Provings Lab

Provings Lab is Similia's workspace for running and taking part in collaborative provings. A coordinator sets up the proving and adds participants; each participant records what they experience, in whichever way feels most natural — typing, speaking, photographing a handwritten page, or attaching a drawing.

You will find it in the app under Tools.

Who can create a proving, and who can take part?

Creating and coordinating a proving requires Pro and a verified email address. Without Pro, choosing "Create proving" opens an upgrade prompt that explains: "A Pro subscription is required to create and coordinate a proving." If your email address is not verified, creating a proving fails with the general message "We could not create the proving. Please try again." Verify your email address first, then try again.

Taking part does not require Pro. Anyone with a Similia account whose email address is verified can be added to a proving and take part. Provings a coordinator adds you to appear in your Provings Lab dashboard under the "Joined" tab.

There is no invitation to accept. The coordinator adds you directly, so ask your coordinator to add the email address linked to your Similia account — if they use a different address, the proving will not appear for you. Similia emails you when you are added, with a link to open the proving.

Creating a proving

The create screen asks for the essentials. Participants are added after the proving is created. There is currently no way to edit the name, substance, description, participant instructions, dates or AI credit sponsorship after the proving is created, so check them before you choose "Create proving". Participant identity visibility can still be changed afterwards (see below), and the proving can be closed and reopened.

• Proving name (required) — participants can see this, so do not put a blinded substance in the name.
• Substance or remedy (required) — only the coordinator can see this.
• Description and Participant instructions (optional) — the protocol: recording guidance, timing, and any study instructions.
• Start date and End date — both optional.
• Participant identity visibility — see below.
• Sponsor participant AI capture with my credits — see below.

Participant identity visibility

You choose this when you create the proving, and you can switch it either way until you add the first participant. After someone has been added, you can still hide identities, but you cannot reveal them. To change it, open the proving and use the "Participants can see one another" checkbox in the participant list (the People tab on a phone).

• Keep participants private — the participant list shows each person only themselves. The coordinator still sees everyone.
• Show participants to one another — participants see the names of everyone in the proving and the date each was added.

Either way, the coordinator can see each participant's account name and email address, every observation and transcript they save, and any images they upload.

AI credit sponsorship

Speech transcription and handwriting recognition requested by participants are paid for with the coordinator's Pro AI credits. Ticking "Sponsor participant AI capture with my credits" is required to create the proving.

These AI captures are optional for participants, and each participant must give their own AI-processing consent before using them. If you have not consented yet, Similia asks you when you choose "Start recording" or "Extract text"; you can also give consent in Privacy settings. The notice participants see inside the proving explains how the audio and images are processed and links to the Privacy Policy.

If the coordinator's Pro subscription is no longer active, or they do not have enough AI credits, participants see a message saying so and cannot use speech transcription or handwriting recognition. They can still type an observation or attach a drawing or photo.

Recording an observation

Open the proving and choose "Add observation". The composer offers four ways to record:

Voice recordings are capped at 10 minutes. If you reach the limit the recording stops and what you have is transcribed; record again to continue. The audio itself is used only to create the transcript and is not kept as a proving attachment. Temporary audio is deleted after transcription, although restricted recovery copies may remain for up to 7 days.

Each observation is stamped with an observed date, which defaults to now — change it if you are recording something you experienced earlier — and with the date it was actually recorded.

Who sees your observations?

• Participants see only their own observations. As the observation feed states: "Only you and the proving coordinator can see your observations."
• The coordinator reviews observations from every participant.

Active and closed provings

A proving is either Active or Closed.

• While it is Active, participants can add observations and the coordinator can add participants.
• When the coordinator closes it, observations become read-only until the coordinator reopens the proving. While it is Closed, the coordinator cannot add participants; reopen the proving first.

The coordinator can close and reopen a proving at any time with the "Close proving" or "Reopen proving" button at the top of the proving.

Leaving a proving or removing a participant

• A participant can leave at any time with "Leave proving" in the participant list (the People tab on a phone), even after the proving is closed.
• The coordinator can remove a participant with "Remove participant" next to their name in the participant list.

Either way, every observation, transcript and image that person saved in the proving is permanently deleted, including in a closed proving. This cannot be undone.

Finding your way around

The dashboard lists your provings with tabs for All, Created by me and Joined. You can search by proving name or substance. Each proving card shows your role (Coordinator or Participant), the status, the proving name, the substance (coordinator only), the participant count, and the date of the last activity.

On a wide screen the observation feed sits beside a column with the participant list and the details. On a phone or narrow window they are three tabs:

• Entries — the observation feed, most recently recorded first, showing how each entry was recorded, its observed and recorded dates, the spoken language of a voice entry when one was chosen, and any attachments.
• People — the participant list, where the coordinator adds and removes participants and changes identity visibility, and where a participant can leave the proving.
• Details — the overview, participant instructions, schedule and, for the coordinator, the substance.

Updated on: 11/10/2026