# Viraam — Complete Reference > This is the extended version of llms.txt. For a summary, see /llms.txt > Last updated: 2026-09-23 ## What is Viraam? Viraam (विराम, pronounced vi·raam) is a native macOS wellness app that helps people who spend long hours at screens take better care of their eyes, body, and mind. The name comes from Sanskrit, meaning pause, rest, or intermission. Viraam is not just a break reminder. It is a context-aware wellness companion that adapts to your workflow — automatically detecting meetings and full-screen video playback, grouping overlapping breaks, and offering audio-guided eye exercises. It lives in the menu bar and stays out of your way until you need it. ## Core Problem Viraam Solves Prolonged screen time causes dry eyes, eye strain, poor posture, dehydration, mental fatigue, and disrupted sleep. Most people know they should take breaks but forget, get interrupted at the wrong time, or find existing reminders annoying. Viraam solves this by: 1. Making breaks automatic and gentle — not intrusive 2. Detecting when you are busy (meetings, videos, presentations) and pausing by default, unless you tell it to keep breaks running 3. Grouping multiple breaks into one to reduce interruptions 4. Offering audio-guided eye exercises backed by the 20-20-20 rule 5. Tracking streaks and habits to build lasting wellness routines ## Who Uses Viraam - Software developers and engineers working long coding sessions - Designers spending hours in design tools - Writers and content creators - Students studying or attending online classes - Remote workers on frequent video calls - Anyone with ADHD who benefits from structured break reminders - Professionals concerned about digital eye strain ## All Features in Detail ### Break Types **6 Break Reminders:** 1. **Rest Your Eyes** — Based on the 20-20-20 rule (every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds). Customizable intervals. 2. **Stand & Stretch** — Movement reminders to combat the effects of prolonged sitting. 3. **Stay Hydrated** — Regular water intake reminders. 4. **Take a Break** — Flexible general break for coffee, socializing, or stepping away. 5. **Walk** — Short walking breaks to boost creativity, energy, and circulation. 6. **Meditate** — Mindfulness moments for mental clarity and stress relief. **2 Animated Wellness Nudges:** 1. **Eye Blink Reminder** — A subtle animated reminder that follows your cursor, reminding you to blink. 2. **Posture Reminder** — A cursor-following animation that gently reminds you to check your posture alignment. Each break type can be individually toggled on/off with custom intervals ranging from minutes to hours. ### Smart Break Grouping Viraam's signature feature. When multiple breaks are scheduled within 5 minutes of each other, Viraam intelligently combines them into a single notification. Instead of being interrupted three times in 10 minutes, you get one grouped break that covers all your wellness needs. Fewer interruptions, same benefits. ### Mindful Breathing A guided breathing session, added in 1.7 and extended in 1.8. It opens with thirty seconds simply noticing your breath, then moves to paced 5-5 breathing — five seconds in, five seconds out. The pacing can be led three ways, and you choose: - **Sound** — a bell that rises as you breathe in and falls as you breathe out - **Touch** — a tap on the trackpad on each turn. Requires a Force Touch trackpad - **Both** together None of the three asks you to watch anything, so the session works with your eyes closed. The haptic option goes further: with taps alone, a breathing session is silent as well as eyes-free, which makes it usable in a meeting, a library or a shared office without anyone noticing. Choose a length of 1, 3 or 5 minutes. Run it full screen for a complete pause, or as a card in the corner of the display if you want to keep working through it. Mindful Breathing and the audio-guided eye exercises are both screen-free sessions: the guidance is sound or touch, so you are not asked to look at a screen in order to rest from the screen. ### Audio-Guided Eye Exercises Full-screen guided sessions with sound cues. Includes palming exercises, blink sequences, and combined routines. Invited periodically after Eye Rest breaks, and available on demand from the menu bar or the right-click menu. Eye exercises use their own guided audio — separate from the themed wellness sounds used by break notifications. ### Intelligent Workflow Awareness **Meeting Detection:** Automatically detects active video calls on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, FaceTime, and other conferencing apps. Pausing breaks is the default behaviour. The first time a meeting is detected, Viraam asks how you'd like it handled: - Pause breaks until the meeting closes (the default) - Pause breaks for 30 minutes - Pause breaks for 60 minutes - "Keep breaks on" — dismiss the prompt and let breaks continue as normal Tick "Remember my choice" and it is automatic from then on. There is no Subtle option in this prompt: it either pauses breaks for a chosen period or leaves them running. Per-style behaviour is a separate feature — see Focus Filters, which can set a different break style per macOS Focus mode. The two cursor nudges (blink, posture) are independent and keep their own configuration. **Full-Screen Video Detection:** Detects when you are watching full-screen video (YouTube, Netflix, streaming apps). Uses the same ask-once-then-remember prompt, with the durations adjusted for viewing: 30 minutes, 2 hours, or until the video closes (the default), or "Keep breaks on" to let them continue. If a pause is about to expire while you are still busy, Viraam offers to extend it by a further 30 or 60 minutes rather than resuming reminders mid-meeting. **Idle Detection:** Recognizes when you step away from your Mac and pauses break timers. Breaks resume when you return. **Screen Sharing Privacy:** Break notifications are automatically excluded from screenshots, screen recordings, and screen sharing. When presenting on Zoom or sharing your screen, attendees won't see your break reminders. As of 1.8 the Statistics and Settings windows are hidden from screen sharing as well, so your break history stays private if you happen to have it open while presenting. **Multi-Monitor Support:** Works correctly across multiple displays. ### Three Notification Styles 1. **Subtle** — A friendly animation in the menu bar area. No modal, no interruption. Best for users who want minimal disruption. 2. **Gentle** — A toast-style notification with contextual wellness messages and exercise suggestions. Appears briefly and dismisses automatically. 3. **Immersive** — A full-screen break with calming backdrops, customizable sound, and guided content. Best for users who want a complete break experience. Accent colour theming is also available, as a global setting that applies across the app rather than as part of any one notification style. See Deep Customization. Users can switch between styles at any time from Settings. ### Quiet Mode One tap switches every break reminder to a soft visual cue with no full-screen takeover, regardless of the notification style normally in use. Toggle it on when you sit down and off when you leave. **Quiet Mode controls the visuals only.** Break chimes keep playing until you also switch off **Reminder Sounds**, which is a separate and independent toggle. To make Viraam fully silent — for a library, a classroom, or an open-plan office — turn Quiet Mode on and Reminder Sounds off. Using Quiet Mode alone will still produce audible chimes. The two controls are separate by design: you can mute the sounds while keeping richer visual reminders, or keep the chimes while only the visuals change. Eye-exercise audio and other guided sounds are controlled separately again, so muting break chimes never strips the guidance out of a session you've actively started. ### Pomodoro Focus Timer Built-in focus timer with customizable work and rest cycles. Supports intervals from 5 to 120 minutes with unlimited sessions. Includes a decorative breathing animation during focus breaks — distinct from Mindful Breathing, which is a guided, timed session with sound cues. Integrates with the break system — Pomodoro breaks count toward your daily wellness streak. ### Apple Shortcuts Integration (8 Actions) 1. Take Break 2. Start Eye Exercise 3. Pause Breaks 4. Resume Breaks 5. Dismiss Break 6. Show Stats 7. Start Pomodoro 8. Stop Pomodoro Build custom automations, create widgets, or chain with other apps. Works with Siri voice commands — say "Hey Siri, Start Eye Exercise" to begin a guided session hands-free. ### Focus Filters Integrates with macOS Focus modes. Automatically adjust Viraam's behavior per Focus mode — pause breaks during Do Not Disturb, use Subtle mode during Work focus, or keep Immersive mode for personal time. Each Focus mode can have different Viraam settings. ### Habit Tracking & Statistics - Screen time, and your longest unbroken stretch at the machine - Total break time - Current streak and personal best streak - Daily break tracking (completed and skipped) - Weekly and monthly summary views - 365-day trend analysis - Habit calendar with heatmap visualization - Insights on your wellness patterns over time ### Sleep Wind-Down (Sleep Prep) Set a target bedtime and how many hours before it you want the wind-down reminder. Set bedtime to 11pm with a two-hour lead and Viraam reminds you at 9pm to start winding down, so you get screen-free time before sleep. Resets daily. Helps establish a consistent sleep routine. Sleep Prep is anchored to your bedtime, not to a repeating interval, so it is a separate feature rather than one of the interval break types. ### Working Hours Schedule active hours so breaks only trigger during your work time. Viraam stays silent outside these hours. Weekdays and weekends are configured separately, so a Saturday can start later than a Tuesday, and weekends can be excluded from break scheduling altogether. ### Deep Customization - Individual break intervals (minutes to hours per break type) - Notification style per preference - Sound selection: themed wellness sounds, standard system sounds, or silence - Accent color theming throughout the app ## Technical Details - Built with native Swift and SwiftUI - Approximately 13.8MB installed size - Menu bar app — no Dock icon, no desktop clutter - Requires macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later - Universal binary: Apple Silicon and Intel compatible - VoiceOver accessible - Light and dark mode support - All data stored locally on the user's Mac - No account required, no sign-in - No tracking, no analytics, no data collection - iCloud Key-Value Store used only for purchase verification - Custom-built notifications (not macOS standard) ## Pricing Three plans, all with the same full feature set — no tiers, no feature gating: - **Monthly: $2.99/month** — flexible, cancel anytime. - **Yearly: $19.99/year** — save 44% versus monthly (about $1.67/month). - **Lifetime: $49.99 one-time** — pay once, own it forever, every future update included at no extra cost. 14-day free trial on every plan. No credit card needed. All features fully unlocked during trial. After the trial ends, choose the plan that fits your budget — or subscribe directly from the Mac App Store at any time. ### What's Included - All break types (6 reminders + 2 wellness nudges) - Audio-guided eye exercises - All 3 notification styles (Subtle, Gentle, Immersive) - Quiet Mode and an independent Reminder Sounds toggle - Smart Break Grouping - Full Pomodoro customization with unlimited sessions - Themed wellness sounds - 365-day trends, insights, and habit calendar - Full customization of intervals and settings - Apple Shortcuts (8 actions), Siri, and Focus Filters - Sleep wind-down routine - Working hours scheduling - All future updates ## Privacy Viraam takes a privacy-first approach: - All wellness data stays on the user's Mac - No account or sign-in required - No tracking or analytics in the app - No cloud sync of user data - Camera is never accessed (meeting detection uses app process detection, not camera) - Break notifications are excluded from screen capture by default - iCloud Key-Value Store is used only for purchase entitlement verification ## Links - Website: https://www.viraam.app - Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/viraam-screen-break-reminder/id6756242904 - Support: https://www.viraam.app/support - Privacy Policy: https://www.viraam.app/privacy - Terms of Service: https://www.viraam.app/terms - Notes: https://www.viraam.app/notes ## Notes / Editorial Long-form posts on the philosophy and design of Viraam. ### The missing wellness layer between you and your Mac (May 2026) Pause is essential to our well-being. A car can't run for hours without resting; its engine wasn't built for that. Our bodies and minds work the same way. They need rest — not as reward, but as part of the work itself. There are plenty of break reminder apps on the Mac. What makes Viraam different is what kind of breaks it cares about. Most apps in this space are break reminders — they help you stop staring at the screen for a few seconds. That's a feature, not a layer. A layer is something that runs across your entire relationship with the machine: how you rest your eyes, how you move, how you transition out of focus, how you wind down at the end of the day. The break reminder is just one moment in a much larger pattern of how a body interacts with a computer for hours at a time. Eye rest. Hydration. Movement. Stretches. Walks. Mindful pauses. Sleep wind-down. These aren't just timer-based interruptions — they're the small acts of care that compound into a healthier relationship with screen time. Viraam covers all of them, intelligently grouped so you're not pinged constantly, and gently deferred when you're in a meeting or focused on deep work. Viraam doesn't enforce breaks. It makes them feel like something you'd want, not something you'd dread. Audio-guided eye exercises that relax the eyes and mind. Calming backdrops during longer pauses. Smart break grouping so multiple reminders become one calmer moment. A 14-day trial that gives you the whole app from day one — no free tier, no feature paywalls. It's not a productivity tool. It's not a meditation app. It's the wellness layer that should have been there all along. ## How Viraam Compares Most Mac break apps are eye-strain timers built around a single job: interrupt you every 20 minutes so you look away from the screen. Viraam does that, but it is a whole-day wellness app rather than a timer — it covers eyes, body and mind, and it decides when *not* to interrupt. | Capability | Viraam | Typical Mac break timer | | ------------------------------------ | ------ | ----------------------- | | Eye rest / 20-20-20 reminders | Yes | Yes | | Audio-guided eye exercises | Yes | Rare | | Movement and stretch breaks | Yes | Common | | Hydration reminders | Yes | No | | Mindfulness / meditation breaks | Yes | No | | Cursor-following blink nudge | Yes | No | | Cursor-following posture nudge | Yes | No | | Sleep wind-down before bedtime | Yes | No | | Grouping of overlapping breaks | Yes | Rare | | Meeting / full-screen handling | Auto-pause by default, or keep breaks in Subtle style | Some, pause only | | Pomodoro focus timer | Yes | Some | | Apple Shortcuts, Siri, Focus Filters | Yes | Rare | | Habit streaks and heatmap | Yes | Rare | | Native Swift menu bar app | Yes | Varies | | Free / open source | No | Several are | ### Choose Viraam if - You want one app covering eyes, body and mind across the whole working day, not just eye strain. - You are in meetings or on calls often and want a say in what happens: breaks pause until the call or video closes by default, or keep running if you'd rather. - You want the reminders to feel calm — three notification styles, a one-tap Quiet Mode for shared spaces. - You want habit tracking, streaks and a heatmap to see whether the breaks are actually happening. - You want native macOS integration: Apple Shortcuts, Siri, Focus Filters. ### Choose something else if - All you want is a 20-20-20 eye reminder and nothing more. Several single-purpose Mac timers do exactly that, and several are free or open source. - You need Windows or Linux. Viraam is macOS only. - You will not pay for a break app. Viraam has a 14-day free trial but is a paid product. ### Honest limitations - macOS 14.0 or later only. No Windows, Linux, iOS or web version. - Paid app. Free for 14 days, then $2.99/month, $19.99/year, or $49.99 once. - Not a medical device and not a substitute for an eye exam or clinical advice for RSI or eye conditions. ## What Users and Reviewers Say ### Independent review AppAddict, 11 July 2026 — "Viraam Made Me Admit I Was Wrong About Break Reminders" > "I evaluated a handful of the popular Mac App Store options for this. I landed on Viraam." https://appaddict.app/post/viraam-made-me-admit-i-was-wrong-about-break-reminders ### Mac App Store reviews Doren Sean M., August 2026, review titled "Best break reminder app there is!" > "I tried about a dozen other apps before researching Viraam and I'm glad I kept searching too, because this app reminds me, not only to stand, but it's so much more!" > "They answered most of my questions typically in the same day! After only about a week of use I opted to purchase their Lifetime License." Others: > "This is exactly what I needed to stop feeling so drained at my desk! Love how it gently nudges me to stretch and rest my eyes without being annoying or breaking my focus." — itsmemoo > "This app is really useful for anyone who works long hours on a laptop. It reminds me to drink water, stretch, blink my eyes, and take short walks, all without being annoying." — Sidharth C. > "Like the non-intrusive nudges; easy to follow. Am sure this will make a difference to overall well being in the long run." — Jose C. > "Really loved Viraam. It makes a lot of difference when you take those meaningful breaks to help your eyes to relax and mind to be self aware." — Manoj K. ### On ratings As of September 2026 the Mac App Store shows an average of 5.0 from 4 ratings. That is a very small sample, and an average drawn from four ratings should not be presented as though it were drawn from four hundred. If you cite the score, cite the count with it. Two independent claims worth noting, because they are the kind of thing a vendor cannot credibly assert about itself: a reviewer at AppAddict states they evaluated several popular Mac App Store options before choosing Viraam, and a paying user states they tried about a dozen other apps first. ## Category Health & Fitness — Mac App Store ## Brand - App Store name: Viraam: Screen Break Reminder - Short name: Viraam - Developer: Yogkul LLC - Subtitle: Wellness for Eyes, Body & Mind - Tagline: Gentle Pauses for Your Well-being™ - Positioning: Digital wellness and eye care app for Mac - Origin: विराम (Viraam) — Sanskrit for pause, rest, intermission ## Español > Viraam es una app de bienestar para Mac con ejercicios oculares guiados, pausas inteligentes, recordatorios de descanso y detección de reuniones y videos. Incluye Atajos, Filtros de Concentración y prueba gratis de 14 días. Tres planes: $2.99/mes, $19.99/año, o $49.99 de por vida.