iPromise
Bring "Body Doubling" to your Mac notch
269 followers
Bring "Body Doubling" to your Mac notch
269 followers
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.
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.
Congrats on launching! As someone who's sat in virtual study rooms this is intriguing, also an awesome name :) I guess one thing I got from people-populated study rooms was the feeling of reciprocity (the other people there also doing their own work) rather than surveillance. Curious what it will feel like to not have that, will take this for a spin.
Cubox
@ferdi_sigona Thank you! And yes, that distinction is really important to us too. I don’t think AI can fully replace the reciprocity of real humans working together, but maybe it can still help create a gentler sense of presence.
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Cubox
@myrto_skourletou Thanks for asking 😅 That’s actually a really interesting direction we’ve been thinking about too. I think personal daily promises could become much more meaningful alongside iPhone support in the future. Either way, we definitely hope iPromise will eventually grow into a cross-device experience, with Mac and iPhone working together naturally.
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@todd_j sounds great! good luck! looking fwd to try it out. What about those without mac/iphone? are they on your roadmap?
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.
Congrats on the launch! Personally, my biggest distraction is basically a "quick check" loophole. I'd open a new tab to look up one piece of documentation and end up in a completely different rabbit hole.
Quick question about the ambient sound: Will we be able to import or bring our own custom soundtracks or background audio loops or do you have/are you planning an integration with external players like Spotify or Apple Music?
Cubox
Thanks for sharing. For now we’re staying very focused on improving the core focus experience first. Interestingly, we’ve heard very similar requests from @Focast users too, so it’s definitely something we’re paying more attention to now.