CURRENT DOWNLOAD 0.9.7 · UPCOMING 0.10.0 · UPDATED OCTOBER 19, 2026

Privacy, quietly.

Bytesized Eyes is designed to work without an account, advertising, analytics, or behavioral telemetry. The Mac app is currently distributed during beta under the installed-app name RetroPresence.

What stays on your Mac

The app reads aggregate CPU activity only to shape its eye expressions. That value is not written to disk and is never sent to us. Your display choice, visual preferences, and launch-at-login choice are stored locally in the app’s application-support folder.

Optional weather in the current 0.9.7 download

Weather is off by default in 0.9.7. If you turn it on, the app asks IPAPI for approximate location based on your public IP address, then sends those approximate coordinates to Open-Meteo for current weather and temperature. It does not request precise GPS location. Turning weather off stops those requests.

Weather removed in the upcoming 0.10.0 version

The updated artwork shown on this website previews 0.10.0, which is not yet the paid download. That version removes weather and location-provider requests and drops obsolete weather fields from active settings. Upgrading does not recall information previously sent to providers or erase your backups.

No hidden sensors

The app does not use your camera or microphone. It does not record your screen, scan unrelated files, transmit usage analytics, or sell information about you. If you choose to import artwork, it reads and stores a processed copy of that selected image locally.

Purchases and downloads

Checkout is handled by Stripe. Our delivery service verifies a completed checkout before returning the installer link. The website, checkout, download host and delivery service necessarily process requests and may retain operational logs under their own policies. Payment details are not stored in the Mac app.

Beta contact

For beta questions, support, or an invitation request, email hello@bytesizedeyes.com. If you choose to request the beta, we use the details you send only to coordinate participation and support; the website itself does not collect application data.

If the app’s data handling changes, this page will be updated before that version is released.