Want to know what has changed since a previous version? This page lists those changes. You can alter the range of release notes to display if you wish.

The latest release of Time Out is version 2.9.1.

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• Fixed an issue where the Icon theme could be damaged.
• Fixed a crash when choosing the new Calendar scheduling option.

Added a status message to the breaks in the sidebar

• The break items in the sidebar now display a status message, e.g. to indicate that the break has been postponed or skipped.
• When a break is skipped or postponed due to an app exclusion, the app name is included.
• So if you ever wonder why a break didn't occur as expected, look at this status message.

Added the ability to schedule breaks using calendar events

• A new Calendar option is now available in the From pop-up menu on the Break Schedule page.
• If chosen, a pop-up menu of your calendars, and a field to filter on event text is displayed.
• The first time this is chosen, the app will prompt for permission to access your calendars.
• When using this option, Time Out will look at the specified calendar for events containing the specified text, and start a break at the start of the event, and finish at the end.
• If the event text filter field is left blank, all events will be used; specify something else to use the same calendar for multiple breaks.
• Multiple values can be entered in the filter field, separated by commas, e.g. "break, lunch, snack".
• A reload button is available to reset the due date, if you edit the events.
• Since the calendar controls the duration, frequency, and availability of the break, those controls are disabled.
• This feature is available as a reward for current supporters; others can try it for an hour at a time.

Added an Exclusions option to skip breaks when busy on the calendar

• A new Also skip breaks during calendar events option is now available on the Exclusions page.
• If chosen, a pop-up menu of your calendars, and a field to filter on event text is displayed.
• The first time this is chosen, the app will prompt for permission to access your calendars.
• When using this option, Time Out will look at the specified calendar for events containing the specified text, and skip a due break if it would fall within an event.
• As with calendar scheduling, if the event text filter field is left blank, all events on that calendar will be used; specify something else to only skip some of the events.
• Multiple values can be entered in the filter field, separated by commas, e.g. "meeting, 1-on-1, planning".
• This feature is available as a reward for current supporters; others can try it for an hour at a time.

Support for Monterey focus

• Renamed the Exclusions option to skip breaks during Do Not Disturb to focus, Apple's new name for it in Monterey.
• The first time this option is enabled, the app will prompt to get permission to look at the focus state.
• If declined, you can enable it via System Preferences ▸ Security & Privacy ▸ User Availability.
• This feature will still work with the old Do Not Disturb state from previous macOS versions.

Added an Advanced option to hide the Pause function

• Sometimes it can be very difficult to resist the temptation to pause Time Out to avoid breaks, even though you know you shouldn't.
• So for people who don't want the Pause function, there is now an option on the Advanced page to hide it.
• This feature is available as a reward for current supporters; others can try it for an hour at a time.

New break options to pause or reset an individual break

• Added a Pause Break or Resume Break command to the break options menus. So a break can be paused independent of other breaks.
• The Pause Break menu item can be chosen to pause indefinitely, or choose a shorter time from the submenu.
• This is of course not included if the new Advanced option to hide pause is active.
• Also added a Reset Break command to these menus. This will start the work period again from now, just for this break.

But wait, there's more!

• Fixed the Flash Screen break action on Apple silicon Macs. It now uses the built-in screen flash, so doesn't have color or duration options.
• Fixed the Fadeout Sound break action not showing the fade out time interval field.
• Updated the Stop Screensaver break action script.
• Breaks due on future days are no longer adjusted when having a natural break (idle).
• When resetting a From: Fixed Time break, the next due time now respects the fixed time.
• Break names are now cleaned up to avoid invalid characters that can cause saving the break to fail.
• Updated the Exclusions to remove DVD Player, and change FaceTime, Photo Booth, and QuickTime Player to include "System" in their paths.
• For new folks, the exclusions for Zoom are now When Frontmost, to avoid a common support query. Existing data is not changed, in case you like them When Open.
• The Pause All Breaks menu item can now be chosen to pause indefinitely, instead of needing to choose that from the submenu.
• When paused indefinitely, the status item text now shows "--".
• Improved the highlighting of the status item rows.
• Hidden a couple of rarely-used diagnostic logging options.
• Fixed a performance issue where the app could use more CPU than it should in some unusual circumstances.
• Time Out now requires a minimum of macOS Catalina (10.15).

• A quick fix to have the Do Not Disturb break exclusion option off by default, as apparently a lot of people leave DND on all the time, resulting in unintentionally missing breaks. Sorry about that!

New option to end a break early

• Added a checkbox and interval picker to the Break Appearance page, to show a button to end the break early.
• If checked, at the specified interval after a break starts, a End Break Early button will appear in the control panel, enabling stopping the break.
• This is different than the Skip Break button, as it counts the break as done successfully; a distinction that matters if you care about the break statistics.
• The interval defaults to halfway through the break duration, but the amount and units can be changed as desired.
• When the End Break Early button appears, the Postpone and/or Skip buttons are hidden.
• Another use case is to set a long break duration, e.g. half an hour, but allow ending the break after a few minutes, to have variable-length breaks.

New option to postpone breaks for app exclusions

• Added a pop-up menu at the top of the Exclusions page to choose to postpone due breaks if an app exclusion applies when due, instead of skipping it.
• If one of the postpone intervals is chosen, when a break is due to start, and one of the specified apps is open or frontmost, the break will be rescheduled by the specified number of minutes.
• This was a popular request for people on Zoom meetings, to ensure they get their break soon after the meeting is over.
• The breaks will continue to be postponed until the exclusion no longer applies.
• Also renamed the When Open and When Frontmost options to be more compact, both to show more of the app paths, and because Skip When Open doesn't make sense with a postpone option.

Added an option to skip breaks when Do Not Disturb is on

• A new checkbox was added to the Exclusions page to also skip breaks when the macOS Do Not Disturb feature is on.
• Useful for important meetings when you don't want any interruptions, including breaks. If you always leave it on, you might want to disable this option.

Can now show the time since the last break in the status item

• Added options to the General preference for the status item, to show the time since the most recently completed break, instead of a countdown to the next one.
• Useful if you want to see at a glance how long you've been working.
• The icon can also show the label color of the last break that was done, instead of the next one due.
• The tooltip for the status item now also includes the time since each break was done.

Control Time Out via URL schemes

• A popular request: some functions of Time Out can now be controlled via URL schemes.
• timeout://break/micro/start will start the Micro break.
• timeout://break/micro/postpone1 to postpone the Micro break by the first postpone amount.
• timeout://break/normal/postpone2 to postpone the Normal break by the second postpone amount.
• timeout://break/mybreak/skip to skip "My Break"; use lowercase and omit spaces and punctuation for the break name in the URL.
• timeout://break/micro/reset to reset the Micro break.
• timeout://pause will pause breaks indefinitely.
• timeout://pause/10m will pause breaks for 10 minutes (use "s", "m", "h", or "d" units, or no suffix for minutes).
• timeout://resume to resume after a pause.
• timeout://preferences to show the Preferences window.
• Let me know if you want any other functions to be available via URL.

Other changes

• Added a LCD Digital Clock theme, that shows a nice old-school LCD-like digital clock.
• Updated the Pexels Nature theme.
• Added the option to not register a purchase in the Mac App Store edition, or defer registering. Registering the purchase with Dejal enables restoring it on any of your Macs; if you don't register, you'll have to purchase again if you install on another Mac, or wipe your current Mac.
• Entering your name is now optional when registering in the Mac App Store edition, or restoring a purchase in the direct or Mac App Store editions.
• Now prevents app expose during a break.
• If the Advanced option to disable switching breaks etc is enabled, continuing typing is now also prevented during breaks. (Let me know if you'd prefer this were a separate option.)
• When changing a break to start from fixed time on the Break Schedule page, the natural break option is changed to Continue Countdown, to avoid it drifting (you can change it back if you don't mind that, but it's a common support question).
• Fixed the screen fading when using the Ask When to Start schedule option with the None theme.
• Also fixed handling of Break Actions when Ask When to Start is used.
• Improved the layout of the Break Actions to avoid occasional drawing anomalies.
• The status window can now be displayed in all macOS Spaces, and the preferences window will move to the active Space when displayed.
• Added a check that the timers are still working, to diagnose an issue that one person reported.
• Fixed the Spotlight keywords of the app to use an array instead of a comma-separated string.

• Fixed a couple of crashes affecting a few people using the Mac App Store edition.
• The direct and Setapp editions were not affected, so are not updated.

• Fixed an issue that caused text for the Text theme to be forgotten.
• Fixed the Break Preview prematurely stopping.
• Tweaked the new Ask to Start feature to immediately ask when due, instead of waiting for a natural break.
• Tweaked the appearance of the status menu.
• Worked around an issue with displaying a time like 23 hours 45 minutes as "0 seconds".

Big Sur

• Time Out is now a universal app for Apple M1 silicon and Intel on Big Sur; it also supports back to Yosemite (10.10).
• Controls use the Dejal green accent color on Big Sur if the accent color in General System Preferences is set to "multicolor".
• Improved the row heights in the sidebar on Big Sur.
• Fixed the break control panel moving downwards on Big Sur.
• Fixed the appearance of the Activity headers on Big Sur.
• Improved the layout of some other controls.
• Updated the app icon for the Big Sur squircle style.

New option to ask to start a break

• Added a new option in the "when this break is due" pop-up menu: Ask When to Start.
• If chosen, a time interval control appears to specify a limit, after which it should start anyway. This defaults to 5 minutes (also supports units of seconds and hours).
• When a break is due with this option, the control panel will appear, with a button to manually start the break when you're ready, and the screen won't dim.
• When you click the Start Break button, the screen dims and the break continues as normal.
• If you don't click within the time limit, the break starts anyway; this is needed to avoid accidentally blocking subsequent breaks.
• A countdown to auto-starting appears once halfway through the time limit.

Improved break preview

• When clicking the Preview button on the Break Appearance page, the break now appears with a Stop Preview button to dismiss it.
• The preview has no time limit; it'll remain until dismissed.
• Dismissing the preview doesn't count as skipping it, so doesn't affect your statistics or daily limits.
• If you want to try the full break experience, click the Start button in the sidebar instead.

Added several new break themes

• Updated the default Icon theme to use the new app icon.
• Added a Round Icon theme that includes the old icon, if you miss that.
• Added a "Dejal Blog" break theme, that shows the Dejal blog for news from Dejal.
• Also added "Dejus Blog", that shows the author's personal blog, with daily interesting photos.
• And to complete the set, "Yellow Cottage Blog", that shows the author's homestead blog, with pictures of feral cats, ducks, chickens, and more.
• As an example of a static remote picture, added a "Ducks & Fish" theme, that shows that. You can edit the theme to show a picture of your choosing.
• Added an "Inspirational Quotes" theme, that shows a quote for each break.
• Added a "Pexels Nature" theme, that shows a random nature picture.
• Added "Photo Slideshow", that can be edited to show 10 local images of your choosing.

Other changes

• Added the time range to the tooltips for breaks and apps on the Activity page, for a more precise indication of when each occurred.
• Changed the Advanced option to reset the position of the full window after displaying the status menu from a button to a checkbox, to keep that behavior, instead of a one-time reset.
• Improved the size and alignment of the status item when only an icon or only the countdown is displayed.
• Fixed break rows not highlighting properly in the status item menu.
• Some people missed the red heart icons indicating supporter rewards, so now the info popover for a reward trial automatically appears each time a page is displayed during the hour trial.
• When manually starting a break while Time Out is paused, actions are now performed as expected, instead of performing them after resuming.
• Now skips breaks during a screen recording by default for new users. Existing users can see this blog post to add this exclusion.
• Also now skips when using Zoom too; see this blog post.
• Worked around Apple bug with displaying a time like 59 minutes 30 seconds as "0d".
• The scripts for Break Actions are now listed in alphabetical order.
• Fixed the Sound Action Repeat checkbox color in dark mode.
• Updated the Help menu to include the Dejal Reddit and other tweaks.

• Fixed an issue that prevented in-app purchases for some people.
• This release only applies to the Mac App Store edition.

• Added support for Setapp. Your Setapp subscription includes all supporter rewards.
• Fixed some situations where the new Fixed Time option didn't calculate the best time.
• When the Break Appearance page was selected then you choose a break with a duration of zero, the Actions page is now selected instead.
• Now automatically shows the Learn More information when first displaying the Support Time Out page, to help answer common questions.
• Improved the auto-start option to avoid showing the Preferences window when starting up the Mac.

Fixed-time breaks

• Added a From pop-up menu to the Break Schedule page. It includes options for Last Due, Last Done, and Fixed Time.
• Last Due is what previously happened, and the default.
• Last Done will reset the break after it is completed, so the next break will occur the frequency interval after that. For example, a 10 minute break every 30 minutes will next occur 30 minutes after the break finishes, instead of 30 minutes after it starts (as with the Last Due option).
• Fixed Time will display a field to enter the number of minutes past the hour (0 — 59), and will start the break at that time, or some multiple if the frequency is less than an hour. For example, setting it to 50 for an hourly break will start the break at 09:50, 10:50, 11:50, etc. Or setting it to 15 for a break every 30 minutes will start it at 09:15, 09:45, 10:15, 10:45, etc (you may need to also use the Available option to set a start time in this situation).
• The latter two are new rewards for current or future supporters; others can try them for an hour at a time.

Break Schedule now supports smaller duration and frequency

• Can now configure a break to last zero seconds, to avoid showing the control panel at all.
• When the duration is zero, the Appearance page is disabled, since it doesn't apply. Use Actions like Flash Screen or Display Notification instead.
• Can also now use seconds as a frequency unit, i.e. have the break occur as often as once per second, if desired (though not recommended!).
• Both options can be useful for a 10 second blink reminder that just flashes the screen.

Other changes

• Added the Random Word theme, contributed by Michelle Lim.
• The Activity dates are now in the correct order, instead of sometimes jumbled up.
• Fixed row heights sometimes being wrong in the status popover.
• Postponing and skipping a break via the Options pop-up menu are now counted with the postpone/skip/done counts.
• Opening Time Out will now always show the Preferences window, unless it's within five minutes of restarting (to avoid showing it when automatically launched on startup).
• Improved handling of in-app purchases that require approval.
• Improved handling of restoring purchases for names with Cyrillic characters.
• Improved the error message when purchasing is unavailable.
• Updated the help.

Catalina

• The direct edition now uses the hardened runtime and is notarized by Apple, as required for Catalina.
• Compatible with Catalina (macOS 10.15).