# A slouch reminder for Mac that reads your AirPods

A slouch reminder for Mac notices when your head stays dropped toward the screen and nudges you back up - Poise does it from the motion sensors in your AirPods, with no camera.

- URL: https://swiftfox.studio/handbook/slouch-reminder-for-mac
- About: https://swiftfox.studio/apps/poise
- Published: 2026-10-24
- Updated: 2026-10-24
- Publisher: Swiftfox Studio (https://swiftfox.studio)

## In short

- Poise reads your head's tilt from AirPods with head tracking, learns your upright by itself and needs no camera.
- Keep your head past the line and a fog rises from the bottom of the screen, higher the further it drops, and clears as soon as you sit up.
- A running estimate of neck load offers a three-minute, seven-move neck break before the neck starts to ache, and the AirPods count the reps.
- Everything stays on the Mac - no account, no cloud - and the price is a one-time $11.99 after a 30-day free trial.

## What a slouch reminder has to get right

Nobody decides to slouch. The head drifts toward the screen a degree at a time
while you are busy with something else, and by the time the neck complains you
have been holding it there for an hour. A reminder that only fires on a timer
misses that, and one that fires every time you glance at the keyboard gets
switched off by lunch.

[Poise](https://swiftfox.studio/apps/poise) watches the thing that actually moves - your head - through
the AirPods you are probably already wearing. No camera, no strap, nothing new on
the desk. This article walks through what it does, and everything below is in the
shipping version.

## Your AirPods already know where your head is

AirPods that support head tracking carry motion sensors, and macOS lets an app
read their tilt. Poise reads it about fifty times a second. That works with
AirPods Pro, AirPods (3rd generation and later), AirPods Max and Beats models
with head tracking. Other Bluetooth headphones are recognised, and the popover
says plainly that Poise cannot read them.

It asks for **Motion & Fitness** access, and only when you press Allow. There is
nothing to calibrate: for the first two minutes of wear Poise watches how you sit
and learns your upright from the head-up end of it, not the average, which would
call a slump normal. After that the upright only rises, so a slouchy afternoon
never becomes the new normal. A calibration by hand is there as a shortcut in
Settings, and each pair of AirPods keeps its own.

How far the head may drop before Poise speaks up is a preset: **Gentle** (20
degrees for 30 seconds), **Balanced** (15 for 15, the default), **Strict** (10
for 8), or your own numbers. A glance down at the keyboard is over long before
any of those.

## The ring in the menu bar, and the popover under it

![The Poise popover under its menu bar disc while slouching, with the otter coach, a 26 degree drop against a 15 degree limit, the neck load at 93% and today's score](https://swiftfox.studio/blog/slouch-reminder-for-mac/fig-1.jpg "The ring around the otter has gone red; the popover says how far, for how long and what it is costing your neck.")

The status item is a small disc with the coach's head in it - an otter wearing
AirPods - and a ring around it that fills from green through amber to red as your
head drops past the line. It can show the angle or today's score beside it, or
nothing. Right-clicking gives a short menu to pause, calibrate or start a break.

The popover has the otter big, facing you and **mirroring your head**: nod and it
nods, tilt and it tilts. Beside it are the drop in degrees against your limit,
then the **neck load** - how tired the neck muscles are getting, as a share and a
band from Fresh to Ache risk - with the weight your neck is holding at this angle
("about 17 kg") and a forecast like "starts to ache in about 14 min". Under that
sits today's score and a strip of the day.

## The veil that rises from the bottom

![A document window with the bottom half of the screen blurred and shaded under a red line, and a Lift your head hint](https://swiftfox.studio/blog/slouch-reminder-for-mac/fig-2.jpg "The veil follows the drop: the further the head goes, the higher it rises.")

A notification is easy to swipe away. Poise's main alert is harder to ignore and
easier to live with: once your head has stayed past the line for a few seconds,
a **fog rises from the bottom of the screen** - the screen behind it blurred and
shaded, a red line along its top, and a small "Lift your head" just under it.

It comes from the bottom on purpose. A slouching head is looking down, so shading
the bottom pushes what is still clear up the screen, and the eyes and the head
follow. The height follows your drop: a third of the screen just past the line,
the whole screen twenty degrees past it. Lift your head part of the way and it
sinks to match; back above the line and it drains in about a second and a half.
Clicks go straight through it, so nothing you were doing is interrupted.

Settings sets the pace - **Gentle**, **Normal** (about twenty seconds to the top,
sooner when your neck is tired) or **Firm** - and a Try It button shows it on
your screen. A sound is optional and off by default: "Lift your head" spoken in
the app's language or a short two-note tone, once or every minute.

## Neck load, and a break before it aches

Posture apps usually stop at "you are slouching". Poise also keeps a running
estimate of what the slouching has cost. The weight a neck holds grows with the
angle - about 5 kg upright, 12 kg at 15 degrees, 18 at 30, 22 at 45 - and the
longer it holds more, the faster the load builds. A head locked still adds a
little too. Sitting upright and moving lets it recover, time away from the Mac
recovers it faster, and exercises take a share off each.

When the load reaches the level you chose - **Early**, **When it's tired** (the
default) or **Late** - a notification says it is time for a neck break, with
**Start** and **In 20 min**. The numbers are estimates built on published
head-weight figures, labelled as such in the app, and never advice.

## A three-minute neck break the AirPods check

![A Poise neck break: the otter demonstrating Look over your shoulder, with a dial showing the user's own head holding the turn](https://swiftfox.studio/blog/slouch-reminder-for-mac/fig-3.jpg "The otter shows the move; the dial shows where your own head is.")

The break is seven moves in about three minutes: look down and up, look over
your shoulder, side tilt, a diagonal look, an upper back stretch, a chin tuck and
shoulder rolls. The otter **demonstrates** each one on a loop. For the moves your
head can be measured on, a dial around it shows your own angle - bring the dot
into the green arc and hold it while the bar fills, and the AirPods count the rep.

Spoken cues come through the AirPods so you do not have to watch, and any move
can be skipped. A 3-2-1 starts it, and the last screen shows the neck load
before and after. Close the popover and the break pauses rather than ends.

## Statistics, a weekly summary, a widget and Shortcuts

![Poise statistics for the last seven days: upright share per day, best day, average angle, slouches, breaks, tracked time and the hours slouching gathers in](https://swiftfox.studio/blog/slouch-reminder-for-mac/fig-4.jpg "Seven days at a glance, including the hour of the day your posture gives out.")

The statistics page covers today, seven days and thirty: the share of tracked
time you sat upright, the average angle, how many times you slouched, breaks
taken, tracked time and a 24-hour strip of when the slouching gathers - which is
usually one afternoon hour, every day. A weekly summary arrives as a notification
once a week, and a small or medium desktop widget shows today's score and neck
load.

Shortcuts gets five actions: Pause, Resume, Start a Neck Break, Calibrate and Get
Today's Posture. While a call app such as Zoom, Teams, FaceTime or Webex is in
front, Poise keeps quiet - no veil, no sound, and a due break waits for the call
to end - and it can do the same for anything in full screen.

## What it deliberately does not do

It does **not use the camera**, and it does not work without AirPods that report
head motion. That is the trade: no camera light and no image of you anywhere, in
exchange for seeing only your head - a rounded back with a level head looks
upright to Poise. Nothing is counted while the Mac is locked or asleep, or when
you are away from it without the AirPods on.

There is **no phone app, no Apple Health export and no account**. History stays
on the Mac for sixty days, one small file per day, and head angles never leave
it. The app is sandboxed, signed and notarised; the only network traffic goes to
our own servers - license checks, updates, config, and anonymous usage counts
and crash diagnostics. It is not a medical device and makes no medical claims.

## What it costs, and what else to look at

Poise runs on **macOS 14 or later** and takes about 20 MB. It is a **one-time
$11.99 purchase** with a 30-day trial that needs no card and no email - the
license is permanent. The full specification is on [the Poise page](https://swiftfox.studio/apps/poise).

If your problem is sitting still rather than sitting badly, [Recess](https://swiftfox.studio/apps/recess)
schedules eye and stretch breaks on two clocks. For the other apps that tackle
posture - with a camera, with AirPods, free or paid - see
[the best posture apps for Mac](https://swiftfox.studio/blog/best-posture-apps-for-mac).