Launching today
Hoy for Mac
Walkie-talkie meets AirDrop meets Messages
19 followers
Walkie-talkie meets AirDrop meets Messages
19 followers
Hoy puts your people in your Mac's menu bar, on top of everything you do. Drop a file on a face. Hold to talk, and Hoy writes it down as you speak. Show your screen. Hand over a to-do. Every face is a channel, with one person or a group, and a link is all it takes to bring someone in. No sign-up, no middleman: your channels live in your own iCloud and there is no Hoy server. Free, with a pay-once Pro. Needs macOS 26. iPhone and iPad are coming soon.
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Promoted
Hoy there! I’m Dominik.
Designer, builder, chronic prototyper. Some of you might know my other app Monocle from here.
Today it’s Hoy 1.0 for Mac.
Imagine this: drag a file onto a face. That’s it. If that made you smile, you’ll get Hoy.
Or hold the face to talk to them. Easy, right? Almost like a walkie-talkie.
Hoy started from a small annoyance: sending a screen recording, a voice note or a file to one person. AirDrop needs you both in the same room at the same time. Everything else means opening another app, maybe finding the right channel, waiting on the upload of a screen recording you recorded earlier, looking it up first… and, importantly, making an account first. So I made Hoy: a face in your menu bar for each of your people. Drop something on a face, and it reaches that person whether they’re next door or across the world, awake or asleep.
You can drop files, notes, voice notes with transcript, screen recordings with a floating avatar cam and even to-do lists.
And I wanted it to feel good!
Oh! And it’s private by design. Just iCloud.
No sign-up, no account, no Hoy server. Hoy runs on CloudKit, the same way Apple syncs and shares your Photos and Notes. You host a channel and it lives in your iCloud. Share the invite link with one person and it’s a 1-on-1. Share it with more and it’s a group.
(It’s Apple-only. On purpose. If your people aren’t on Apple devices, Hoy isn’t for you.)
I also made channels tidy themselves. As a host, you pick how long drops stick around: 1 day, 3 days, 1 week (default) or 1 month, so old files don’t fill up your iCloud. Want to hold on to something? Mark it Keep.
It’s early, and that’s the fun part. I use it every day with my people and I know the concept is strong, but it’s young and it will evolve a lot. iPhone and iPad are coming, on TestFlight from Nov 16.
I’m still learning what people reach for most. So, please, tell me: who would be the first three faces in your menu bar? And what’s missing or feels off once they’re there? Here, or hello@gethoy.app.
Hoy needs macOS, iOS or iPadOS 26+.
https://gethoy.app/
Unique design, unique user experience. One of the most interesting apps everyone should try. Have a great launch, Dominik! 🙌
Channels living in your own iCloud with no Hoy server is a bold simplification, and it makes the privacy story easy to believe. My first three faces would be the people I send screen recordings to every week. I like that hold-to-talk writes the text as you speak: after years in audio software I know how fast people notice a lag between voice and text. Is the transcript made on the sender's Mac before it leaves?
@edoardo2
Thank you, yes, the transcript is made on the sender’s Mac, while the voice is being recorded. The words are written live as you speak. The transcript then travels with the take through your iCloud, like everything else.