LookAway — smart breaks for healthy eyes and a clear mind
Staring at a screen for hours dries out your eyes, stiffens your neck, and slowly drains focus. LookAway is a lightweight menu-bar companion for macOS that notices before that happens and nudges you to rest so you can return feeling fresh instead of fatigued.
With LookAway 2.0, you also get deeper insight into your screen habits, a beautifully redesigned interface, and a smarter way to stay consistent with healthy screen routines.
What LookAway does:
• Schedules micro and long breaks automatically
Choose a classic 20-20-20 routine or set your own work–rest rhythm. Skip or snooze when you genuinely need a few more minutes, and LookAway will adapt without nagging.
• Knows when not to interrupt
It detects active microphones and screen recording to stay quiet during calls or demos, and it can even exclude specific apps. Calendar integration pauses breaks during the events you pick, so presentations run smoothly.
• Gives gentle, purposeful nudges
Subtle cursor wiggles, a running timer in the menu bar, soft chimes, and full-screen visuals remind you to blink, stretch, or simply look away before discomfort sets in.
• Understand your screen habits
LookAway now includes a detailed statistics dashboard that shows how your day at the screen unfolds — including break history, session lengths, and app usage.
• Screen Score
A simple daily score that reflects how well you stick to healthy screen habits. It gently encourages shorter sessions and consistent breaks without turning your workflow into a rigid timer.
• Quick Look control center
The menu bar now opens a compact panel showing your current session, Screen Score, and quick actions like starting the next break or pausing reminders.
• Covers more than eye strain
Separate reminders keep tabs on posture, blink rate, and overall screen overtime. Timers reset after each successful break so you start every session with a clean slate.
• Designed for macOS
LookAway is built specifically for Mac and now features a refreshed interface designed for macOS Tahoe’s Liquid Glass style.
• Calm break experiences
Break screens now feature beautiful animated backgrounds and redesigned sounds that make stepping away from the screen feel more relaxing.
• Fits right into macOS workflows
Control it with Shortcuts or AppleScript, automate pause–resume flows, and manage seats or devices from a simple license dashboard when you add teammates.
• Stays feather-light and private
LookAway idles at under 1% CPU and about 100 MB of memory, processes everything locally, and never ships your activity off your Mac.
Who LookAway is for:
• Designers, developers, writers, and gamers who spend most of the day in front of a monitor
• Remote workers bouncing between back-to-back video calls
• Anyone battling dry eyes, headaches, or that foggy post-screen feeling
If that sounds like you, give LookAway a spin. Set your first break cycle and feel the difference after just a few sessions — your body (and your work) will thank you.
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You can subscribe and pay on the App Store using your Apple ID. Payment will be charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. Your subscription will automatically renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renew may be turned off after purchase by going to the ‘Manage Subscription’ page in settings. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription where applicable.
Privacy Policy: https://lookaway.com/privacy/
Terms of Use: https://lookaway.com/terms/
This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
It Stops Me, and My Eyes Thank Me
⁺
Best investment for my health this year. Yes, it interrupts my workflow, but that’s exactly the point. I have basically zero self-control when I’m in the zone, and gentle reminders are way too easy for me to ignore. LookAway is firm enough to actually make me step back, reset my eyes, and come back feeling better. After a few long workdays, I noticed less eye strain and fewer “why do my eyes hurt” moments. Setup is simple, it runs reliably, and the whole experience is clean and no-nonsense. If you stare at a s
reduces stress rather than increasing it
Idiotropic
I have tried several apps of this sort and, unlike those, I like to use LookAway, versus regarding it as an unpleasant but needed chore. I look forward to those reminders to blink. I like that cute little pink thing! and I can customize the app.
Developer Response
Thank you! I spent a lot of time making LookAway feel friendly and non-intrusive and I am glad to hear it working for you :)
Well thought out
AMS123iPhone
Really well thought out for implementation and options. I use the posture feature and 5 min look away breaks to get up and move around.
Awesome app
N9812
I have recently started using Look Away. And it's really a very well-designed and customizable app. I really like how it forces me to take breaks and be careful about my computer usage.
Developer Response
Thank you!
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!
Version 2.1.1
The developer, Mystical Bits, LLC, 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:
Identifiers
Usage Data
Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
The developer indicated that this app supports the following accessibility features. Learn More
