Window Seat
Eye breaks for your Mac. Look out the window every 20 minutes, and never in the middle of a meeting.
What it does
20-20-20, done for you
Every 20 minutes, look at something 6 metres away for 20 seconds, the American Academy of Ophthalmology's rule for tired eyes. Every hour, a 5-minute stand-up break.
Never mid-meeting
Breaks wait while you're in a calendar event, on a call with your camera or microphone in use, or presenting full-screen, then start a minute after you're free.
Knows lunch from a meeting
On Macs with Apple Intelligence, Window Seat reads your event titles on your Mac and still gives you breaks during solo time like lunch or focus blocks.
Gentle first
A small reminder appears at the top of your screen. Ignore it and a 3-second countdown starts, and it holds until you finish typing. Snooze or skip any time.
A view out the window
Your screen drifts away into a sky that matches the time of day: morning mist, midday clouds, sunset, or the aurora at night. Pick the effect you like.
Private by design
No account, no ads, no tracking. Your calendar, your screen and your break history never leave your Mac.
Get started
- 1
Find the window in your menu bar
Window Seat lives in the menu bar. Click the window icon to see the next break, take one now, or pause for an hour or until tomorrow.
- 2
Let it see your calendar
Allow Calendar access so breaks wait for your meetings. In Settings → Don't Interrupt you can choose which calendars count and see how today's events will be treated.
- 3
Optional: show your screen during breaks
In Settings → General, turn on Show my screen during breaks and allow Screen Recording. Window Seat takes one still image as a break starts so your screen can drift into the sky.
Troubleshooting
A break started during my meeting.
Check that Calendar access is allowed and that the event's calendar is selected in Settings → Don't Interrupt. Events marked Free and events you declined don't count. If Apple Intelligence treated an event as solo time, change it in the Today list there.
I only see a sky, not my screen.
Window Seat needs Screen Recording permission to show your screen. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording, turn on Window Seat, then quit and reopen it.
Why does it ask about the camera and microphone?
Only to check whether another app is using them, so a break doesn't land in the middle of a call. Window Seat never records, and the camera light never turns on because of it.
Breaks come too often, or not often enough.
Change the timings in Settings → Breaks. Reset to Recommended puts them back to 20 minutes, 20 seconds, and a 5-minute break every hour.
Window Seat isn't there after I restart my Mac.
Turn on Launch at login in Settings → General.
Contact
Questions, bugs, or a break that landed at the wrong moment? Email google@npwitk.com and include your macOS version and what you were doing. I read everything.
Window Seat helps you build a habit of resting your eyes. It isn't medical advice; see an eye doctor if your eyes keep hurting.