Activity Capture on Your Mac

Groupthink can record which app and window you have in front of you, and for how long. That is the whole mechanism.

Summary

• What it gives you is the one thing meetings and notes cannot: where your attention actually went, including how much of it went to each person you work with.
• It is off until you turn it on, it runs only in the Groupthink desktop app on macOS, and while it runs there is a dot in your menu bar the entire time.
• You will find it in the desktop app under Settings > Capture > Activity on this Mac. The web app shows the same card with a note that it runs on your Mac.
• What it records and what it never records come first, in What gets recorded, and what never does. Exclusions, turning it off and deleting your activity follow the setup steps.
• Time spent on each person, including people who share a first name, is in Reference.

What gets recorded, and what never does

The card says this before the switch, and it is the actual behavior of the code.

What gets recorded: the name of the frontmost app, the title of its window, and the start and end time. Checked every 5 seconds. No screenshots, no keystrokes, no page contents.

What never gets recorded: these password managers: 1Password, LastPass, Bitwarden, Dashlane, Keychain Access, Apple Passwords (and the macOS panel that offers saved passwords in other apps), Proton Pass, Keeper, NordPass, Enpass, KeePassXC, Strongbox, RoboForm, Secrets, KeePassium, MacPass and mSecure. Also Groupthink itself, and anything you add to your exclusion lists. Those are dropped on your Mac before they are saved or sent anywhere. If you use any other password manager, add it to Never record these apps.

When you step away: after 2 minutes without keyboard or mouse, Groupthink stops reading window titles. It records that you were away, with the times and the app that was in front.

No other Groupthink user can see your activity. Turning it off deletes anything still waiting to upload.

A few consequences of that design worth stating outright:

• Groupthink does not see inside a window. It sees the name of the app and the text of the window's title bar, which is what macOS itself shows in the window switcher.
• A title bar can still carry real content. In a browser, the title often includes the name of the thing you have open. Gmail, for example, puts the subject line of the open email there. If you do not want that recorded, add the site to Never record these sites or the app to Never record these apps. When the sites list has a site on it and Groupthink cannot see a browser's address, that browser's window titles are left out. See Excluding apps and sites below.
• Locking your screen or putting the Mac to sleep stops the clock right then.
• Nothing is recorded before you turn the feature on. There is no timer and no reading of any kind until the switch is pressed.

Turning it on

1. Open the Groupthink desktop app on your Mac.
2. Go to Settings > Capture and find Activity on this Mac.
3. Read the disclosure block. It sits above the switch on purpose.
4. Turn on Capture my app activity.

macOS then asks for permission, once. See the next section.

While the switch is off, the card says so plainly: "Off. Nothing is being read."

The two macOS permissions

This feature needs two separate macOS permissions, and they behave very differently. The second one is the one that catches people out, so it gets its own warning in the app.

1. Automation (required)

The first time you turn capture on, macOS asks whether Groupthink can control System Events. That is how Groupthink asks the system which app is in front. Allow it.

If you deny it, or it gets turned off later, the card tells you macOS is blocking Groupthink from seeing which app is in front, and gives you an Open Automation settings button. Allow Groupthink to control System Events under Privacy & Security > Automation, then turn capture back on.

Without this permission, nothing is captured at all.

2. Accessibility (needed for window titles)

Window titles need a second permission, under Privacy & Security > Accessibility. Without it, macOS reports that the frontmost app has no windows, and there is no error anywhere.

So the failure is quiet. Capture keeps running, your app names and durations keep accruing, and every single window title is empty. That looks like the feature working.

Groupthink checks for this permission directly rather than guessing from the missing titles. When it is off, the card says that Groupthink can see which app you are in but not what the window is called, that this needs a second permission, and that your time is still counted per app in the meantime, just without the detail. There is an Open Accessibility settings button next to it.

Capture is deliberately not blocked on this one. App names and durations are most of the value, and refusing to run without titles would trade a partial measurement for none.

Automation and Accessibility are adjacent rows in the same macOS settings list, so it is easy to grant one and think you granted both. Each warning in Groupthink links to its own pane.

Knowing when it is running

Capture is never silent about itself.

• A dot in your menu bar for as long as capture is running.
• A menu item in the Groupthink menu bar menu reading "Capturing app activity", with Pause Activity Capture underneath it. While capture is paused, the item reads "Activity capture paused", with Resume Activity Capture underneath.
• A tooltip on the menu bar item.
• A Capturing chip on the settings card, and a Paused chip when it is paused.

The menu bar and the settings card read from the same source, so there is no state where capture is running and the indicator is not showing.

Pausing

Pause from the menu bar, or from Pause capture on the settings card.

Pausing closes the current stretch of time immediately, so nothing keeps accruing behind a paused indicator. It keeps your opt-in and keeps anything already queued. Resume capture starts it again.

Signing out of the desktop app, or being signed out by it, also pauses capture, with one difference: the current stretch of time is discarded, and entries that were waiting to upload are deleted from your Mac. The menu bar menu reads "Activity capture paused". Capture does not start again by itself when you sign back in. Once you are signed in, click Resume Activity Capture in the menu bar menu, or Resume capture on the settings card.

Use pause for an hour you do not want measured. Use the off switch when you want the whole feature to stop.

Seeing what is being captured right now

Under Being captured right now, the card shows the app, the window title, the web address if you turned that on, and what time the current stretch started. It refreshes while capture is running.

This is deliberately the live row rather than a summary of the policy. The question anyone actually has is what Groupthink has on them right now, and the only honest answer is the current row.

Below it, the card shows how many entries this session were recorded and how many were skipped by your rules. Next to Pause capture, above the live row, it shows how many entries are waiting to upload and when the last upload went out. Entries are uploaded in batches, so a small number waiting is normal.

Excluding apps and sites

Two lists on the card, one entry per line.

Never record these apps. Matched anywhere in the app's name, so Bank covers anything with "Bank" in the name.

Never record these sites. Matched on the web address, covering subdomains too. Groupthink can read the address in Chrome, Chrome Canary, Brave, Microsoft Edge, Arc, Vivaldi, Chromium and Safari, while Also record web addresses is on.

A browser's window title usually names the page, so the list also covers the times Groupthink has no address to check. While this list has a site on it and Groupthink cannot see a browser's address, only the browser's name and the times are recorded, with no window title. That happens when:

• Also record web addresses is off.
• The browser does not share its address with Groupthink: Firefox (including Developer Edition and Nightly), Zen, LibreWolf, Waterfox, Tor Browser, Mullvad Browser, Opera, Opera GX, Orion, DuckDuckGo, Safari Technology Preview, ChatGPT Atlas and Comet.
• The browser refused or failed to give the address.
• The front tab is not a web page, such as a local file or one of the browser's own pages.
• The window is a site you installed as its own app, for example from Chrome.
• The browser is not one named above. Groupthink treats an app as a browser when the app tells macOS it opens web links and web pages, and leaves out its window titles the same way. An app that only opens web links, such as the ChatGPT app, is not a browser and keeps its titles.

While the list is empty, browser windows are recorded with their titles. If you want nothing from a browser recorded, add it to Never record these apps.

Under the sites list, Don't record my email adds the main webmail sites to it for you. They are added to the list for you to look over, and are not saved until you save the list.

Click Save exclusions after editing either list.

These password managers are always excluded and do not need listing: 1Password, LastPass, Bitwarden, Dashlane, Keychain Access, Apple Passwords (and the macOS panel that offers saved passwords in other apps), Proton Pass, Keeper, NordPass, Enpass, KeePassXC, Strongbox, RoboForm, Secrets, KeePassium, MacPass and mSecure. So is Groupthink itself. Add any other password manager to Never record these apps.

Exclusions are applied on your Mac, at the moment an entry is closed out, before it is written to the local queue. An excluded app never reaches disk, let alone the network.

Recording web addresses

Off by default, with its own switch: Also record web addresses.

When it is on, Groupthink asks your browser for the address of the front tab and records the full address, not just the site. A browser stretch then shows the address instead of just "Chrome". The full address can include search terms and the names of pages or documents you have open. macOS asks for permission for each browser separately.

Two things it does not do. It never reads page contents. And it only records web addresses, so local files you have open in a browser and the browser's own internal pages are left out.

If a browser refuses the request, the entry is still recorded with the app, just without the address. The window title is recorded too, unless Never record these sites has a site on it. See Excluding apps and sites.

Turning it off, and what happens to your data

Turn off Capture my app activity.

Capture stops immediately, the menu bar indicator disappears, and anything still waiting to upload is deleted. Groupthink does not upload a queue it collected under an opt-in you just withdrew.

Activity already uploaded stays in your account until you delete it. It is yours. No other Groupthink user can see your activity.

Deleting your activity

In the desktop app, open Settings > Capture > Activity on this Mac and find Delete my activity at the bottom of the card. It is there whether capture is on or off.

1. Choose All of it, or Only some days and pick the first and last day.
2. Click Delete my activity, read the confirmation, and click Delete.

The card then tells you how many entries were deleted.

• It cannot be undone. The entries are deleted for good, from every Mac that uploaded them. There is no restore.
• Your labels are kept. The choices you made about which app or site counts toward which goal or project stay, and apply to anything recorded from now on.
• Deleting does not stop capture. If capture is on, it keeps recording and uploading. To stop it, turn off Capture my app activity as well.
• Entries still waiting to upload from this Mac are deleted first, so nothing you deleted reappears a minute later.
• Days are your days: they follow the time zone in your Groupthink account, the same days the Activity page shows.

Closing your Groupthink account also deletes all of your activity and your labels. See Close Your Groupthink Account.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can my manager or my team see this?

No. No other Groupthink user can see your activity.

Can I delete what it has recorded?

Yes. Use Delete my activity on the settings card, for everything or for chosen days. See Deleting your activity above. It cannot be undone, and capture keeps running unless you turn it off.

Does it take screenshots?

No. No screenshots, no keystrokes, no page contents. The app name, the window title, and the time.

Does it run when I am away from the keyboard?

After 2 minutes without keyboard or mouse, Groupthink stops reading window titles. It records that you were away, with the times and the app that was in front. Locking the screen or sleeping the Mac stops capture right away.

Why is every window title blank?

The Accessibility permission is off. See the two permissions section above. Turn Groupthink on under Privacy & Security > Accessibility. Titles start appearing within a few seconds; if they do not, relaunch the app.

If only browser titles are missing and Never record these sites has a site on it, that is on purpose. See Excluding apps and sites.

Does it slow down my Mac?

It checks the frontmost window every 5 seconds and does nothing in between. There is no recording, no screen capture, and no continuous process watching your input.

Is it available on Windows?

Not yet. Activity capture is macOS only for now.

What if I want a record of my day without recording a specific app?

Add that app to Never record these apps. Time in it is dropped on your Mac and never sent.

Reference

Time spent on each person

On a person's page, above their timeline, a card shows how much of your captured time in the last 7 days went to them, on the web and in the Mac app. If capture recorded nothing in those 7 days, there is no card.

When a first name is shared

A window that names someone only by their first name counts for them only when they are the only person in your contacts with that first name. If you know two Sams, a window titled "sam sync" is not counted for either of them.

Instead, each Sam's card shows that time separately and says it is not counted in the total. It names the other people with the same first name and asks whether it was this person. If that time is all there is, the top of the card says no time is counted for them yet. The question does not show the window's title.

You have three kinds of answer:

• Yes, with this person's name: the time counts for them.
• No, with another person's name, one button for each other person with that first name: the time counts for that person instead, and leaves this page.
• None of these: the time counts for nobody, and you are not asked about it again.

Your answer covers every window with the same app and title (and web address, if you record those), on other days too, earlier and later. A weekly meeting with the same window title is asked about once.

Undoing an answer

Once you answer, the question goes away and the card says what you answered, with an Undo button. Undo brings the question back. It takes the answer back for that window title on every day, not only the last 7.

If you picked someone else, the card says the time was counted for them, with Undo, until you leave the page. After that, undo it from that person's page.

Related

• Groupthink Desktop App: downloading, installing, and signing in.
• Import Your Messages History on a Mac: the other opt-in ingestion source in the Mac app.
• Capturing On-Screen Content: reading the text of a window you pick during a private recording, which is a separate feature with a separate permission.

Getting Help

Questions about activity capture, or a permission that will not stick? Email support@groupthink.com.