A desktop companion for macOS

There’s someone living up here.

DeskMate is a small hero who lives in the strip of screen above your windows. He wanders, swings from a web, and keeps an eye on your cursor. He never takes a single click.

Free for 3 days. Then $2.99, once.
No subscription, ever.

Lives inthe menu bar · no Dock icon
Runs onmacOS 14 or later · Apple silicon & Intel
Collectsnothing. Not one byte.

01 Motion

Nothing here is a loop.

Every frame of DeskMate comes out of a physics simulation. Momentum, a pendulum on a real web, weight moving through the legs, a gait that changes with speed. His pose is solved from all that, not keyed by hand, so he never snaps between canned clips and never does the same thing twice.

The one at the top of this page runs on a much smaller cousin of that engine. Pull him down, fling him sideways, rush him with your cursor. The readout on the right is him, live.

debug overlay live

state: HANG
web: 0 px
speed: 0 px/s
tilt: 0.0°
cursor: outside
mood: curious

The app’s own overlay shows forty-odd of these. This is the polite version.

02 A minute in the margin

01
Wander
He walks the top edge upside down, at his own pace. The gait shifts with speed, and he stops when something catches his eye.
02
Shoot
When the far side looks better, he fires a line at the ceiling and lets go.
03
Swing
A real pendulum on a real web. The legs trail on the way down and kick through on the way up.
04
Hang
Then he settles and dangles a while, looking around. Idle is simulated too.
05
Notice
Bring your cursor into his world and he clocks it: a glance, a flinch, a step back. Then he gets on with his day.

03 Your cursor

He notices you. He doesn’t chase you.

DeskMate is not a cursor toy. He never follows your mouse, never grabs a click and never sits on the window you are working in. Every click passes straight through him to whatever is underneath.

He has a world, a 170-point strip along the top of each screen, and a little peripheral vision below it. What happens in his world, he reacts to. What happens in the periphery, he sees and leaves alone. Everything below that is none of his business.

Move your pointer across the panel. On a phone, drag a finger.

his world 170 pt

peripheral 140 pt

your work

band: —
reacts: —
clicks: pass through

04 Reminders

Reminders, delivered by hand.

Set one from the menu bar. When it comes due, he zips over and throws it up on a web where you can’t miss it, with a sting of its own.

Done or Snooze for 5 min, 15 min or an hour, right on the web.
Repeats: never, every day, weekdays, every week, every month.
A macOS notification goes up at the same time, for when he’s off screen. Answering one clears the other.
Everything is stored on your Mac. Nothing syncs, nothing uploads.

05 The rival

Every few minutes, something drops in.

A glossy, grinning knot of black goo with his build, his reach and none of his manners. It shows up after a minute or two of quiet, then every few minutes after, and the two of them settle it across the top of your screen in about thirty seconds.

iAn ambush he barely sees coming
iiA tendril snare, and a web to the eyes
iiiFive seeded exchanges across ~450 px
ivA web-yank, a plucked web, a swing-in kick

Nothing explodes. Nobody throws bombs. Turn it off in Settings, and with Reduce Motion on it never comes at all.

06 Made to be ignored

A companion you have to manage is a chore.

No streaks, no tasks, nothing to check. He lives in the menu bar with no Dock icon and no window, quiet by default and one click from hidden.

Displays: Every screen gets its own world, or just the main one.
Tuning: Size, world height, how much he moves, how touchy he is about your cursor.
Personality: Curious, calm or playful.
Full screen: He steps off any display a full-screen app takes over, and comes back after.
Reduce Motion: Honoured, or overridden if you’d rather.
Cobwebs: Optional silk in the corners of the screen, as thick as you like.

07 Privacy

Nothing leaves your Mac.

0analytics or tracking SDKs

0accounts, logins or sign-ups

0network requests of its own

0peeks at your screen or keystrokes

Your settings and reminders live in the app’s own preferences, on your Mac. To react to you he reads where the pointer is, in the moment, and nothing else. The only conversation DeskMate ever has is the App Store checking your purchase, and that one is between your Mac and Apple. Read the privacy policy

App Privacy

Data Not Collected

The developer does not collect any data from this app.

08 Pricing

Three days free. Then $2.99, once.

No subscription and no renewals. The trial costs nothing and never turns into a charge by itself.

Free trial01

Free

for 3 days

Everything, reminders included
The menu bar counts the days down
When it ends he leaves your screen, and nothing is charged

DeskMate Lifetime02

$2.99

once · never renews

Yours for good, on every Mac signed into your Apple Account
Updates with new behaviours, poses and reactions included
Restore any time from the menu bar

DeskMate is free to download and unlocked by a one-time in-app purchase. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Prices are in US dollars and may vary by storefront; the price shown at checkout applies. Refunds are handled by Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com. By purchasing you agree to the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy.

09 Questions

Fair questions.

Something not covered? Support has the rest, and a way to reach a person.

Will he get in the way of my work?

No. He stays in the strip above your windows, every click passes straight through him, and he never sits on top of the window you’re using. If a full-screen app takes over a display, he steps off it.

What happens when the trial ends?

He leaves your screen until you unlock him. Nothing is charged automatically, and your settings and reminders are kept for when you do.

Which Macs does it run on?

Any Mac on macOS 14 Sonoma or later. It’s a universal app, native on Apple silicon and Intel.

I have more than one display.

Every display gets its own world and its own hero by default. You can limit him to the main display in Settings.

Does it need any permissions?

None to run. If you use reminders, macOS will ask once whether DeskMate may post notifications. No Screen Recording, no Accessibility, no keystroke access, ever.

I bought it on another Mac.

Choose Restore Purchases from the DeskMate menu bar item while signed into the same Apple Account. There’s no charge.

Can I get a refund?

Purchases go through Apple, so refunds do too: request one at reportaproblem.apple.com.

Give him the top of your screen.

3 days free · $2.99 once · macOS 14+

There’s someone living up here.

Nothing here is a loop.

Wander

Shoot

Swing

Hang

Notice