LookAway - Break Reminder
Eye Care, Blink & 20-20-20
Only for Mac
Free · In-App Purchases
The Mac app your body thanks you for.
If you spend your day in front of a screen, your eyes get tired, your neck tightens, and your posture suffers. LookAway gives you smart screen breaks, blink reminders, and posture nudges that quietly fit into your workday, so you can reduce eye strain and build healthier habits without fighting a timer.
The difference is timing. A break reminder is only useful if you actually keep it on, and most people turn timers off the moment they pop up during a meeting or deep work. LookAway is built around a simple idea: a break reminder should never become the interruption.
BREAKS THAT RESPECT YOUR FLOW
LookAway detects when you're busy and waits for the right moment. Smart Pause automatically delays breaks when it detects:
• Meetings and calls
• Video playback
• Screen sharing and recording
• Fullscreen games
• Deep-focus apps you choose
It also understands idle time, so stepping away counts as a real break instead of triggering a pointless one.
PLAN THE BREAKS THAT MATTER
Planned Breaks let you schedule breaks at a fixed time of day, like a lunch pause or an afternoon walk. Give each one a name, duration, and the days on which it repeats. They still respect Smart Pause, so a planned break waits patiently if you are busy and starts the moment you are free.
MADE TO FIT YOUR DAY
• Custom break intervals, durations, and long-break schedules
• A pre-break reminder and floating countdown so nothing catches you off guard
• Blink and posture reminders to fight dry eyes and tech neck
• Office Hours so reminders only show during your working day
• Skip and snooze controls, including snooze limits to keep one long stretch from drifting forever
SEE YOUR PROGRESS
• A Stats dashboard for screen time, breaks, your longest session, and median session length
• Screen Score, a single number that reflects how well you are taking care of your eyes
• A menu bar Quick Look panel with session controls at a glance
MAKE IT YOUR OWN
• Custom break messages and animated break backgrounds
• Optionally lock your screen when a break begins
• Automations with Apple Shortcuts, AppleScript, and custom scripts
• Focus Filters integration
• Sync breaks with your iPhone and iPad
NATIVE, PRIVATE, AND LIGHTWEIGHT
LookAway is a native macOS app built for Apple silicon and Intel Macs. Activity detection happens on your device. It is designed to sit quietly in your menu bar and use minimal system resources.
Take care of your eyes, your neck, and your focus. Download LookAway and give your body the breaks it deserves.
Requires macOS 13 (Ventura) or later.
Questions or feedback? Reach us at hello@lookaway.app.
Terms of Use: https://lookaway.app/terms/
Privacy Policy: https://lookaway.app/privacy/
more This update makes LookAway multilingual -- the whole app is now available in German, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese:
- Everything is localized -- onboarding, settings, break screens, notifications, and menus
- New Language option in settings lets you run LookAway in a different language than your system
- Durations, schedules, and dates now follow each language's native conventions
- Fixed a memory leak that made LookAway's memory usage grow with every completed break
- Fixed away detection never kicking in while keep-awake utilities like Caffeine were running
- Assorted layout fixes, including stats columns that no longer cut off wide values
Enjoy the update! As always, if you have any feedback or face any issues, feel free to reach out at hello@lookaway.app.
2.4.1 1 day ago
This update brings your breaks to your iPhone's lock screen:
- Breaks synced to your paired iPhone now appear as a Live Activity on its Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, with the break's name and icon and a live countdown
- Picking break types for iPhone notifications and automations is now a row of toggles instead of a menu that closed after every selection
- Fixed custom breaks being labeled "Short break" in a few places
- Fixed the menu bar menu responding slowly to hovers when opened over the Quick Look panel
Enjoy the update! As always, if you have any feedback or face any issues, feel free to reach out at hello@lookaway.app.
2.4.0 7 Aug
This update makes LookAway fully accessible -- VoiceOver, complete keyboard navigation, and every macOS accessibility setting are now supported across the app -- and adds a fairer scoring rule for skipped breaks:
- LookAway now works end-to-end with VoiceOver: every control is properly labeled, break screens announce themselves, and moments like a break ending or the screen about to lock are announced
- Added keyboard support throughout the app
- Reduced Motion is now respected everywhere
- Increase Contrast and Differentiate Without Color are also respected: text on animated backgrounds becomes easier to read, and selections gain checkmarks so color is never the only cue
- Skipping a break no longer counts against your score if you take a full break within 5 minutes of the skip
- Reduced the discrepancy between your total screen time and per-app usage breakdown totals
- Fixed the score in the menu bar lagging one update behind
- Fixed the timer occasionally getting stuck on "Dragging" after the mouse was released
- Fixed the Remove button in the break message editor being able to delete a message from the wrong list
- Fixed plugging in a display or waking mid-break restarting the auto-lock countdown
Enjoy the update! As always, if you have any feedback or face any issues, feel free to reach out at hello@lookaway.app.
2.3.1 5 Aug
This update redesigns how LookAway handles natural breaks, adds on-demand breaks, brings three new animated break backgrounds, and includes a big round of performance and reliability fixes:
- Stepping away from your Mac no longer triggers a blocking dialog when you return. LookAway now quietly makes the right call on its own and shows a brief toast with an undo option -- and if it's obvious you never left, it stays completely silent.
- Added a new menu bar option where you can see how your last away time was handled and fix it if LookAway got it wrong.
- Advance skipping is back: skip an upcoming break ahead of time, with a configurable daily limit.
- You can now start a break whenever you want, at any length you want. Access it from the menu bar, keyboard shortcut, or AppleScript.
- Added three new animated break backgrounds: Slipstream, Fireflies, and Topography.
- The menu bar options have been reorganized, making it easier to find common actions.
- Planned breaks you miss are now marked as ignored instead of counting as skipped.
- Fixed the app freezing (spinning beachball) when a browser was slow to respond during website checks.
- Significantly reduced CPU usage while LookAway sits idle in the background, for better battery life.
- Fixed the idle pause silently not working while a planned break was coming up.
- Fixed office hours occasionally turning back on right after being stopped.
- Fixed hearing two chimes when a planned break came due at the same time as a reminder.
- Fixed notification toasts sometimes appearing in the middle of the screen.
- Fixed FaceTime calls showing up as "avconferenced" in Smart Pause.
Enjoy the update! As always, if you have any feedback or face any issues, feel free to reach out at hello@lookaway.app.
2.3.0 24 July
This update fixes some small bugs:
- Fixed the new progressive blur showing a gray slab when Reduce Transparency is turned on
- Fixed break screen not resizing to the new screen orientation when a MacBook in clamshell mode is disconnected from an external screen
- Fixed a rare case where the countdown would survive session restart and start counting down from total session length
If you face any bugs or have any feedback, do not hesitate to reach out!
2.2.6 12 July
This update contains visual enhancements and bug fixes
- Notifications now have a progressive blur around them on macOS 26 (can be toggled off)
- Cursor countdown now shows the upcoming break name instead of generic "Starting break"
- Fixed Timer Style dropdown bug where it the top item would get highlighted every second
- Fixed menu bar text not updating to the next event name in case of contiguous calendar events
- Fixed snoozed planned break starting immediately after coming back from idle
As always, if you face any issues or have any feedback, don't hesitate to reach out!
2.2.5 8 July
This is a critical update that fixes a major bug in stats:
- Fixed a bug in Stats settings where browsers could not be enabled for usage stats
- Fixed close button in notifications not working on macOS 13.0
- Fixed a rare bug that caused LookAway to not automatically start according to configured office hours
- Added a keyboard shortcut option to start a short break immediately
- Break screen is now hardened and doesn't allow peeking into open apps while navigating through Mission Control
If you face any other issues, please reach out via Email or Discord. Thank you for using LookAway!
2.2.4 6 July
This update fixes a few intermittent but annoying bugs:
- Fixed an issue where some browsers could not be enabled for stats due to a race condition
- Fixed pairing code not being generated right after purchasing a subscription and required an app restart
- Fixed idle time not being honored after the breaks got over automatically
As always, if you face any issues or have any feedback, don't hesitate to reach out!
2.2.3 2 July
This update adds more control over Smart Pause, makes screen sharing detection more reliable, and fixes a couple of planned break issues:
- You can now choose which apps are excluded from video detection. Common video editors and music apps (like Final Cut, DaVinci Resolve, and Spotify) are added automatically if they're installed, and you can remove them or add your own.
- Snooze limit notifications are now off by default -- you can turn them back on in Settings if you'd like the reminders.
- Fixed "Start break" in Quick Look starting a regular break instead of the planned break shown as next.
- Fixed snoozing a planned break from the break screen trimming a little time off it -- it now keeps its full duration.
- Other small improvements and enhancements.
As always, if you face any issues or have any feedback, don't hesitate to reach out!
2.2.2 1 July
This update is a small one focused on fixing a few issues from 2.2.0:
- Fixed an issue where smart pause could get stuck thinking you were still typing (or dragging), keeping your breaks paused even after you'd stopped.
- Fixed the "+1m" snooze on the break reminder skipping the next reminder -- it now reappears before your break as expected.
- Fixed planned breaks scheduled just after midnight not showing up as the next break until the day rolled over.
- Fixed break stats occasionally showing a cut-off duration like "3-" instead of "30s".
- Other small improvements and enhancements.
As always, if you face any issues or have any feedback, don't hesitate to reach out!
2.2.1 27 June
This update adds Planned Breaks, improves smart pausing, and fixes a few small issues:
- Added Planned Breaks: breaks that happen at a fixed time you choose, like a lunch pause or an afternoon walk. Set them up under Settings → Screen Breaks → Planned breaks.
- Improved meeting detection so breaks resume more reliably after a call ends.
- The countdown icon in the break reminder now reflects your current activity.
- Custom break durations can now be set in hours.
- Skipping a break no longer shows a warning, so it is quicker to dismiss.
- Restored the edit menu in custom break messages so you can copy and paste.
- Long breaks can now be dismissed with a double Escape.
- Fixed a few licensing issues.
- Cleaned up the menu bar menu by removing some extra items.
- Other small improvements and enhancements.
If you face any issues or have any feedback, don't hesitate to reach out!
2.2.0 23 June
This update contains the following improvements:
- LookAway now treats dictation similar to typing and pauses if dictation is active when a break is less than 10 seconds away. This gives you enough time to finish your thoughts and not be interrupted mid sentence. It works out of the box with many popular dictation apps, but you can add choose your own apps under Settings → Smart Pause → Dictation Apps.
- A new setting in wellness reminders has been added which allows you to hide reminders from being captured during screen sharing or recording.
- A new toggle is added in screen breaks settings page to disable "x snoozes left" notification.
- Fixed an issue where clicking on snooze buttons in break reminder would sometimes open up Quick Look.
- Fixed a rare bug where the font editor window opens up and doesn't go away.
- Other small improvements and enhancements.
2.1.2 15 May
This update contains the following fixes:
- When no snooze limit is set, the snooze message no longer appears
- Volume settings now have the same number of adjustments
- Wavebox is now supported for website usage stats
- When menu bar display setting is set to "icon and text", the "Stopped" state now only shows the icon to save space.
If you face any issues or have any feedback, don't hesitate to reach out!
2.1.1 30 Apr
This update brings the following changes:
- Stats can now show website usage along with app usage. Go to Settings → Stats to enable it.
- You can limit snoozes per session in addition to per day. Go to Settings → Screen Breaks to configure.
- Fix gaming detection
- Fix deep focus app detection
- Exclude Endel app from video detection
- Optimize CPU usage
If you have any feedback, don't hesitate to reach out at hello@lookaway.app
2.1.0 23 Apr
This update contains the following improvements:
- Snooze options can now be accessed from the menu bar context menu (right-click)
- Added support for iPad sync
If you face any issues or have any feedback, don't hesitate to reach out!
2.0.1 10 Apr
LookAway 2.0 is here with a major update focused on insight, polish, and a more beautiful experience.
• Screen Score — a new metric that shows how well you’re following healthy screen habits throughout the day
• Detailed Stats Dashboard — see your screen time patterns, session lengths, break history, and app usage
• Quick Look panel — a mini control center from the menu bar with live session info and quick actions
• Liquid Glass redesign — rebuilt interface designed for macOS Tahoe
• Animated break backgrounds — calm, ambient visuals for your break screens
• New sounds — gentler and more calming reminders
• Postpone limits — set boundaries so breaks don’t get pushed forever
• Numerous improvements and refinements across the app
If LookAway helps you feel better during long screen sessions, a quick review on the App Store helps more people discover it.
2.0.0 7 Apr
- Changed the idle controls naming to be more accurate
1.14.10 23/12/2025
This update contains the following fixes and improvements:
1. Add an option to disable the "Did you take a break" notification in Settings → Smart Pause
2. Fix a bug where LookAway starts automatically after an hour
3. Fix excessive CPU usage and freezes when a microphone is added or removed
4. Fix video & meeting detection falsely triggering from QuickLook extension
If you face any issues or have any feedback, do let me know!
1.14.9 03/12/2025
This update contains the following fixes and improvements:
1. Fix a bug where meeting detection would kick in even after it's turned off
2. Calendar Events Smart Pause: Added an option to only pause for accepted events
If you face any issues or have any feedback, do let me know!
1.14.8 24/11/2025
This update contains the following fixes and improvements:
1. Fix a bug where the break reminder and countdown disappears when you go idle
2. Added support for frequencies as low as 10 seconds in Wellness Reminders
3. Added preparations for 2.0
If you face any issues or have any feedback, do let me know!
1.14.7 17/11/2025
This update contains the following fixes and improvements:
1. Fix a bug where the "Settings" button in smart pause notifications did not work
2. Add a "Don't Show Again" button to smart pause notifications
If you face any issues or have any feedback, do let me know!
1.14.6 19/09/2025
This update contains the following fixes and improvements:
1. Office Hours do not change anymore when you move to a different timezone.
2. A custom duration for the reminder visibility can now be set from settings.
3. Fix a bug where, for some users, LookAway would pause itself momentarily.
4. A potential fix for the bug where none of the shortcuts appear under Automation settings.
If you face any issues or have any feedback, do let me know!
1.14.5 16/09/2025
Updated for macOS 26
1.14.4 10/09/2025
This update contains the following enhancements and fixes:
- Added a new compact design for break reminder notifications. The compact design shows the most essential information, and the rest of the information is visible on hover. You can switch it from the Break Schedule settings.
- Added flexible scheduling options to office hours. This lets you customize the office hours for each day separately. Head over to Break Schedule → Office Hours to set it up!
If you face any issues, don't hesitate to reach out!
1.14.3 14/08/2025
This update packs a ton of performance & stability improvements, including the following fixes:
- Fixed a bug where, in a multi-monitor setup, the break screen would show the default wallpaper instead of the actual wallpaper on secondary screens.
- Fixed a bug where postponing a break failed via Raycast when the countdown was visible
- Quick screen lock and unlock doesn't cause the timer to restart anymore
If you face any issues, don't hesitate to reach out!
1.14.2 07/08/2025
This update makes LookAway multilingual -- the whole app is now available in German, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese:
- Everything is localized -- onboarding, settings, break screens, notifications, and menus
- New Language option in settings lets you run LookAway in a different language than your system
- Durations, schedules, and dates now follow each language's native conventions
- Fixed a memory leak that made LookAway's memory usage grow with every completed break
- Fixed away detection never kicking in while keep-awake utilities like Caffeine were running
- Assorted layout fixes, including stats columns that no longer cut off wide values
Enjoy the update! As always, if you have any feedback or face any issues, feel free to reach out at hello@lookaway.app.
more Version 2.4.1 1 day ago
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