Your eyes need a break. Elye knows when.
Tired, dry eyes and that afternoon headache come from hours of staring at one screen. Elye is a little Mac menu bar companion that gets you to look away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes — at the right moment, never mid-call.
One email when Elye is ready. Nothing else.
7people waiting
Sound familiar?
Your eyes keep the score.
1 What have you felt this week?
Tap anything you've felt this week. Elye tells you what a break does about it.
2 Your screen day
The 20-20-20 rule: 3 breaks an hour. An 8-hour day is 24 breaks, 8 minutes in total.
In a 2023 study, reminders cut eye strain in two weeks. When the reminders stopped, the strain came back. The rule is easy. Remembering it isn't. Talens-Estarelles et al., 2023 ↗
Don't take our word for it. Feel one.
How it works
The 20-20-20 rule, on autopilot.
- 1
It lives in your menu bar
Two small eyes and a countdown. No window to manage, no dock icon, nothing to remember.
- 2
Every 20 minutes, look far away
For 20 seconds, Elye guides your eyes off the screen — the 20-20-20 rule eye doctors recommend, made automatic.
- 3
It picks the right moment
On a call, away from the desk, or in the middle of something? Elye waits, warns you first, and never steals the moment.
Nothing leaves your Mac.
- No account, no tracking, no analytics in the app
- Meeting detection reads whether the camera or mic is busy — never what they capture
- Your break history stays on your Mac
Give your eyes the afternoon back.
Join the waitlist — you’ll be the first to know when it’s ready.
One email when Elye is ready. Nothing else.
Honest answers
How is this different from a timer?+
A timer interrupts you on the dot, even mid-call or mid-sentence. Elye waits for a good moment, holds through meetings, counts time away from the desk as rest, and guides the break itself so it actually rests your eyes.
Will it interrupt my calls?+
No. While a call has your camera or microphone, the break holds, and you get a heads-up when the call ends. To recognise a call in a browser tab (like Google Meet), Elye can ask for the optional Accessibility permission — it only reads the browser's window title to spot a call, and nothing is recorded or sent anywhere.
Can I skip or snooze a break?+
Always. Snooze for 1 minute, 5 minutes or an hour, or press Esc twice to skip. Elye nudges; it never locks you out.
Which macOS does it need?+
macOS 26 Tahoe or later, on Apple Silicon or Intel — the break surfaces are built on Liquid Glass.
When is it out?+
Very close. Waitlist members get the download first and the real release notes the day it happens.