Is Microsoft Recall available on Mac? No. Here's what to use instead

Is Microsoft Recall available on Mac? No. Here's what to use instead

Carson Eisner

Growth Engineer

No. Microsoft Recall is a Windows 11 feature that runs only on Copilot+ PCs, and Microsoft has not shipped or announced a macOS version as of September 2026. macOS has no built-in equivalent, and a Windows virtual machine on a Mac doesn't meet Recall's hardware requirements. On a Mac, the two tools that do the same job are Littlebird, a personal AI assistant that reads your active window and transcribes your meetings into a cloud-stored memory you can ask questions of, and Screenpipe, an open-source recorder that keeps screenshots and audio in a local database you run yourself. This guide covers what Recall requires, what macOS offers instead, and how to set up the Mac route.

What is Microsoft Recall?

Recall is a feature of Windows 11 on Copilot+ PCs that takes periodic snapshots of your screen, stores them encrypted on the device, and lets you scroll back through a timeline or search for something you saw. Microsoft announced it in May 2024, delayed it after a privacy backlash, and made it generally available on April 25, 2025, as an opt-in feature protected by Windows Hello (Microsoft, verified September 2026). Saving snapshots is off until you turn it on.

What does Recall require?

Recall is a hardware feature as much as a software one. Microsoft's Recall support page lists these minimums (Microsoft Support, verified September 13, 2026):

Every item on that list is about the PC, not about Windows. That is the whole reason there is no Mac version.

Why isn't Recall on Mac?

Because it's built into the operating system and the hardware. Recall runs its indexing on the PC's NPU and stores snapshots inside Windows' own security model. Microsoft ships a Microsoft 365 Copilot app for macOS, but that's a different product with no screen timeline. There's nothing to install on a Mac, and as of September 2026 Microsoft hasn't announced one.

Can you run Recall in Parallels or another virtual machine on a Mac?

No. A Windows virtual machine on a Mac has no qualifying 40 TOPS NPU and can't enroll in Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security with a biometric sensor, so it fails Recall's requirements before the feature can be turned on (Microsoft's Recall requirements, verified September 13, 2026). Running Windows on a Mac gets you Windows, not a Copilot+ PC.

Does macOS have a built-in equivalent?

Not as of September 2026. Apple's macOS 27 feature page lists Visual Intelligence, which reads what is on screen right now, and Siri's personal context, which searches what you have saved: photos, email, notes, files. Neither keeps a timeline of what was on your screen an hour ago, and Spotlight and Safari history index files and pages, not screens (Apple, macOS 27 feature page, verified September 13, 2026). The job Recall does on Windows is left to third-party apps on the Mac.

What's the closest thing to Recall on a Mac?

Two tools, built on opposite philosophies. Littlebird is a managed assistant: it captures your work and answers questions from it, with the memory stored encrypted in the cloud. Screenpipe is a local recorder: it captures everything to your own disk, and you build the assistant on top. Here's how the three compare.

Littlebird: the assistant that already knows your work

Littlebird runs on your Mac and pays attention to the active window you're working in, reading the text and elements on screen through macOS accessibility permissions, every few seconds. It isn't a screen recorder: it takes no video and no screenshots, doesn't log keystrokes, auto-excludes password managers, and redacts card numbers and API keys before storage. During meetings it transcribes and summarizes with no bot joining the call.

The difference from Recall is what you do with the memory. Recall lets you find the thing you saw. Littlebird lets you ask what you decided, draft the follow-up from the call, and get a morning briefing from a Routine before you ask. It's an assistant with a memory rather than a memory with a search box.

The tradeoff is storage. Recall keeps everything on the device. Littlebird's memory is encrypted and stored in the AWS cloud, SOC 2 certified, with no training on your data and no selling of it, and you can pause capture, exclude apps and sites, and delete everything at any time. If local-only is your requirement, the next tool is the answer.

Screenpipe: local, open source, yours to run

Screenpipe, from a Y Combinator S26 company, records your screen and audio continuously, runs OCR and transcription, and indexes it all into a SQLite database on your machine, on macOS and Windows with Linux experimental. It's open source, has a free tier and paid plans, and you can connect ChatGPT, Claude, or a local model to query the data (Screenpipe on GitHub, verified September 2026). Of the three, it's the closest to Recall's on-device model, and it goes further by giving you the raw data and an API.

The tradeoff is that you're the operator. Setup, storage, and the assistant layer are yours to build and keep running. We don't claim privacy superiority over a genuinely local tool; the case for Littlebird is zero setup and a managed experience, not that.

How do you get what Recall does on a Mac?

The managed route takes about five minutes.

  1. Install Littlebird and grant accessibility permission. macOS asks once. Nothing is collected without that permission, and you decide whether the app runs at startup.
  2. Set your exclusions first. Exclude specific apps or sites, or whole categories such as banking, health, or social media, so they never enter the memory. Password managers are excluded by default.
  3. Work normally. Littlebird reads the active window every few seconds and transcribes meetings with no bot joining. There's no timeline to scrub because there are no screenshots; the memory is the text of what you worked on.
  4. Ask instead of scrolling. Open Chat and ask what the client said about budget, or double-tap Option to open Hover over whatever you're doing and ask without switching windows. Add a Routine if you want a morning briefing delivered before you ask.
  5. Know the exits. Pause capture for 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes, or until next launch. Delete the last hour, the last day, or everything.

The local route is Screenpipe: install it, let it record to its database, and connect a model of your choice to query it. Expect to maintain it yourself.

Did you mean recalling an email in Outlook for Mac?

Different feature, same word. Recalling a sent message in Outlook for Mac is an email action Microsoft documents on its own support page, and it has nothing to do with the screen-timeline feature this guide is about.

What happened to Rewind?

Rewind was the Mac app that did this job first. Meta acquired its parent company, Limitless, on December 5, 2025, and the Rewind app's screen and audio capture was disabled on December 19, 2025 (9to5Mac, December 2025). If you came here from Rewind, we wrote a dedicated guide to the alternatives.

Should a Windows user pick Recall or Littlebird?

Both are honest answers, and they're different products. Recall is free with a Copilot+ PC, stays on the device, and gives you a timeline. Choose it when what you want is to find something you saw and you have the hardware. Littlebird runs on Windows too, doesn't need a Copilot+ PC, and adds meetings, drafting, and Routines on top of recall. Choose it when what you want is to ask, not scroll. Some people run both.

Common questions

Is Microsoft Recall available on Mac?

No. Recall is a Windows 11 feature exclusive to Copilot+ PCs, and Microsoft hasn't announced a macOS version as of September 2026. Microsoft 365 Copilot for Mac is a different product without a screen timeline.

Can I run Recall in Parallels on a Mac?

No. Recall needs a Copilot+ PC with a 40 TOPS NPU and Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security with a biometric sign-in, and a Windows virtual machine on a Mac provides neither.

What's the Mac equivalent of Microsoft Recall?

Littlebird, if you want an assistant that captures your work and answers questions from it, with the memory stored encrypted in the cloud. Screenpipe, if you want an open-source recorder that keeps everything in a local database you run yourself.

Does Littlebird take screenshots like Recall?

No. Littlebird reads the text and elements of your active window through accessibility permissions. It takes no video and no screenshots, doesn't log keystrokes, and auto-excludes password managers.

Is Recall coming to Mac?

Microsoft hasn't said so. Recall depends on Copilot+ hardware and Windows' own security model, and at Build 2026 Microsoft signaled future AI features would need Copilot+ hardware less, but said nothing about macOS.