for Windows · Android version coming in 3 weeks

A cat that lives on your taskbar
— and talks back

FocusCat is a small companion that lives on your Windows taskbar. Double-click it to chat: ask for the weather, your battery, or what is hogging your memory; tell it to start a timer or remind you later; jot down a note. And when you spend too long on the sites you asked it to watch, it walks over and closes the tab.

Get it for Windows free · no sign-up · stays on your machine
chromecodeslack 9:41

Double-click the cat and talk to it

A small box opens above the cat. Ask a question and it answers from your own computer — your battery, your memory, your disk, the weather where you are. Tell it to do something and it does it. Anything else you type — a thought mid-meeting, a line worth keeping from a long read — is saved as a note.

chromecodeslack 9:41

ask it

weather?where you are, now and today's high and low — or weather in Coimbatore? for anywhere else
battery?level, and how long it will last
memory?which programs are using it, biggest first
disk?free space on each drive
cpu?how busy the processor is, and by what
internet?online or not
what did I close?the tabs it closed today
timer?whether a focus session is running

tell it

/timer 25start a 25-minute focus session
/snooze 30stop watching sites for a while
/remind call Kavi at 5pma reminder, today or tomorrow — say it any way round
/hidehide the cat; the tray brings it back

Say hi and it greets you by name. Press Help in the box for the whole list. It works offline; only the weather question goes to the internet, and only when you ask.

It remembers things for you

The cat is there all day, so the small things live with it: notes, reminders, a timer for a block of work, a nudge to drink water.

Notes

In a meeting, or halfway through a long article, and a thought lands? Double-click the cat, type it, press Enter. No app to open, no file to save, no window to switch to — the note is kept, and listed in the cat's settings newest first for when you are done.

drink some water

Reminders

Type a note and a time — buy groceries, turn off the heater, call home — and the cat holds it up when the time comes. Switch on the water reminder and it brings you a glass every hour, or as often as you like. At bedtime it yawns, says goodnight and sleeps.

24:59

Focus timer

Say /timer 25 in the box, or use the settings, and work without distractions. When it ends, the cat chimes and tells you to take a short break.

It keeps you company

Turn these on if you like them: the cat chases your mouse pointer around the screen, and sits at a tiny keyboard typing along while you type. It glances about when bored, and stretches when it wakes.

Make it yours

Pick a cream, white or black cat, set its size and speed, and tell it your name so it greets you. Turn on Start with Windows and the cat is there every time you switch on your computer.

It also guards your focus

Name the sites that eat your time and how many minutes a day you want on them. The cat counts only the time a site is actually in front of you, and when it runs out it walks over, swats, and the tab closes. No blocking, no streaks, no dashboard to check. Your other tabs stay open.

docs — spec×
Shorts — YouTube×
youtube.com/shorts
watchingyoutube.com/shorts
you get20 min
time left0 s
statustime up

It lives on your taskbar

The cat sits along the bottom of your screen. It stays low so it never covers the window you are working in.

It counts only the time you spend

The clock runs while that site is in front of you and pauses when you switch away. Twenty minutes means twenty minutes of it.

It stays on your machine

It reads the window in front of you and nothing else. Nothing is uploaded, there is nothing to sign up for, and you can ask it to snooze or stop any time.

Where to find its menu

The cat also has a small icon next to the clock, in the bottom-right corner of your screen. Windows 11 hides new icons behind a little ∧ arrow. Click the arrow to find the cat, or skip all that and simply right-click the cat itself.

Settings…
✓On patrol Snooze Show / hide the cat
Quit
∧ 9:41
  • ∧Click the small arrow next to the clock to find the cat icon. Drag it onto the bar so it stays visible.
  • clickClick the icon for the menu: open settings, pause the cat, hide it, or quit.
  • 2×Double-click the icon to open the settings straight away.
  • catOr right-click the cat itself. Same menu, nothing to hunt for. Double-click the cat to talk to it.

Try it yourself

This is the real cat from the app, running right here on the page. Click a pose and pick a colour.

What each version added

Newest first.

3.0new
  • Talk to the cat — Double-click it and a small box opens. Ask about your battery, memory, disk, processor, internet, the tabs it closed, or your timer; tell it to start a timer, snooze, remind you at a time, or hide. Say hi and it greets you by name.
  • Notes — In a meeting, or deep in a long article, double-click the cat and type the thing to remember; press Enter and it is kept, listed in the settings newest first, without leaving what you were doing.
  • Lighter on your computer — Memory and battery use are optimised: the cat now needs about half the processor it did while sitting still, and less memory, so it costs less battery on a laptop.
2.0
  • Focus timer — Set a timer for a block of work, for example 25 minutes. When it ends, the cat chimes and suggests you take a short break.
  • Reminders — Type a reminder and a time, and the cat brings it to you at that moment. Switch on a repeating reminder to drink water, and a bedtime when it says goodnight and sleeps.
  • A cat with a life — The cat can chase your mouse pointer, type along with you at a tiny keyboard, look around when it is bored, and stretch and yawn when it wakes up.
  • Make it yours — Choose one of three colours, set the cat’s size and speed, and tell it your name so it greets you. Turn on Start with Windows and it is there every time you sign in.
0.1.0first release
  • Watch & close — watches the websites you name and closes the tab once your daily minutes for it are used up. Set a site to zero minutes and it closes the moment it opens.

Install

Works on Windows 10 and 11. You do not need to be the computer’s administrator.

FocusCat_3.0.0_x64-setup.exe
≈1.9 MB · a small download
↓ Download

Android version coming in 3 weeks

1Click Download above. Your browser may warn that the file isn’t commonly downloaded. That only means few people have downloaded it so far — it is not a virus warning. In the Downloads panel, click the three dots ⋯ next to the file. A page saying Make sure you trust… appears, with just Cancel and Delete. Click the small arrow ∨ next to Delete and choose Keep.
2Windows may show a blue box saying Windows protected your PC. It shows this for any new app that is not from a big company. Click More info, then Run anyway. If you do not see Run anyway: click the Start button, type Smart App Control, open it, and choose Off. Once it is off, install FocusCat again.
3The FocusCat Setup window opens. Click Next. It shows the folder where it will be installed — leave that as it is and click Install. Windows will not ask for an administrator password.
4When the green bar is full, click Next. Leave the Run FocusCat box ticked and click Finish.
5That’s it. The cat appears at the bottom of your screen. Double-click it to say hi; right-click it to open its settings.
1Close the cat that is running: right-click the cat, or its small icon next to the clock, and choose Quit.
2Remove the old version: open Windows Settings → Apps → Installed apps, find FocusCat and click Uninstall.
3Install the new one from the Download button above, following the same steps as a first install.

✓ Your websites, reminders, notes and settings are kept.