NearBye: Your Mac locks the moment you walk away

NearBye watches how near your iPhone is and locks your Mac when you leave the room. It uses Bluetooth signal strength, so any device with BLE support works. Apple Watch or Touch ID unlocks it when you're back. Menu bar app, no account, no internet required, no subscription — $4.99 once on the Mac App Store.

Hi PH 👋 I'm Batmend, I build small Mac apps from Ulaanbaatar. NearBye exists because I never once locked my Mac before getting up for coffee. Not once, in years. I didn't need a better habit, I needed the laptop to notice. So: it watches your iPhone's Bluetooth signal, and when you're a room away it locks. You come back, your Watch unlocks it, and you never think about the app again. You pick "steps away / a room away / far away" instead of tuning dBm (which you can totally do if you want to) Three things I want to be upfront about, because this category oversells hard: 1. It doesn't unlock. App Store sandboxing means no app can type your password. Some apps fake this with an overlay window. I'd rather lean on Apple Watch or Touch ID to unlock, which are already instant and actually secure. 2. There's a ~10–20 second grace window. You can configure it to be as low as 1 second if locking is a top priority, but remember that Bluetooth is noisy. 3. Nothing leaves your Mac. There's no networking code in the app at all. No account, no analytics, no server for me to breach. $4.99 once. Happy to answer questions :)

honestly the bluetooth signal strength trick is way more reliable than i expected, no more awkwardly waving my phone around to unlock my mac

honestly this is exactly the kind of mac app i needed, the bluetooth range detection feels smooth and it just works without any setup hassle. four ninety nine once is honestly a steal for something this convenient

the no-account no-subscription thing is honestly so refreshing, and using ble signal strength instead of some sketchy cloud check is a really smart call. $4.99 feels like a steal for something this well thought out.

honestly the bluetooth signal strength trick is way more reliable than i expected, no more awkwardly waving my phone around to unlock my mac