Hindsight is a macOS app that gives your Mac a perfect, private memory. It quietly captures your screen and transcribes audio in the background, builds a searchable timeline, and lets you instantly find anything you’ve seen, said, or heard.

You don’t have to do anything in the moment. Instead of frantic note taking or inviting a bot into your calls, Hindsight captures what was already on your screen and what was said, then makes it searchable later. There’s nothing to set up per meeting and no bot joining your calls.

No. Hindsight analyzes what appears on your screen using native macOS APIs and local OCR, so there’s no cloud integration or IT setup required. It starts capturing your Mac apps right away.

Yes. Capture, OCR, transcription, and search all run on your Mac, so your timeline works without an internet connection. Network access is only used for licensing, transcription model downloads, app updates, and optional crash reporting.

A Mac, macOS Screen Recording permission so Hindsight can capture your screen, and some free disk space for your local timeline. Audio transcription needs a model you download once, and microphone capture is optional.

No. Capture, OCR, transcription, and storage all run on-device, and your screenshots, transcripts, and window titles never leave your Mac. Only anonymous crash, release health, app hang, performance, and sanitized diagnostic data are shared when diagnostics are enabled in a configured app build.

Your timeline is stored locally on your Mac. It stays under your control, subject to your device security, macOS account, backups, and anyone else who can access your Mac.

Yes. The local database, thumbnails, and compressed video segments are encrypted at rest. Hindsight generates its encryption keys locally and stores them in the macOS Keychain, with separate entries for local history and for your license information.

No. We do not use your local Hindsight timeline to train AI models, and we do not sell your personal information.

Only what is needed for product services that require a server. License activation and validation talk to Lemon Squeezy, transcription model downloads fetch model files, and app updates check the update feed. If diagnostics are enabled in a configured app build, Sentry is configured to avoid screenshots, view hierarchy, raw Apple unified logs, automatic network breadcrumbs, default personal data, user identity, device host names, request and response bodies, headers, license keys, full URLs, transcripts, OCR text, window titles, browser URLs, search queries, and local history.

Depending on your settings and permissions, Hindsight may process screen frames and thumbnails, text from local OCR, microphone and system audio with local transcripts, app names and bundle identifiers, window titles, timestamps, browser URLs, and your search queries and settings. All of this stays on your Mac.

When enabled, Hindsight captures your screen as visual frames, reads on-screen text with local OCR, and tags each moment with context like the app name and window title. With audio capture on, it also transcribes audio on-device.

Yes. You can pause capture at any time, adjust how often Hindsight captures, and turn screen or audio capture on or off whenever you like.

Add them to app exclusions in Settings. Excluded apps are filtered out before capture whenever macOS can identify the owning application, so they never appear in your timeline.

No, when private browsing exclusion is enabled Hindsight detects and skips supported private windows, including Chrome Incognito and Safari Private windows. This relies on macOS Accessibility permission and browser window context being available.

No. Hindsight ships with a default exclusion list for common password managers and credential apps, including Apple Passwords, 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, Enpass, Keeper, LastPass, NordPass, Proton Pass, RoboForm, Secrets, Strongbox, and KeePassXC.

Hindsight is built to capture quietly in the background with minimal impact on modern Macs. You can pause it, exclude specific apps, or adjust how often it captures whenever you like.

Hindsight transcribes audio on-device using a transcription model you download once, so you can search anything said in a meeting, call, video, or podcast and jump straight to that moment.

Yes. Transcription uses a local model that downloads once and then runs entirely on your Mac. The default model is the fastest way to get started, and larger models can improve language coverage and accuracy at the cost of more disk space and slower processing.

The default English Base model is about 145 MB and the Multilingual Base model is also about 145 MB. Larger multilingual models use more space, with Small around 480 MB, Medium around 1.5 GB, and Large v3 around 3 GB. You can delete downloaded models later to reclaim disk space.

Microphone permission is only requested if you enable microphone capture. System audio capture relies on Screen Recording access, because macOS exposes system audio through the screen capture stack.

You can search by what was on screen, what was said, and which app you were in. That includes text detected by OCR, audio transcripts, app names, window titles, and browser URLs.

Yes. Hindsight uses native macOS APIs and Optical Character Recognition to read text locally, even inside images and apps that don’t have copyable text.

The timeline lets you scroll back through your screen history to retrace your steps and pick up exactly where you left off. Open a search result and you can see what was on screen at that moment.

As far back as your retention setting allows. A longer retention period keeps more history and uses more disk space, while a shorter period saves space but limits how far back you can search.

It depends on how much you capture and your retention setting. Hindsight stores more than text, it also keeps enough visual history to let you open a result and see what was on screen. The Storage settings show Current Disk Space Used for local history.

During compression, Hindsight writes temporary frame files and then encodes them into a compact MP4 segment, so the temporary frames and the finished video can exist at the same time. After the segment closes successfully, Hindsight removes the temporary working files.

FFmpeg is the media tool Hindsight uses to turn many captured frames into compact MP4 segments. You don’t need to install it yourself. Hindsight bundles its own signed copy inside the app so compression works out of the box. You should not modify files inside the app bundle, as that can break code signing, updates, and compression.

Reducing retention removes older history over time as cleanup runs, so it may not free space instantly. If storage keeps growing even after you shorten retention and let cleanup run, contact support.

You can shorten the retention period to remove older history automatically, clear local history from Settings, and delete downloaded transcription models you no longer need.

Download the latest Hindsight.dmg from the release page, open it, drag Hindsight into Applications, then open it from Applications. Hindsight runs as a menu bar app and walks you through first-run setup.

Screen Recording for screen and system audio capture, Accessibility for app and window context and private browsing detection, Microphone only if you enable microphone capture, and Notifications for important capture and permission alerts.

If macOS warns that the app was downloaded from the internet, choose Open if you trust the download source. If macOS blocks the app, open System Settings, go to Privacy and Security, and allow Hindsight from the security prompt.

Hindsight updates itself through its built-in update feed. Keep automatic update checks enabled so you receive compatibility, reliability, and security fixes, and quit Hindsight when prompted so a downloaded update can install.

Hindsight is a one-time purchase with a lifetime license. Personal is $99 for your personal Mac, and Pro is $199 for power users. Both include all future updates.

Yes. Hindsight offers a free 14-day trial with full access to the app, and no credit card is required to start. We encourage you to use the full trial to confirm Hindsight works on your Mac before you buy.

Personal includes everything you need on one Mac with a lifetime license and all future updates. Pro adds use on up to 3 Macs, personal onboarding over Google Meet, a direct phone number, and priority support.

Personal is licensed for your personal Mac, and Pro can be used on up to 3 Macs. A license key may have activation limits based on the plan you purchase, so keep your key secure.

When Hindsight asks for a license, open the activation window and paste the key exactly as it appears in your purchase receipt. You can start the trial first and activate later.

Purchases, license keys, receipts, taxes, and payment processing are handled by Lemon Squeezy acting as our merchant of record. Their terms and policies also apply to your order.

Because the free trial lets you evaluate Hindsight fully before buying, purchases are final and we don’t generally offer refunds. Nothing in our policy limits mandatory refund or withdrawal rights you may have under the consumer protection laws that apply to you. See our Refund Policy for details.

You can clear local history from Hindsight’s Settings, reduce the retention period to remove older history automatically, and delete downloaded transcription models. Removing Hindsight from your Mac and deleting its app data removes local history too.

Full control. You decide whether screen and audio capture are enabled, which macOS permissions to grant, which apps are excluded, whether private browser windows are skipped, and how long local history is retained.

Reach us using the support contact listed in the app, on the website, or on your purchase receipt. To help us debug, include your macOS version, your Hindsight version, the exact message shown, and whether the issue affects capture, transcription, search, licensing, or updates. Please avoid sending sensitive material unless it is necessary for your request.