Saccade — Let your eyes choose your best work

4 min read Original article ↗

saccade · /səˈkäd/ · rhymes with “facade”

A rapid movement of the eye between fixation points.

A/B testing.
With your eyes.

No surveys. No clicks. No opinions. Just look at two images and your unconscious gaze picks the winner.

Download on the App Store

Free forever

🔒 No account needed

📱 100% on-device — nothing leaves your phone

1

Upload your variants

Two logos. Four hero images. Eight headshots. Drop in 2–12 images and Saccade generates every possible A/B pair.

2

Just look

Each pair appears for 3–8 seconds. Your iPhone's TrueDepth camera tracks where your gaze lingers. You don't choose — your eyes do.

3

See what wins

Instant ranked results with preference strength bars. Share the results card with your team, your client, or your group chat.

You can't fake where your eyes go. Research shows gaze duration correlates with preference — even when you know you're being tracked. It's called the gaze cascade effect, and it's been used in commercial eye-tracking studies for decades.

Shimojo, S., et al. (2003). Gaze bias both reflects and influences preference. Nature Neuroscience, 6(12), 1317–1322.

Saccade brings lab-grade eye tracking to your pocket. Not 100% accurate — but consistently better than guessing, and infinitely faster than a survey.

Logo & brand variants

Which version of your logo, icon, or wordmark actually draws the eye?

Photo selects

20 shots from a shoot. Your eyes pick the best ones faster than your brain.

Hero images & thumbnails

Which landing page hero or YouTube thumbnail gets the longest look?

Team & client testing

Pass the phone around. Aggregate unconscious preferences instead of subjective opinions.

Vacation spots

Beach or mountains? Your eyes know where they want to go.

Baby names

Can’t decide? Show names as cards and let your gaze settle it.

Color palettes

Which palette actually draws the eye? Find out in seconds.

Font samples

Same phrase, different typefaces. Your eyes pick the one that reads best.

  • No account required — ever
  • No data leaves your device
  • No cloud, no analytics, no tracking
  • Camera used only for real-time gaze detection — no photos or video of your face are recorded
  • All processing happens on-device using Apple's ARKit

Read the full privacy policy →

How accurate is the eye tracking?

Saccade uses ARKit's TrueDepth camera to measure gaze direction. It's not lab-grade precision, but research shows gaze duration reliably correlates with visual preference. Think of results as a strong directional signal, not a definitive answer. In testing, it's consistently better than guessing and infinitely faster than a survey.

Does it work if I know my eyes are being tracked?

Yes. The gaze cascade effect (Shimojo et al., 2003) shows that gaze preference persists even when people are aware of the tracking. You can't consciously control where your eyes linger. That's the whole point.

Is my face being recorded?

No. Saccade reads numerical eye-direction values from ARKit in real-time. No photos, no video, no face data is ever stored. Everything is processed on-device and discarded immediately after each comparison.

What devices does it work on?

Any iPhone with a TrueDepth camera (iPhone X or later) running iOS 17 or later. The TrueDepth camera is required for ARKit face tracking.

How many images can I compare?

Up to 12 images per project. Saccade automatically generates every possible A/B pair. For example, 6 images = 15 pairs, which takes about 75 seconds to complete.

Can I use it for team or client testing?

Yes. Pass the phone to colleagues, friends, or clients and have each person run the same project. Each session produces independent results. Collaborative features with shared results are planned for a future update.

Is it really free?

Yes. No ads, no subscriptions, no in-app purchases. No account needed. The app is fully functional from the moment you install it.

What does "saccade" mean?

A saccade (/səˈkäd/, rhymes with "facade") is a rapid movement of the eye between fixation points. It's the fundamental unit of visual attention, and it's what this app measures.

Stop debating. Start looking.

Free on the App Store. Requires iPhone X or later (TrueDepth camera).

Download on the App Store