Chat history on a paper
Save, browse, and switch between multiple AI conversations on the same paper.
How conversations are saved
Your current chat is kept locally as you type, so a page refresh never loses your messages. It is written to your account when one of these happens:
- You start a new conversation
- You open the chat history window
- The app saves it explicitly in the background
Because saved conversations live on your account, you will see them again whenever you reopen the paper, on any device you sign in from. You need to be signed in for history to persist; see Getting started.
Starting a new conversation
Use the new chat button in the chat header to begin a fresh thread. Your previous conversation is saved automatically in the background before the chat clears, so nothing is lost.
This is the right move when you want to change topics on the same paper. Keeping unrelated questions in separate threads also keeps each conversation's context focused, which tends to improve answer quality.
Browsing past conversations
Open the chat history window from the history (clock) icon in the chat header.
Each entry shows:
- A title taken from the first message in that thread
- When it was last updated (for example, "Today at 2:14 PM" or a date for older threads)
- How many messages it contains
The conversation you currently have open is highlighted in the list.
Switching to a conversation
Click any entry to load it back into the chat panel.
Deleting a conversation
Each entry has a trash icon. Deleting asks for confirmation and is permanent, so use it only for threads you are sure you no longer need.
About conversation titles
Titles are generated automatically from the first thing you did in the thread. A free-form question shows up as the question text; a starter action shows up as its label (for example, "Summarize" or "Key Findings"); a quick action on selected text shows up as something like "Explain: quantum tunneling". There is currently no manual rename option, so the most reliable way to make a thread easy to find later is to lead with a clear first question.
Tips
- Open chat history before you switch papers if you want to be sure the current thread is saved.
- Start a new conversation when you change topics; shorter, focused threads get better answers.
- Lead each thread with a descriptive first question, since that question becomes the title in the history list.
- For the basics of asking questions, citations, and the model picker, see Chat with paper.