Document chat
Document Chat is the mobile companion to Hilal Software’s Document Chat and shares the same backend. Upload a document; ask questions of its contents; get answers with citations back to the source page.
In this guide:
- Upload a document
- Start the chat
- Ask questions
- Use citations
- Manage your document library
Prerequisites
- AI usage available on your plan.
- The document is in a supported format: PDF, DOCX, TXT, MD.
Step 1: Upload a document
Open AI Features → New Chat → Upload document. The document picker opens; pick a file from your device, your iCloud Drive, or Google Drive.
Hilal indexes the document. For short docs, this takes a few seconds. For long docs, up to a minute. While indexing, you’ll see a progress indicator.
Step 2: Start the chat
Once indexing finishes, the chat screen opens.
The document thumbnail and name appear in the header so you always know what you’re chatting with.
Step 3: Ask questions
Type a question. The assistant answers from the document only — not the open internet, not your seller data.
Examples:
- “What’s the early-termination clause in this vendor contract?”
- “Summarize the testing requirements section.”
- “Find every reference to ’lead time’.”
Step 4: Use citations
Every answer cites the source page or section. Tap a citation chip — the document opens to that exact location with the cited passage highlighted.
Step 5: Manage your document library
The library is shared with the web’s Document Chat. Open AI Features → All Chats → the documents you’ve uploaded across all devices appear there. Delete from any device; the document and its index are removed everywhere.
Mobile vs web
| Mobile | Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Upload size | 50 MB max | 50 MB max |
| Formats | PDF, DOCX, TXT, MD | + RTF |
| Side panel for citations | Bottom sheet | Right side panel |
| Multi-document chat | Single doc per chat | Single doc per chat |
The two are the same product; pick whichever interface is closer at hand.
Coming soon
- Multi-document chat — chat across multiple documents in one thread.
- OCR for scanned PDFs — scan an old contract with your camera, chat with it.
Troubleshooting
- Upload failed. Check file size (≤50 MB), format (PDF/DOCX/TXT/MD), and that you have AI quota available.
- “Indexing failed”. Some scanned PDFs without OCR can’t be indexed. Run OCR (Acrobat, Preview’s “Make text searchable”) and re-upload.
- Wrong answer. Tap the citation; if the cited passage is correct but the answer mis-summarizes, rephrase the question or ask for a verbatim quote.
- Storage limit reached. Delete old documents from the library, or buy the Extra storage add-on on the web.