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Your smartphone just got a sweet upgrade, in the form of a virtual Time Outer who knows the city inside out. Here’s how to make the most of our latest recruit
Time Out has collaborated with Google to create Tio, the Time Out assistant – a virtual helper who fits in your pocket and can instantly recommend great things to see and do in the city.
How to talk to Tio
Time Out’s virtual helper can be accessed via the Google Assistant, meaning you’ll need an Android phone, or an iPhone with the Google Assistant app. To activate Tio, fire up the Google Assistant and ask to ‘Talk to Time Out London’.
From here you can say things like ‘what’s going on today?’, ‘Find me things to do this weekend’, or ‘where’s good to eat?’ Not sure how to get there? Just ask Tio for directions – you can even specify your mode of transport.
We grabbed a smartphone and hit the town to put Tio to the test.
‘What’s going on today?’ It’s the question Time Out staff get asked more than any other, so it was the obvious starting point in our Tio field test. Straight away, we’re shown three options, and we plump for Winterland in Fulham. It’s a good pick – the last time we were in this space it was a summer pop-up called Neverland, but it’s recently had a wintery makeover, complete with cosy lodges and fairylights.
We tell Tio we fancy an exhibition and it directs us east to Wilton’s Music Hall. Its new exhibition ‘Storybox: Tales of Absence, “What Ifs” and Salvation’ tells the colourful history of Wilton’s past, and as the oldest surviving Victorian music hall in the world, there’s plenty of it. Culture hankering = satisfied.
Overwhelmed by all the cool stuff going on and just wish someone would make the decision for you? Tell Tio ‘surprise me!’ and it’ll show you things going on nearby it thinks you’ll like. In our test, this meant a cosy evening up at The Moroccan Medina on the roof of The Queen of Hoxton, chilling out on rugs and chomping on halloumi fries.