Natural Interaction

Context Switching

Enable smooth transitions between different tasks, topics, or interaction modes while maintaining conversation continuity and remembering relevant context across sessions.

Problem

Users frequently switch between different tasks, topics, or projects when working with AI systems, but lose context and have to repeat information each time they switch. This creates friction and reduces productivity.

Solution

Implement intelligent context management that tracks multiple conversation threads, remembers relevant information for each context, and provides seamless transitions between different topics while maintaining continuity within each context.

Examples in the Wild

Interactive Code Example

Implementation & Considerations

Implementation Guidelines

1

Maintain conversation history across sessions with clear visual indicators of context boundaries

2

Allow users to explicitly save and name different contexts for easy switching

3

Provide visual cues when context changes to avoid confusion about what the AI remembers

4

Implement smart context summarization to avoid overwhelming users with full history

5

Enable users to merge or split contexts when tasks overlap or diverge

6

Store context preferences locally first, syncing to cloud only with user permission

Design Considerations

1

Privacy concerns when storing conversation history across multiple contexts

2

Memory and storage limitations when maintaining extensive context across sessions

3

Potential for context confusion when switching rapidly between similar tasks

4

Need to balance context retention with the ability to start fresh conversations

5

Computational cost of maintaining and retrieving multiple active contexts

6

Risk of surfacing outdated or irrelevant information from previous contexts

Related Patterns