Gobbl
In short: Memory is off until you turn it on. It reads text from the window in front of you (not pixels), masks secrets, skips sensitive places, and stores everything in a local database on your Mac. It's a beta.
To-dos that tick themselves off
When you write "I'll send it tomorrow" in Slack, or an email says "please pay by Friday", Gobbl adds a to-do with its source and the reason it thinks it's one. When proof appears later, like a "Payment successful" page or the message where you sent the file, the to-do ticks itself off. Every automatic tick has Undo.
To-dos Gobbl found
People and projects: who is who
Gobbl builds a card for each person and project it sees, with where they show up and what you talk about. When two names look like the same person, it asks "Same person?" rather than merging on its own. Hover or tap the graph below.
Seen in Slack, Mail and Figma. Works with you on the Q3 launch.
Search by meaning, and ask
Search for what you remember, not the exact words: search by meaning runs on your Mac with Apple's sentence embeddings. Or ask the memory chat, which answers with numbered sources so you can check where each fact came from.
When is the Studio North invoice due, and did I pay it?
It was due Friday, 18 September, and you paid it on 14 September.1 2
- Mail, 12 Sep: "Invoice 0142 from Studio North"
- Chrome, 14 Sep: stripe.com, "Payment successful"
The Memory window
Everything Memory knows lives in one window: to-dos, a day-by-day timeline with a short digest of each day, people, projects, organisations and topics, and search. Ten minutes before a meeting with people Gobbl knows, you get a brief on who they are and what you last talked about.
How capture works
- Gobbl reads the text of the front window through macOS Accessibility, the same interface screen readers use. It never takes screenshots or records video.
- It captures when you switch apps or the window changes, and stops while your screen is locked or you're away.
- Text is deduplicated and stored in a SQLite database in your Mac's Application Support folder. It never syncs anywhere.
What it never reads, and what it masks
Skipped
Password fields, secure input, private and incognito browser windows, banking, brokerage, crypto and health sites, your locked screen, and Gobbl itself.
Masked before saving
Card numbers, API keys and tokens, passwords, one-time codes, CVVs and IBANs are replaced with a placeholder before anything is stored.
What goes to the AI service
Finding to-dos and writing digests needs a language model. For that, Gobbl sends short, already-masked snippets through Xeve's AI service to a provider that doesn't keep data. Every request is written to a log on your Mac, so you can see exactly what was sent. The memory itself stays on your Mac. See Privacy.
Your controls
- Opt-in: Memory is off until you turn it on.
- Pause for a while or until you resume.
- Forget the last stretch of time, one app, or everything.
- Retention: old memories are removed automatically after the period you choose.
- Indicator: a small mark in the notch shows whenever Memory is on.
Use your memory in other AI apps Available (Memory beta)
Turn on "Connect AI apps automatically" in Settings, AI Agents, and Gobbl registers its MCP helper with Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex (which also covers the ChatGPT desktop app), Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Gemini CLI, LM Studio and Zed. Any other app that speaks MCP can use the copyable command.
- Reading your memory:
search_memory,get_day,list_todos,who_is,get_person,get_projectandrecent_activity. - Through the running app:
get_clipboard,add_reminderandmark_todo_done. - Sources: answers cite where each fact came from, like "WhatsApp · Samar · Today 7:22 PM".
- Logged: each call is logged on your Mac by tool name and time only.
Ask Claude Code "what did Priya say about the launch?" and it can look it up. Keep in mind that what an AI app reads from your memory is then handled under that app's own privacy terms.
Compared with other screen memory apps
| Feature | Notch, dictation, memoryGobbl | MemoryGoldfish | MemoryScreenpipe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free. AI features free during the beta | Free during beta | Free for 1 device; paid from $21/month |
| Open source | Yes, MIT | Varies | Source-available |
| Platforms | macOS 14+ | macOS (Apple silicon), Windows | macOS, Windows, Linux |
| On-device dictation | Yes, Whisper on your Mac (Apple silicon) | Not listed | Transcribes audio (not dictation) |
| Free-tier word cap | None | No dictation | No dictation |
| Screen memory and to-dos | Yes, opt-in beta, with auto-ticking to-dos | Screen memory; to-dos not listed | Screen memory; to-dos not listed |
| MCP connector | Yes, one switch for 9 AI apps (Memory beta) | Yes, Claude Desktop | Yes |
| AI coding agents in the notch | Claude Code and Codex status, Allow/Deny for Claude Code | Not listed | No notch |
| Pet | Yes, Gob | Fish theme, no pet | No |
| Privacy | Local first; AI via a provider that keeps no data; log of every request | Local storage; AI via a zero-retention provider | Local by default |
Checked against each product's own website and public sources on 14 September 2026. Prices are in US dollars where the maker lists them; NotchNook's price differs between sources, so we don't quote one. Rewind isn't in the table because it stopped recording on 19 December 2025, after Meta acquired Limitless. Products change quickly: if something here is out of date, open an issue and we'll fix it.
Rewind, once the best-known Mac screen memory app, stopped working in December 2025. If you're looking for a Rewind alternative that stays on your Mac, Gobbl is one option; see how it compares with Goldfish.