Healthy PopsStay healthy at your desk.
Without thinking about it.
Healthy Pops is a tiny Mac menu bar app with gentle popups that follow the 20-20-20 eye rule for you, nudge you to drink water and sit up straight, and remind you of anything else you like. It stays quiet during calls.
Designed to make you look away from it
Most break apps give you something to read. Healthy Pops gives you nothing, on purpose.
A heads-up, never an ambush
Five seconds before a break, a small glass pill drops in under the menu bar and tells you exactly what's coming.
- Start now, or snooze 1, 5 or 15 minutes
- Every button has a ⌃⌥ shortcut, so you never reach for the mouse
- It doesn't steal focus from what you're typing
Nothing here to look at. Really.
Your screen softly blurs and dims. No countdown, no tips, no reason to keep staring, so your eyes go where they should: far away.
- A quiet bar drains as the break runs down
- A soft chime tells you when to look back
- Skip anytime with Esc
Tune it in a second
Press T during a break and a dial appears. Drag it, scroll it or tap the arrow keys, with a soft click on every second from 5 to 60.
Screen time, water and posture intervals all have − / + controls right in the menu bar.
Sit up. You're turning into a croissant. 🥐
Every half hour, a five-second note reminds you to straighten your back, with a different cheeky message each time. It fades on its own.
Your health. Your popups.
Eye drops at three? Wrist stretches every 45 minutes? A nudge to breathe before your next standup? Make your own popup in seconds, without touching the mouse.
- ⌨️ Keyboard first: Tab, arrows, Return
- 🎨 16 icons, 6 colours
- ⏱️ Every 5 min to 4 h of screen time
- 📞 Quiet during calls, like everything else
- 🔁 Switch each one on or off from the menu
Small nudges. Healthier days.
Everything lives in your menu bar and asks for as little attention as possible.
Counts real screen time
Lock your Mac, let it sleep or walk away, and the timer starts over. You only get breaks after you've actually been staring at the screen.
Quiet during calls
Mic or camera on, or sharing your screen? Breaks wait until the call ends, then show up a few seconds later.
Water reminders
About once an hour, a small popup with a silly line reminds you to drink. Log a glass with ⌃⌥W and track your daily count.
Posture nudges
A short, funny reminder to straighten up. Turn it off any time from the menu.
Keyboard first
Start, snooze, skip and adjust everything without touching the mouse.
Your own popups
Make reminders for anything: stretch, eye drops, a walk. Pick an icon, colour and interval, all from the keyboard.
Private by design
No account, no analytics, no network calls, no special permissions. It all stays on your Mac.
Tiny and native
A lightweight native Swift app, well under 1 MB, that sips memory and battery.
What is the 20-20-20 rule?
Focusing on a close screen keeps your eye muscles tense for hours. Eye doctors recommend a simple habit to let them relax, and Healthy Pops does the remembering for you.
Questions, answered
What is the 20-20-20 rule?
Every 20 minutes of screen time, look at something about 20 feet (6 metres) away for about 20 seconds. It relaxes the eye muscles that stay tense while focusing on a close screen and helps reduce digital eye strain.
Is Healthy Pops free?
Yes. Healthy Pops is free and open source, with no account, ads or in-app purchases.
Will it interrupt my meetings?
No. While your microphone or camera is in use, or you are sharing your screen in Zoom, breaks and reminders wait and appear shortly after the call ends.
Does Healthy Pops collect any data?
No. Everything runs locally on your Mac. Nothing is sent anywhere and it needs no special permissions.
Why does macOS warn me when I first open it?
The app is not notarized with a paid Apple Developer ID. Right-click Healthy Pops in Applications and choose Open the first time; after that it opens normally.
Can I change the timings?
Yes. Screen time, break length, water and posture intervals can all be adjusted from the menu bar, and water and posture reminders can be switched off.
Can I make my own reminders?
Yes. Custom Popups in the menu opens a keyboard-friendly editor where you pick a title, message, icon, colour and how often it appears, measured in screen time.