Desktop companion

Let your computer
do the listening

A small companion app that lives in your menu bar, picks up the meeting audio already playing on your computer, and passes it straight to Shoulder Surf on your iPhone. Nothing to point at the screen, nothing to turn up, and nothing for the room to overhear.

Get the companion app

You need Shoulder Surf on your iPhone first. The companion app is the other half, and it is free.

Mac

For macOS 15 or later. Signed and notarized by Apple, and free. It updates itself from then on.

Download for Mac

Windows

Coming later. The Mac version is first. If Windows is what you need, tell us at support@shouldersurf.com and it moves up the list.

You are on a phone

This app runs on a Mac, not on the device you are holding. Two ways to get it across: save the file here and move it over with AirDrop or iCloud Drive, or send yourself the link and open it on the Mac.

Saving it here downloads a Mac program to your Files. Nothing will open it on this device, and that is expected.

Save it for your Mac

Installing it takes about a minute

1
Open the download

Double-click the file, then drag Shoulder Surf Companion into your Applications folder.

2
Open it once from Applications

macOS will ask whether you are sure, because it came from the internet. Click Open. You only see this the first time.

3
Say yes to two permissions

It asks for Screen and System Audio Recording, which is how macOS lets an app hear your meeting, and for the microphone. Both are needed for it to do anything at all.

4
Look up, not down

It lives in the menu bar at the top of your screen. There is no Dock icon and no window to keep out of the way.

Why bother with a second app?

Because the microphone is not always an option, and this is the way around that which needs no hardware at all.

1
The room never has to hear the call

The audio is taken from your computer directly, so you can keep your headset on and keep the volume wherever you like.

2
Nobody nearby ends up in your transcript

Nothing is picked up acoustically, so the conversation at the next desk stays out of it.

3
No adapters, no boxes, no cables

It does the same job as the hardware chain on our listening modes page, in software, for free.

Worth saying plainly: this captures the voices of everyone on the call, not only yours. They should know it is being recorded. Shoulder Surf shows a recording indicator the whole time it is listening.