Stoiq for Mac
A body double who’s already here.
Body doubling is working with someone present. Stoiq is a small companion who lives on your Mac desktop and keeps you company while you work — no booking, no camera, no stranger on a call.
He asks what you’re doing today, sits with you through the block, and shows up in the tab when the feed takes over. No streaks. No score. Nothing to catch up on.
free to start · nothing to schedule · macOS 14 or later
i’ll be right here. start whenever.
The idea
What body doubling is.
Body doubling is doing your work while someone else is in the room — not helping, not checking on you, just there. A friend reading on your couch while you write. A stranger at the next library table. Somebody on the other side of a video call, typing.
The name comes from the ADHD community, which has practised and written about it since the nineties. We didn’t invent the idea and we don’t make claims about what it does — there’s no number on this page about your attention, because that number wouldn’t be ours to state. What we made is a version of the company.
The appointment problem
Most body doubling needs a booking.
The human version — a real person over video, at a time you both agreed to — is a genuine thing, and for some people the light social pressure of it is exactly what works. If that’s you, we compare Stoiq and Focusmate honestly here.
But an appointment has a cost: the moment you most need company is rarely the moment you booked it for. It’s 11pm before the deadline, or the fourth time you’ve sat down today, or a Tuesday that fell apart. Stoiq’s answer is presence without scheduling — he lives on the desktop, so the company is already there when you are. No camera, no other person, and nothing watching: the app can’t read your screen, take screenshots, or log keystrokes.
What he actually does
Company, with hands.
He’s there when you sit down.
A small creature in the corner of your desktop — breathing, blinking, occasionally taking a walk across the bottom of the screen. You can pick him up and put him anywhere.
He asks for the day, once.
“What are we doing today?” — you type, he keeps the list, and the pile becomes one next step at the top of it.
He sits through the block with you.
One question — how long do we have? — then a focus block with him nearby and your distracting sites held quietly out of the way until it ends.
He comes to get you.
If a shielded site takes over mid-block, he climbs into the tab itself and offers the way back. Two gentle visits before anything firmer; you can always choose to stay.
He never keeps score.
No streaks, no guilt, no sad face when you stop. Leave for a month and nothing is lost — the plant he keeps in his corner only ever grows.
He brings things back.
While you work he wanders off and returns with something — a postcard, a find for his shelf. Everything he brings is yours for good.
Questions
Asked plainly.
What is body doubling?
Body doubling is doing your work while someone else is present — not helping, not supervising, just there. The practice was named and popularised by the ADHD community, which has used it informally for decades. Whether it helps is yours to judge; we make software, not claims about your attention.
Is Stoiq a body doubling app?
Stoiq puts a small animated companion on your Mac desktop who stays with you while you work: he asks what you're doing today, sits nearby through a focus block, and appears in the tab when a distracting site takes over. Presence is the product — what you do with the company is up to you.
Do I need to book a session or be on camera?
No. There is no scheduling, no video call, and no other person. He is already on your desktop when you sit down, and nothing is recorded — the app cannot read your screen, take screenshots, or log keystrokes.
Is there a free version?
Yes. The companion is free — he lives on your desktop, walks, waves, and keeps you company at no cost. The focus machinery around him is the paid part, and everything you earn stays yours even if you never pay.
How is this different from Focusmate or a human body double?
Services like Focusmate pair you with a real person over video at a scheduled time, and for some people that accountability is exactly right. Stoiq is the other shape of the same idea: company without an appointment, a camera, or a stranger — available at 11pm on a Tuesday, private by construction.
Keep reading
Try it
He’s free, and he’s already home.
Stoiq is a focus app with a companion in it. It doesn’t assess you, doesn’t diagnose anything, and will never tell you what kind of person you are. It can’t read your screen, and everything it knows stays on your Mac.