Twin

Independent developers have released Twin, a new desktop virtual assistant built specifically for Mac computers running macOS 13 or later. The open-source program stores personal information, including daily schedules and text digests, in a local database directly on the user's hard drive instead of syncing data to external corporate servers.

For everyday users concerned about privacy, the software offers a way to use modern AI without handing over raw personal data. People activate the floating assistant via a keyboard shortcut and connect it to their preferred commercial AI provider, such as OpenAI or Anthropic. Before transmitting requests over the web, the tool strips out precise numbers, account details, and full text logs, sending only generic summary descriptions to the external service.

While this setup gives privacy-minded individuals granular control over their information, it remains to be seen whether regular consumers will be willing to navigate Apple's security warnings during manual installation. Additionally, as major tech platforms rapidly integrate similar desktop automation tools directly into their systems, standalone utility tools like Twin will need to continuously prove that superior privacy features are worth the extra effort to set up.