one opens in a tap. Web search is included in the Premium, Pro and Enterprise plans. Opening a link you paste works on every plan, Free included.
Try it
Open a subject, paste a link to something you are reading for class and ask a question about it. Try "Explain this page simply", "What are the three main points of this PDF?" or "Does this article agree with my notes?". If the page is one you will come back to, tap Add to subject and it stays with the rest of your material.