iPromise - Bring "Body Doubling" to your Mac notch
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Freedom kills focus. iPromise is a new deep work protocol built on the principle of Body Doubling, the idea that having a "witness" boosts accountability. // Your AI Buddy lives elegantly in your Mac notch. It understands your active window’s context. When you drift into distractions, it gently nudges you back. // Make a promise. Your buddy helps you keep it.
Replies
lovely, cant wait to give this a go. how are you handing the screen context, is it local? the better question would be if it's a one time payment or a subscription?
Cubox
@cryptolock Right now, screen context is sent directly to the AI provider you choose, without passing through our servers at all. Results/history are stored in your own iCloud account, and we don’t collect or keep any of that data or context ourselves. Longer term, I’d also love to support more local/on-device setups.
As for pricing, looking at the roadmap ahead, I think subscription will realistically be the foundation. But I’m still open-minded about whether some kind of one-time option could make sense over time.
Hey Todd! As great as this is - it poses a serious privacy/security threat. E.g. I read "Your screen data never sends to us", but how do you independently ensure this to users?
Cubox
@salsalabim1 That’s a very fair concern, right now, the main thing we do is keep the architecture as transparent as possible: requests go directly from your Mac to the AI provider you choose, without passing through our servers. API keys stay in your local keychain, and results are stored in your own iCloud account.
That’s also part of why we chose to ship through the App Store. In practice, iPromise doesn’t use our own servers at all for AI processing. At least for users with some technical background, this is something that’s verifiable rather than something that simply requires trust in our wording.
moop
I love all the animal avatars! The design is super neat. Is it possible to adjust the "tone" of your buddy? For example, I personally would find it more intriguing if it was very blunt and sassy to me when I get distracted, rather than giving a polite, long paragraph...
Cubox
@joseph_fattal I honestly love this idea too 😄 I’d really like to support more personality styles over time, maybe even fully custom buddies eventually. There are still some design and technical challenges around making that feel coherent and emotionally natural, but it’s definitely something I'm paying attention to.
as a fellow mac indie — curious how you handle the notch UI on non-notch macs (external display, MBA M1)? does it gracefully fall back to menubar, or hide entirely?
Cubox
@qifengzheng Yep We actually support a floating mode too, the HUD can detach from the notch and live anywhere on the screen, which works nicely for non-notch Macs and external displays as well.
@todd_j nice — that detached floating mode answers it. one follow-up: on a multi-monitor setup, does the HUD follow the active window's display, or stay pinned to where the user last placed it? always-on-active is friendlier but pin-where-placed is less surprising.
The notch as a surface for ambient companions is a genuinely good call — it's one of the few places on the Mac where a glanceable element doesn't feel like it's stealing real estate. Quick question: is the "buddy" reacting to anything (active window, time in app), or is it purely a timer/animation? I'm trying to figure out whether this works for me as a vibes nudge vs. an actual focus signal.
Cubox
@dsewell2707 Right now the UI itself reacts to behavioral signals, while the buddy animations are still mostly ambient rather than fully adaptive. but that’s a pretty exciting direction! 😄 That said, we see the vibe aspect as just the beginning. Our real principle is still, to actually helping people solve the focus problem in meaningful ways.
Body doubling is underrated for solo devs working alone means no ambient accountability. Curious how the AI version compares to actual co-working sessions. Does it react to what you're doing or mostly just stay present?
Cubox
@imad_elkhafi That’s actually part of what fascinates me about AI too. It may never create the exact same emotional reciprocity as real humans, but it has unusual potential when it comes to recognizing patterns, behaviors, and attention shifts over time. Right now, the companion aspect is just the beginning. We’ve supported distraction awareness and gentle nudges, but long term we want to explore any genuinely helpful mechanism, not just simulate real-world coworking.
@todd_j Pattern recognition over time is where it gets genuinely useful not just presence but actually learning when you drift. That's a much more interesting direction than just putting a face on screen.
I really love the idea, the characters, and the ability to add sound during a session. The integration into the Mac interface is really beautiful! But I wonder - is it possible to remove screenshots automatically after the app has finished working with them?