Intermission 4 is here—with bug fixes, Focus Timers, smarter Auto Pause, flexible skip controls, and more ways to make sure you actually take a break.
Intermission is a break reminder for your Mac that can be as gentle or as hard to ignore as you need.
Long stretches at a screen can leave your eyes tired and your body tense. Intermission helps you look away, stand up, or reset at regular intervals. It stays quietly in your menu bar until it’s time to take a break.
ALLOW YOURSELF TO SKIP?
Intermission takes over your full screen, reminding you to take a break. Configure whether this can be skipped immediately, require a short delay, or prevent skipping entirely. Want something gentler? Choose notifications instead of full-screen breaks
FOCUS TIMERS (NEW)
Need to focus for a set amount of time? Start a focus timer and finish with a full-screen break, giving your work session a clear stopping point.
MAKE IT YOURS
• Follow the 20-20-20 rule or choose your own cadence
• Pauses automatically for meetings, calls, video playback, screen sharing, full screen apps
• Customize your message, color, and chimes
• Cover every connected display
• Track your streak of completed breaks
• See streak progress or artwork after each break
• Snooze, reset your next break, or start a Focus Timer from the menu bar
PAY ONCE
Try Intermission free for 7 days, then unlock it forever with a one-time purchase. No subscription. Family Sharing is included.
Intermission is an independent Mac app by Alex Greene. Since 2018, it has helped people take millions of screen breaks.
Questions, feedback, or support: studio@alexgreene.me
This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
Best in class
remuell
I’ve been using this app professionally for at least five years. Plenty of spin-offs exist, but nothing compares to the elegance and out-of-the-box functionality that Intermission provides. Other tools struggle with multi-monitor configurations, or fullscreen apps, or reliable system notifications; Intermission handles them all perfectly. The developer is still actively updating the tool this many years in, adding smart-suspend features (e.g. don’t trigger breaks when in a video call) and other customizations. I’m proud to be a customer and would purchase Intermission all over again if given the opportunity!
Developer Response
Thank you for writing this and for being a long time customer. I'm so glad the new update is resonating with you! My goal is to keep Intermission simple, elegant, smart, and effective.
A Must Have
gwa-rowyn
It is often easy to forget to take care of yourself. It doesn't give you an option, it takes the wheel from you. You can't make a poor decision if you take that decision off of the table.It also present articles from doctors discussing eye fatigue and shows examples of near sightedness. Both are friendly reminders of the importance of giving your eyes a break.
Does the job
kevinwparker
Bought this to remind myself to take eye breaks periodically as I was starting to see double. It’s worked very well. The only complaint I have is that it always seems to interrupt me at a key moment, though the latest version seems to have settings designed to make that occur less often.
Developer Response
Thank you, I love to hear when Intermission is working! As you mention, the latest update intends to ease the interruptions with Auto-Pause. If you're finding the interruptions poorly-timed even after enabling these new settings, please write to me through the in-app Support tab with some details about the key moments you want un-interrupted, that way I can brainstorm improvements to address them.
Eyes and body!
Jessica Gulish
Working from home I have found I don't move once at my desk so not only has this app helped me change my view to help my eyes but I usually get up to stretch, walk or get some water. It's super easy to pause or skip if you have meetings. The only thing and maybe I just don't know it is I wish there was a keyboard shortcut to get back to your screen after a break.
Intermission 4 is here, with more control over your breaks.
• Choose whether breaks can be skipped immediately, after a short delay, or not at all
• Auto Pause now recognizes meetings, calls, video playback, screen sharing, and full-screen apps
• Set custom durations for your break timing
• New Focus Timers end focused work sessions with a full-screen break
• Improved reliability, countless bug fixes, and compatibility with modern macOS
Thank you so much for choosing to use Intermission. Feedback is always welcome, and support is available at studio@alexgreene.me.
Version 4.0
The developer, Alex Greene, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Usage Data
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
Alex Greene
Size
15.7 MB
Category
Health & Fitness
Compatibility
Requires macOS 13.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 13.0 or later.
Languages
English and 11 more
English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese
