Remember when we were optimistic about AI? Sure, healthy skepticism, but also pretty optimistic about devices like the Rabbit R1 potentially \u2018killing the smartphone\u2019 as we know it? The R1 moved 100,000 units and kept return rates under 5% in the initial phases, but those early reviews were brutal. Tech YouTube called it \u201cdog water\u201d and \u201cbarely reviewable,\u201d which is basically the digital equivalent of being declared DOA. The device promised a revolutionary AI experience where you could just talk and have things happen, but what users got was a gorgeous piece of hardware wrapped around software that felt half-baked at best.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s where things get interesting. Instead of pulling a Google and quietly killing the project, Rabbit doubled down. Over 16 months, they pushed 30+ over-the-air updates while building what they call a \u201cvery unique community\u201d of users who apparently enjoyed being beta testers for a $199 device. Now they\u2019re back with Rabbit OS2, claiming they\u2019ve completely rebuilt the experience from scratch. The question isn\u2019t whether they\u2019ve improved things, it\u2019s whether they\u2019ve improved them enough to matter.<\/p>\n
Design: Rabbit<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The biggest change is how you actually interact with the thing. The original R1 was almost aggressively voice-first, which sounds cool until you realize that talking to gadgets in public makes you look like you\u2019re having a breakdown. OS2 finally acknowledges that humans have fingers by adding proper gesture controls. Swipe down from the top for quick settings (brightness, volume, camera access), and you get bottom navigation buttons for muting conversations, typing follow-ups, or activating the camera. The conversation flow now appears on screen in real-time, so you can actually see what the AI thinks you said before it does something completely wrong.<\/p>\n
But the real visual differentiator is the new card stack system (which feels a lot like the Windows Phone if you ask me). Remember how nobody could figure out what the R1 actually did beyond looking pretty? Rabbit clearly got tired of that question because OS2 surfaces everything through discoverable cards. Swipe up from the main screen and you\u2019ll find your feature overview laid out like a deck of cards. Tap any card to jump into that function, or stick with the old push-to-talk method if you\u2019re feeling nostalgic. Card management works exactly like you\u2019d expect: swipe left to dismiss cards above the stack. It\u2019s basic UI design that should have been there from day one, but hey, better late than never.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The core features got meaningful upgrades too. Magic Gallery now centralizes all your Magic Camera photos through the card stack, while Rabbit Hole (their cloud service) finally supports bulk export for both processed and original images. Translation transcripts sync automatically to your account, and you can actually play back recordings directly on the device now, with AI transcripts uploading to your Rabbit Hole journal. The intern tasks feature gets a dedicated card for enhanced on-device agent interaction, which sounds fancy but basically means you can chat with their AI assistant without jumping through hoops.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s where things get sort of interesting: R1 Creations. Rabbit is positioning this as making the R1 the \u201cfirst vibe coding device,\u201d which is either brilliant marketing or complete nonsense depending on your tolerance for startup speak. The concept is actually pretty wild though. You have a conversation with the Rabbit intern, describe what you want built, and it creates custom apps, games, or tools right on your device within minutes. Their demo involved building a cyberpunk Pong game through natural language: \u201cBuild a Pong game with a cyberpunk theme,\u201d followed by back-and-forth refinement about neon colors, scroll wheel controls, and scoring systems. The AI clarifies details, you provide specifics, and apparently you get a working game deployed to your device.<\/p>\n
A vibe-coded version of Pong<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The implications here are fascinating if it actually works reliably. Alpha testers have already created a bunch of apps available for free installation at rabbit.tech, with QR code sharing for social distribution. Rabbit frames this as an evolution toward a new kind of app store, though you need intern tasks (their premium service) to create custom stuff yourself. The free library approach is smart, turning early adopters into content creators for everyone else.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
What\u2019s most telling is that all these improvements come via software update. The hardware remains completely unchanged, that iconic orange design intact, which means Rabbit is essentially admitting they shipped unfinished software at launch. The question now is whether OS2 delivers enough to justify the R1\u2019s existence in a world where your phone already does most of this stuff better.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The \u201cwhat can R1 do that your phone can\u2019t\u201d question still looms large. Conversational app creation is genuinely novel, but how often do normal people really need custom Pong games built through voice commands? Rabbit seems to be betting on a future where AI-assisted creation becomes mainstream, positioning themselves as the hardware platform for that shift. Whether that future arrives fast enough to save the R1 remains to be seen, but at least they\u2019re finally shipping software that matches their hardware\u2019s ambition.<\/p>\n
The post Rabbit R1\u2019s OS Update features a New Interface and Speech-to-Vibe-Coding Abilities<\/a> first appeared on Yanko Design<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Remember when we were optimistic about AI? Sure, healthy skepticism, but also pretty optimistic about devices like the Rabbit R1 potentially \u2018killing the smartphone\u2019 as we know it? The R1 moved 100,000 units and kept … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n