Time Out alternatives for Mac

Stay on Time Out if your Mac runs macOS 26. It is free, it is native, and the slow dim is still the gentlest break screen on the platform. If your Mac is older you are parked on version 2.9.7 for good, and Stretchly is the free replacement that still ships releases. Pay for Restier if you want the break to tell you what to do, LookAway if the timing of the interruption is what bothers you, and take Mossy if what you actually want is no break screen at all.

By Alban. I make one of these five, so weigh the last two sections accordingly. Prices, sizes and system requirements read on each app's own page on 11 September 2026.

Why people leave Time Out

Three reasons, and the first one is recent. Time Out 3.1 requires macOS 26, so anyone on an older Mac is parked on version 2.9.7 and will not get anything new. The second is the dim itself, which still covers the thing you were doing. The third is that a Time Out break is empty: a countdown, and nothing to do inside it.

The macOS 26 wall is the one that sends people looking. macOS 26 dropped a long list of Intel Macs, and if yours is on that list then Time Out has quietly stopped moving for you. Version 2.9.7 still runs, it still dims, it still works. It is just frozen, and you will not know that from inside the app.

The second reason is older and it is the reason I started building something. Ten hours a day in a chair, a bad back for years, and I tore my ACL last October, so that year was surgery, physio, and even more chair. My wife is an architect. Same chair, same ten hours. We deleted every break app we tried. They died the same way: the break screen lands mid sentence, you skip it, and it is gone by day three.

Give Time Out its due before the table. The dim is genuinely gentler than a window slamming open, you can rewrite the break screen yourself in HTML and CSS, and it sends nothing anywhere. None of the four below beats it on all three at once.

The five, side by side

Sizes: Time Out 3.1 is 10.1 MB and 2.9.7 is 10.7 MB, Mossy is 1.8 MB, Stretchly's macOS disk image is 177 MB because it is an Electron app. LookAway and Restier do not publish one. Restier's pricing page still shows a launch discount labelled as running to 1 March 2026, so check what you are charged at the till. Its yearly plan is €7.99 for one device if you would rather not pay once.

Stretchly, if your Mac cannot run macOS 26

Stretchly is the obvious swap for a frozen Time Out: free, open source, still releasing, and it runs on the same old Macs that macOS 26 left behind. Version 1.22.1 came out on 13 August 2026. If you also work on a Windows or Linux machine, this is the only app here that follows you across all three.

You give up two things. The download is 177 MB against Time Out's 10, because it ships a whole browser to draw the break window. And the break window is a window, not a dim, so it is more of an interruption than what you left, not less. Its strict mode goes further still and removes skip and postpone entirely, which is either the feature you were looking for or the opposite.

If you are weighing that one specifically, I wrote a longer comparison of Stretchly and what replaces it on a Mac.

Restier, if you want the break to tell you what to do

Restier answers the complaint Time Out never did: an empty countdown gives you nothing to do, so you go back to your screen. Its breaks are guided, with breathing prompts, posture cues and eye relief, and it runs on macOS, Windows and Linux. There is a 14 day trial with no card.

Then it costs money, which Time Out does not. €19.99 buys one device for life, €31.99 buys two, and there is a yearly plan from €7.99 if you prefer. The guided content is also the same for everyone, so if your back needs one specific thing you will be doing somebody else's routine.

LookAway, if the timing is what bothers you

LookAway is $19, one payment, macOS 13 or later, and its whole argument is when it fires rather than what it shows. It holds the break while you are on a video call, watching something, gaming, or inside a focus app. Its author has been shipping it since 2023 and answers people in public, which counts in a category full of abandoned apps.

Be clear about what that buys. It is a better timed interruption, not the absence of one. If your objection to Time Out is the dim landing on your work, LookAway lands it later.

Mossy, if you do not want a break screen at all

I built this one. Everything below can be checked in about a minute, which is the only reason to believe any of it.

Mossy never dims, never overlays, never takes the screen, and there is no setting that turns any of that on. A small plant sits in a corner of your desktop and dries out while you work, with the minutes written under it. When it gets thirsty it asks, and waits a while if you say no. You can ignore it, and ignoring it is a normal way to use it rather than a failure to fix.

The other difference is what a break contains, which is the gap Time Out leaves open. You write one sentence about what your breaks should be, and each break is written from that sentence, one instruction at a time, with a timer that runs it. "Stretch my back." "Twenty push ups." "Teach me a Spanish word." Not a fixed list somebody else chose.

Numbers instead of adjectives. Across 43 machines that left the counters on, over 182 machine days, 51 % of the breaks Mossy offered were taken, measured on 10 September 2026. So about half get refused, which is the point rather than a problem. At least one break has been asked for from 25 countries. And 18 versions shipped between 12 August and 8 September, which is the only honest proof that an app is alive.

The line people quote back at me came from someone else. On Product Hunt, where Mossy was #9 Product of the Day on 29 August 2026, Rabnoor wrote: "The line that got me is refusing a break is a normal way to use it, not a failure to correct. Every break app I've deleted died right there. By day three I resented it."

When not to use Mossy

Stay on Time Out if you want an app that talks to nothing at all. Mossy sends one request per break, because the exercise is written on the fly instead of picked from a list. There is no account and no tracker, and the privacy page lists everything that leaves your Mac, but one request is not zero and Time Out's zero is real.

Stay on Time Out, or move to Stretchly, if you want to rewrite the break screen yourself. Time Out lets you do it in HTML and CSS. Mossy's break screen is not yours to edit.

Go to Stretchly if any of your machines run Windows or Linux. Mossy is macOS only and will not be anything else soon. And if what you want is to be forced, Mossy is the wrong product and I would rather you did not download it: use Stretchly's strict mode, which takes skip and postpone away. Being unable to skip is a real need for some people, and nothing in Mossy will ever do it.

What I cannot tell you yet

Whether it survives month two. The honest picture on 10 September 2026: of 89 machines with a usage row, 2 span more than fourteen days, and both are ours. Of the four machines that first appeared over three weeks ago, two were still active in the last seven days. Four machines is an anecdote, not a retention rate, and retention is exactly the number that would sell this app best. Ask me in November.

I have also not run Restier myself. Everything above about it was read on its own pages on 11 September 2026, and I am not going to review the feel of an app I have not used.

FAQ

Is Time Out still free in 2026?

Yes. Version 3.1 is free on Dejal's own site, with optional supporter purchases running from $4.99 for three months to $59.99 for life. No feature is locked behind them. The catch is not the price. It is that 3.1 requires macOS 26, and older Macs stay on version 2.9.7.

Why does Time Out 3.1 not run on my Mac?

Because it requires macOS 26.0 or later. Dejal still offers version 2.9.7 for macOS 10.15 and up, and it works, but it will not get anything new. If you want a break app that still ships releases for an older Mac, Stretchly is free and open source.

What is the lightest break reminder app for Mac?

Of the five here, Mossy at 1.8 MB, then Time Out at 10.1 MB. Stretchly's macOS disk image is 177 MB because it ships a browser inside it. Weight matters less on a modern Mac than people think, but it is the one number all five could publish and only three do.

Does Mossy interrupt me the way Time Out does?

No, and there is no setting that turns it on. No dim, no overlay, no full screen. A plant in a corner dries out while you work and a counter climbs under it. When it gets thirsty it asks, waits a while if you say no, and ignoring it is a normal way to use it.