A yellow light for how fast you talk on calls.
YellowLight is a small menu bar app for your Mac. During Teams, Zoom, Webex, Slack and FaceTime calls it works out how fast you’re speaking, in words per minute. Past your yellow level, a small light at the top of your screen glows amber: ease off. Past your red level, you hear a soft ding in your headphones and the light turns red. It all happens on your Mac: no recordings, no transcripts, no internet.
Coming soon to the Mac App Store.
For Macs with Apple silicon running macOS 26 or later.
Amber means ease off. Red means slow down.
You set three levels: a target (your normal pace), a yellow light and a red light. Like a yellow traffic light, YellowLight warns you before you reach your red level, so you can ease off in time. The ding comes only once you’re past it.
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Comfortable pace
No light and no sound. YellowLight just shows your live words per minute next to its symbol in the menu bar. Aim for your target (150 wpm to begin with).
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Getting close: amber
Past your yellow level (170 wpm to begin with), the Top-of-screen light glows amber, and so do the symbol and the number in the menu bar. No sound: just a cue to ease off.
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Too fast: a ding and red
Past your red level (180 wpm to begin with): a soft ding in your headphones, a red Top-of-screen light and a red Screen-edge glow. Still too fast after the wait you set (5 seconds to begin with)? Another ding.
For anyone who speeds up when it matters
Most of us talk faster when we’re nervous, excited or short on time, and it’s hard to notice while it’s happening. YellowLight notices for you, without anyone else on the call knowing.
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Presenting and pitching
Demos, status updates, interviews and sales calls, where rushing makes you harder to follow.
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Talking across languages
People working in their second language follow you more easily at a calmer pace. For those calls, International Call in the menu lowers all three levels by 15%.
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Long days of calls
Managers, consultants, teachers and support teams who spend hours on calls and want an easy pace without thinking about it.
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Practising a talk
No call needed: choose Start Listening Now and rehearse with your live pace in the menu bar.
Three steps, all on your Mac
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Join your call as usual
When Teams, Zoom, Webex, Slack or FaceTime starts using your microphone and playing the call, YellowLight starts listening about 2 seconds later. The orange microphone dot in your menu bar shows when it’s on. Calls in a web browser, such as Google Meet, work too once you turn them on in Settings.
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It works out your pace
Apple’s speech recognition, running on your Mac, finds each word you say and when you said it. YellowLight divides your words by your speaking time over your last 10 seconds of talking. Short pauses for breath count as speaking; the time other people are talking doesn’t. Your live number sits in the menu bar.
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Amber when you speed up, a ding when you’re too fast
Past your yellow level (170 wpm to begin with), the Top-of-screen light, a small light at the top center of your screen, glows amber, without a sound. Past your red level (180), a soft ding plays in the headphones your call is using, the light turns red and the Screen-edge glow lights the edges of your screen red. Nothing is sent into the call; with headphones, only you hear it.
Look for the voice bars in your menu bar
YellowLight lives in the menu bar at the top right of your screen, not in the Dock: a small symbol of voice bars with a fermata (the music pause mark). While it listens, your live words per minute appear next to it. The symbol and the number stay plain while your pace is fine, turn amber past your yellow level and red past your red level. When it isn’t listening, the symbol shows on its own; click it, and the first line of the menu says what YellowLight is doing.
Made to stay out of your way
It reacts only to what you’re saying now. After you’ve been listening, it waits for a few seconds of your new answer, so a cough, an “mm-hmm” or a calm reply after a fast stretch never sets it off.
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Three pace levels
A target (150 wpm), a yellow light (170) and a red light and ding (180). Change any of them from 90 to 260 wpm in Settings, and turn on International Call in the menu to lower all three by 15%. Changes apply straight away, even mid-call.
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Call History
A report card after each call, led by how much of your talking was at or under your target, then average and peak speed, time over your red level, and dings. A chart shows whether you’re improving. Numbers only, never words.
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Monologue nudge
Optional: two soft low notes when you’ve been talking for a long time (1.5 minutes unless you change it) without a pause to let others in.
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Your sound, your headphones
Choose a soft ding, a double chime or a Mac sound, and the volume. It plays where you hear the call, and never on an AirPlay speaker unless you pick that.
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Works over full-screen calls
The light and the glow show on top of full-screen meetings. The Top-of-screen light, the Screen-edge glow and the amber early warning each have their own setting.
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Pause for this call
Talking to someone in the room, or reading something out? Pause YellowLight for the rest of the call. It listens again on your next call.
Your voice stays on your Mac
YellowLight has to hear you to count your words. So it was built to keep everything it hears on your Mac, and to forget it.
- Processed on your MacYellowLight uses Apple’s on-device speech recognition. Your voice isn’t sent to a server, ours or anyone else’s.
- No internet access at allIt runs in Apple’s App Sandbox with permission for the microphone and nothing else. Without network permission, macOS blocks it from connecting to anything.
- Nothing recordedNo audio and no words are ever saved. YellowLight keeps only numbers: your settings, your call history and a log of events like “call started”.
- Listens only during callsUnless you start it yourself or choose otherwise in Settings. macOS shows the orange microphone dot whenever it’s listening.
- No account, no trackingNo sign-up, no analytics, no ads. This website has no cookies or trackers either.
What you need
- A Mac with Apple siliconM1 or later.
- macOS 26 Tahoe or later
- A call appMicrosoft Teams, Zoom, Webex, Slack huddles, or FaceTime and phone calls. Calls in Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox, Brave or Arc (such as Google Meet) work once you turn on web browsers in Settings.
- Headphones (recommended)Wired, USB or Bluetooth, so the ding stays in your ears.
- Speaking in EnglishThe first time, macOS may need to download Apple’s English speech model, which can take a few minutes.
YellowLight for Mac
One-time purchase. No subscription, no account.
Coming soon to the Mac App Store.