Not out yet

Download Recess.

The installer is waiting on Apple's notarization. Leave your email and you'll hear the day it's up.

The download is waiting on Apple's notarization. Leave your email and you'll hear the day it's up. Nothing else.

Requirements

  • macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Liquid Glass look on macOS 26, a material fallback on 14 and 15.
  • An Apple silicon Mac. The installer targets arm64; Intel Macs are not supported.
  • An administrator password, once, at install.

Install

  1. Open the package. Recess-1.0.0.pkg is signed and notarized, so macOS opens it without warnings.
  2. Enter your administrator password. Blocking runs in a system service with administrator rights, which is why the installer asks. This is the only time it does.
  3. Take the tour. Recess opens in the menu bar and a nine-page tour explains the model. It stays one click away under Help.
  4. Set up. The wizard walks you through websites, the break schedule (a template or your own windows), the password, a review, and Start Protection. App blocking and custom rules are added afterwards in Settings.
  5. Keep the timer around. Turn on Settings ▸ General ▸ Start Recess at login.

Reinstalling or installing a newer version over an existing copy keeps your configuration, password and trial.

Uninstall

Recess ships with an uninstaller. It asks for your Recess password and refuses to run without it while a configuration exists. That is by design: the password seals everything, uninstalling included. The uninstaller removes the service and the app and, if you ask it to, the configuration.

Quitting the app, deleting it from Applications, or letting the trial lapse never stops the blocking. Only the uninstaller does, and only with the password.