Docs / Licence, updates and privacy
Licence, updates and privacy
DeskSay is a direct download for macOS 13 Ventura or later. It is free for 14 days, then $1 per month per Mac. This page covers what happens when the trial ends, which permissions the app asks for and why, how updates arrive, and what leaves your Mac.
Installing
DeskSay runs on macOS 13 Ventura or later, on Apple silicon and on Intel. The download is about 5.5 MB. It is signed and notarised by Apple. macOS asks once whether to open an app downloaded from the internet, the same question it asks of any direct download, and that is the whole of it.
It is a menu bar app with no Dock icon. Once it is running you will find it in the menu bar at the top of the screen, and everything else starts from there or from Settings.
DeskSay is not on the Mac App Store. Reading and changing your desktops needs access that the App Store sandbox does not permit, so the app is sold and downloaded directly instead.
The trial
The trial runs for 14 days. It is the full app, with nothing held back, and it does not ask for a card. Name your desktops, say their names, drag windows between them, set up automations, and decide at the end of the two weeks whether it is worth a dollar a month.
The price
DeskSay costs $1 per month per Mac, or $10 a year, which is two months free. You choose how many Macs at checkout, and one licence key activates on that many.
After the trial
If you do not subscribe when the trial ends, DeskSay keeps running, with a limit. You get 30 switches a calendar month. The count starts again at the beginning of the next month.
Four things need a licence once the trial is over, and each one says so when you use it:
- Saying a desktop name.
- Dragging a window to another desktop.
- Clicking a desktop in the notch strip.
- Running automations.
Setting automations up is still allowed. You can build them, edit them and keep them; running them is the part that needs the licence. See notes, time and automations for what they do, voice for saying names, and switching for drag to move and the notch strip.
Nothing is deleted. Your names, your notes, your automations and your time records all stay exactly where they are, and the menu bar keeps working. Subscribing later turns the four features back on with everything still in place.
Managing it
Open Settings, Licence, and choose Manage subscription. You can also go to desksay.com/manage in a browser. That is where you change or cancel the subscription, and where you add a Mac or remove one that you no longer use.
A licensed Mac keeps working for 30 days without reaching the server, so a trip, a flight or a spell offline does not interrupt anything.
Permissions
macOS asks your permission before an app can do certain things. DeskSay asks for four, and all of them are optional: skip one and the features that need it are the only ones that stop.
Updates
DeskSay updates itself. It checks once a day. In Settings, General you will find Check for updates automatically, Download and install updates automatically, and a Check Now button for when you do not want to wait.
All 1.x updates are included in the price. You do not pay again for a new version in that line.
Privacy
Speech recognition is the on-device engine built into macOS. Nothing you say is uploaded, and nothing you say is stored. It works with the network off, which is the simplest way to see for yourself that no audio is leaving the Mac.
Time tracking is stored locally, in a file called tracking.sqlite on your own Mac.
Crash reports are anonymous and optional. The switch is in Settings, General, under Privacy, and turning it off stops them entirely.
The full policy is at the privacy policy, and the terms are at the terms.