You install it because it's cute.
You take breaks because it wilts.
A little plant in the corner of your Mac. It dries out while you work, then offers you a break. You wrote in advance what goes in it. It never blocks your screen.
#9 Product of the Day on Product Hunt macOS 12+ · Apple Silicon & Intel
“My colleagues think he's so cute. Now we've all got one in the office.”Aitana
Mossy is macOS only, and you're not on a Mac right now. Windows is what people ask for most, so it's the likely next one.
or just remember it: heymossy.com
Grab the plant, bottom right.
It's the very drawing the app ships. It doesn't count the minutes going by, it counts the ones where you are working: your keyboard, your trackpad. Leave your desk and the counter stops. Stay in the chair and it dries out.
On this page it can't see your keyboard, so your scrolling does the work instead. Pick it up, move it, turn its break down: nothing happens. No score, no streak, nothing to keep up.
What people said
“One of my pupils told me Mossy was too cute.”a teacher, on the classroom Mac · translated from French
An architecture studio runs it on all four of its desks. One person had installed it; the other three saw the plant in the corner and wanted one too.
It lives on Macs in 25 countries. Since 12 August, at least one break has been asked for from each of them. The top three: the United States, France, India.
Checked and signed by Apple before it reached you. No Terminal, no command to type.
Pick who keeps you company.
The same companion, three bodies. In the app you switch with a right-click. Click one here and it moves into the corner of this page. All three are free, and they stay free.
You write one sentence. It writes the break.
Tick what bothers you, or say exactly what you want. An AI reads it before each break and writes one thing to do, short enough to fit the break you picked.
Four sentences people really wrote. End yours with “and write them in Spanish” and every break comes back in Spanish.
Check whatever you want, or nothing at all.
Why we built it
- Ten hours a day in a chair. Bad back for years, and I tore my ACL last October, so this year was surgery, physio, and even more chair.
- My wife is an architect. Same chair, same ten hours. We have a one-year-old, so training in the evening is a fantasy.
- We deleted every break reminder we tried. They died the same way: full-screen break, lands mid-sentence, you skip it, gone by day three.
- So Mossy never blocks. It wilts in the corner and waits.
- We each wanted our own breaks, for our own bodies. And half the time we had no idea what to do with those five minutes. So you set the goal, not us.
Alban & Maloriea developer with a bad back, and an architect who draws all day
Questions you'd be right to ask
Can I just ignore it?
Yes. That's the whole design. It asks, it wilts, and it waits. No lock screen, no dimming, no guilt trip, no streak to break. And it couldn't stop you anyway: it doesn't have hands.
Will it pop up in the middle of a meeting?
No. If your microphone is live or something is playing, Mossy holds the message and hands it to you when you hang up. You can also hide it entirely for a screen share: the counter keeps running, it just stops talking.
How often does it ask, and for how long?
You pick both: every 30 minutes, every hour or every two hours, and a break of 1, 2, 3 or 5 minutes. During the break a timer runs the whole thing, counting each effort and each rest, with a sound at every switch so you can close your eyes or hold a plank without watching the screen.
What leaves my Mac?
Your sentence, and the last three replies you gave it after a break, sent to the AI just long enough to write one exercise. Our server keeps none of it. No account, no tracker, no cookie. The only other thing is an anonymous daily sign of life, and you can switch it off.
Does it ask for any permission?
None. No accessibility, no microphone, no camera, no access to your folders. It never reads what you type: it asks macOS how long ago you last touched anything, which is a single number. And to know whether to keep quiet, it checks whether a microphone is capturing somewhere, without listening to it.
Will it slow my Mac down?
It weighs 1.8 MB, less than a single photo from your phone. It wakes up once a minute to count, and that is all.
Can I get the exercises in my language?
Yes. Right-click the plant, open the settings, and pick your language: fifteen of them, or just follow your Mac. If yours isn't in the list, say so in your sentence instead. End it with “and write them in Greek” and every break comes back in Greek. Someone did exactly that on day one, before we'd thought of it. The screens themselves exist in English and French.
Is it really free?
Yes, and there's no paid tier waiting behind it. We built it because our backs hurt.
Are the exercises safe?
They're written by an AI, not by a physiotherapist. Short, and with nothing to lift, on purpose. But they are not medical advice. See the terms.
How do I remove it?
You drag it to the Trash, like any app. Its settings stay in a folder in your Library, which you can throw away too. There is no account, so there is nothing to cancel.
Forty seconds to set up. Then it lives in the corner of your screen.
It stays in its corner, it counts, and it asks. Right-click it for the settings.
Not on a Mac right now? Remember the address: heymossy.com. The Windows waiting list is at the top of this page.
Eighteen versions since August, and it installs them on its own now.
- Open Mossy.dmg from your Downloads.
- Drag Mossy onto the Applications folder.
- Open it. macOS asks once if you're sure. Say yes: Apple checked and signed it before it reached you.