Show HN: LookAway – a native macOS app for building healthy screen habits | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: LookAway – a native macOS app for building healthy screen habits

lookaway.app

25 points_kush13 comments

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Have there been significant changes since your post yesterday? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43086529

Or last Shows?

(5 months ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41397605

(12 months ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39445919

I'm sure it differs from your first show in 2023 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37927174

Yes, there have been major updates since the last Shows I posted:

- LookAway now helps you maintain better posture and eye health with the wellness reminders. - LookAway now detects when you're gaming and pauses automatically. - You can now add deep focus apps with multiple configurations, and LookAway will automatically pause when the conditions are met. - If a break is due but you're typing, LookAway waits for you to finish so you don’t lose your flow.

These are just a few of the many improvements, bringing LookAway closer to what could be called LookAway 2.0 - though I’m reserving that name for a future update.

For Linux users, I particularly recommend SafeEyes https://slgobinath.github.io/SafeEyes/

While it doesn't detect video calls automatically, you can receive notifications and choose to skip breaks when needed.

More importantly, while it sometimes interrupts my flow, that also helps me reassess my current focus.

I've got this app for about a year now. Previously tried Intermission and Time Out. Apps like these must be carefully designed, since they always border on annoying/stressful. LookAway is easily the most finetuned app in this space.

- It turns itself off outside business hours.

- It has a thoughtfully designed heads-up notification that can't be confused with system notifications.

- It disables itself during meetings & videos.

- It waits for you to finish typing.

- When entering the break screen, there is 5 second cooldown before you can skip it, preventing you from skipping it out of habit.

Deal breaker for me would be to get interrupted during meetings or even worse when I'm screen sharing.

It detects meetings automatically and pauses itself. Additionally, you can add apps to the deep focus apps list so when those are active, it never shows any breaks.

I've been evolving it for over a year and many such use cases have already been taken care of :)

Oh, good one - seeing in the page cards now !

The idea and intention of lookaway seems good, I have several back problems always being on the pc and this app could help me but the site is very confusing. Maybe a video would help to understand exactly how it works. Thanks

Thank you! It was reviewed by Brandon Butch recently and you can see exactly how it works here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK-UTwVyg5o&t=8s

I'll add a proper explainer video on the website as well.

Some interesting tools in that video I never heard of. Thanks for that. Definitely will try LookAway. I've tried some other apps, but didn't like them.

I created an hourly reminder using the Reminder app for such functionality and it works for me.

Idk if it’s just me but none of the media on the homepage is loading

Seems to be working fine. Do you see any console errors?

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