Eye breaks timed around your work, not on top of it.
Every 20 minutes, GazeKeeper asks for 20 seconds of looking into the distance. On a call, presenting, or mid-sentence? It holds the break and lands it at your next pause.
What the research says. Including the parts that don’t flatter us.
Each claim links to its source. Where the evidence is thin, we say so.
- -50% American Academy of Ophthalmology ↗
You blink about half as often while you look at a screen.
Fewer blinks leave the tear film thinner and the surface of the eye drier. That is most of what “screen-tired eyes” feels like.
- 1 wk Talens-Estarelles et al., Contact Lens & Anterior Eye, 2023 ↗
Break reminders eased eye strain. The benefit faded a week after they stopped.
In a study of symptomatic laptop users, prompts to look away cut dry-eye and strain symptoms. Without the prompt, the habit didn’t hold. The reminder is the treatment.
- 10 min Albulescu et al., PLOS ONE, 2022 ↗
Breaks of ten minutes or less raise energy and lower fatigue.
A meta-analysis of 22 samples found small, reliable gains in vigour and drops in fatigue. Effects on output were not significant, so we don’t promise productivity.
- Pause Bailey & Iqbal, ACM TOCHI, 2008 ↗
An interruption at a task boundary costs less than one mid-task.
Interruptions placed where mental workload dips led to faster resumption and less annoyance. That is why GazeKeeper waits for a lull in your typing.
One afternoon, minute by minute.
A call lands mid-cycle. Here is exactly what GazeKeeper does, with its default timings.
- 14:00:00
Counting starts
The iris in the menu bar starts to empty. Nothing else appears.
- 14:12:00
Camera turns on
The countdown freezes with 8 minutes left. No banner, no sound.
- 14:19:00
Call ends
A 30-second cooldown, so nothing arrives while you close windows.
- 14:26:30
Heads-up
A small pill: break in 60 seconds. Take it now, snooze it, or let it come.
- 14:27:30
The break
It waits for 2 seconds without typing (never more than 30), then 20 seconds of distance.
Eye break2 snoozes left
Find something at least six metres away.
Let your focus rest on it. Blink slowly a few times. That’s the whole break — twenty seconds.
What it watches, and what it never does.
Any of these can hold a break. Each one is a switch in Settings. How detection works
| Line | Signal | Reads | Never reads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Camera | Whether any app is using a camera | The picture |
| 2 | Microphone | Whether any app is capturing audio | The sound |
| 3 | Screen sharing | Whether a share or recording is running | What is shared |
| 4 | Fullscreen | Whether the front window covers 90% of a screen | Window contents |
| 5 | App rules | Which app is in front | What you do in it |
| 6 | Typing pause | Seconds since your last key or click | Which keys |
| 7 | Calendar | Start times of upcoming meetings (off by default) | Anything else in the event |
- CPU between breaks
- 0.0%
- It sleeps until the next event.
- Accounts
- 0
- Settings and history stay in a folder on your Mac.
- Network requests
- 1
- The update check. Nothing else leaves the machine.
Questions
Will it interrupt me mid-task?
Not on a call, while sharing, or in fullscreen — those hold the break. When it does arrive, it gives you 60 seconds’ notice and waits for a pause in your typing.
Can I skip or snooze?
Yes. Snooze from the heads-up or the break itself, two snoozes per break by default. Skip appears after three seconds, so a reflex click doesn’t cancel a break you meant to take.
What does it cost?
Nothing. No account, no subscription, no upsell.
What does it know about me?
Whether the camera, microphone, or screen share is in use, which app is frontmost, and how long since your last keypress. Never what you type or say. Settings and stats stay on your Mac.
Which Macs does it run on?
macOS 14 or later. It lives in the menu bar and uses no measurable CPU between breaks.