Retrace — Screen and audio memory for the Mac

Everything you saw.
Kept on your Mac.

Retrace remembers what was on your screen and what was said, searchable and summarised on device. No server. No account. Nothing to breach.

PlatformmacOS, Apple silicon
Price$99, once
Updates$49 a year, optional
StatusIn development · 2027
The problem

The category shut down. The need did not.

The best memory app for the Mac was acquired and switched off in December 2025. What is left either runs in the cloud or is not native. Retrace is native, local, and sold once.

What it doesSix things, no menu
Capture

Frames on change, not on a timer.

ScreenCaptureKit, per app and per window. Audio only when you allow it, with a light on while it listens.

Read

A word you saw three weeks ago.

On-device OCR on every frame. Search the text of anything that was ever on screen.

Hear

Who said what.

Transcription on the Mac, speakers separated, nothing uploaded.

Ask

Your own days, summarised.

Answers and summaries from Apple's Foundation Models, running on the Mac, from your record only.

Forget

Delete is delete.

Per app, per window, per hour. A hard off on the keyboard. Nothing is kept that you said not to keep.

Keep

Encrypted, sized by you.

An encrypted store on your disk with a cap you set. Retrace never asks for more.

On device

No server, so no login.

Retrace never sends a frame or a word anywhere. It has no login because it has no server. The only copy of your record is the one on your Mac, and Time Machine.

PriceOnce, plus optional updates
Once
$99

The Mac app, a year of updates, use it forever.

  • Capture, read, hear, ask
  • Encrypted local store
  • Never stops working
Updates
$49 a year

Optional, after the first year. New models, new OS versions.

  • Only if you want what is new
  • Cancel any time
  • The record stays
Trial
14 days

The whole app, every feature, no card.

  • Capture a fortnight
  • Search it
  • Decide with your own record

Prices are set for the first release and may change after it ships. Every licence includes a year of updates and never stops working. Every tool has a fourteen-day trial, no card.

Questions
Battery?+

Capture happens on change, not on a timer, and OCR runs when the Mac is idle. We publish the measured number when it ships, not an estimate.

App Store?+

Direct download, notarised. Screen capture at this depth does not fit the sandbox, and we would rather say so.

Meetings?+

Only with consent. Retrace shows a light while audio is on, and the hard off is a key.

One email

Tell me when Retrace ships.

One email when the first build is out. Nothing else.