Someone Was Here: know who used your Mac

Someone Was Here

2 min read Original article ↗

A man with tousled hair and a moustache leaning toward a laptop, seen from below by its camera, mid-word.

Your Mac takes a photo of anyone who uses it while you're away, and tells you who it was.

For macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

Free on the Mac App Store, with a free iPhone app.

When someone sits down, it takes their photo.

Someone uses your Mac after it's been idle, tries the lock screen, or unlocks it. A second later there's a photo of them, with the time, how they got in, and how long they stayed.

A Mac desktop with the Someone Was Here panel open from its name-tag icon in the menu bar: the latest visit's photo of a man, marked Someone else, with a HELLO sticker reading 2:52 pm, and a list of earlier visits.

When it's you, it stays quiet.

It learns your face in a two-minute setup with a few head turns, and checks every photo right on your Mac. You won't get an alert about yourself.

The Someone Was Here panel open from the menu bar on a visit marked You, with a HELLO sticker reading You were here at 9:03 am, and Recognition: Matched your photos.

Then it tells you.

Nothing changes on screen while they're at your Mac. When it sees you again, your Mac tells you who came by. Add Phone Alerts and the photo reaches your iPhone within seconds, wherever you are.

The Someone Was Here iPhone app on its Visits screen: the latest photo, of a man at the Mac, marked Someone else with a HELLO sticker reading 4:05 pm, and earlier visits listed below.

It isn't hiding anything.

It sits in your menu bar where you can see it, and it's made for protecting your own Mac. If you share your space, tell people it's there.

Hearing about it when you're back is free. Phone Alerts is a one-time $4.99 purchase, no subscription. Alerts arrive in the free Someone Was Here app for iPhone through your own iCloud, or in Pushover, ntfy, Telegram or a webhook.

Find out who it was.

Someone Was Here is free on the Mac App Store. Add Phone Alerts ($4.99, one time) and the free iPhone app, and the photo reaches your phone within seconds.

Then get the free iPhone app on the same page. See the privacy policy.