What’s new in Flyby.

Changed

• Flyby opens with ⌥/ by default. Shortcuts are now key combos: a key pressed with modifiers, like ⌥/ or ⌃⌥Space. macOS delivers those with no permissions at all.
• Double-tap and held-modifier shortcuts are gone. On macOS 27 they needed both Accessibility and Input Monitoring, which updates kept taking away. If you had one, Flyby switches you to ⌥/ and tells you once. Record any combo you like in Settings › Shortcut.
• Flyby no longer asks for Accessibility or Input Monitoring. You can remove Flyby from both lists in System Settings › Privacy & Security.
• Screenshots stay on ⌥⇧Space by default. If yours was a double-tap, it's back to ⌥⇧Space.

Fixed

• Updates no longer take Flyby's permissions away. Up to 0.5.1 every Flyby build was signed differently, so macOS saw each update as a new app. Screen Recording, Accessibility and Input Monitoring stopped working while their switches still looked on in System Settings. From 0.5.2 Flyby is signed with the same certificate every time, so the permissions you give it now stay through future updates.
• Flyby asks macOS again when a permission is missing, instead of only showing a note, and the notes now say what's really going on.

One last time

Because this is the change, 0.5.2 itself is still new to macOS. After updating, if screenshots or a double-tap shortcut don't work, go to System Settings › Privacy & Security. In Screen & System Audio Recording, and in Accessibility and Input Monitoring if you use a double-tap or chord, remove Flyby with the − button, then add it again or let Flyby ask. After that, updates keep them. If you use Gemini, macOS may also ask once more to let Flyby read its key from your keychain: choose Always Allow.

Fixed

• A screenshot shortcut that can't work now says so. Double-taps and chords need Flyby turned on under both Accessibility and Input Monitoring. In 0.5.0 a custom screenshot shortcut like double-tap Right ⌥ could sit waiting for those permissions with no sign of it. Now Settings › Shortcut and the What's new screen show what's missing, right under the shortcut, with a button to the right place in System Settings. The menu bar warns too, as it does for the shortcut that opens Flyby.
• If Flyby already looks turned on in System Settings but the shortcut still doesn't work, remove Flyby from the list with the − button and add it again. Flyby is ad-hoc signed, so macOS treats every update as a new app, and the old entry no longer matches.

What's new

• Ask about your screen. Press ⌥⇧Space from any app, click Screenshot under the bar, or type /screenshot. Flyby takes a picture of the window you're in while a wave of light crosses the screen from the bar, then opens with the picture waiting over the input. Ask anything about it, like "what does this error mean?" or "summarise this page", and Google AI Mode or Gemini answers. Return with nothing typed asks what's in it. Follow-ups can bring a new screenshot too.
• Just the window, and only when you ask. Flyby captures the window you were in, not the whole screen. Nothing leaves your Mac until you press Return, and ✕ takes the picture off.
• Thumbnails in Recent Chats. A chat keeps a small thumbnail of each screenshot, on your Mac only, and shows it over the question it went with.
• Your shortcut, or none. After updating, Flyby shows what's new once, where you can keep ⌥⇧Space, record a different shortcut, or turn it off. New installs meet it in the walkthrough, and Settings › Shortcut has it any time.

Fixed

• Double-tap and chord shortcuts work on macOS 27. On macOS 27 these gestures need Input Monitoring as well as Accessibility. Without it they stopped working without saying so, including the default, double-tap Right ⌥. Flyby now asks for both, and onboarding and the menu bar say which one is missing.

Good to know

• Screen Recording permission. macOS asks the first time you take a screenshot. Flyby is ad-hoc signed, so macOS treats every update as a new app and forgets this permission (and Accessibility and Input Monitoring). When that happens, Flyby tells you how to fix it: remove Flyby from the list in System Settings with the − button, then add it again.
• Google or Gemini, not Apple Intelligence. The on-device model can't see pictures, so the Screenshot button hides while Apple Intelligence is selected.
• Google AI Mode takes the picture through Google's own page, the way pasting an image into it would. If Google changes that page it may stop working. Gemini is the steadier path for screenshots.

What's new

• Ask about your screen. Press ⌥⇧Space from any app, click Screenshot under the bar, or type /screenshot. Flyby takes a picture of the window you're in while a wave of light crosses the screen from the bar, then opens with the picture waiting over the input. Ask anything about it, like "what does this error mean?" or "summarise this page", and Google AI Mode or Gemini answers. Return with nothing typed asks what's in it. Follow-ups can bring a new screenshot too.
• Just the window, and only when you ask. Flyby captures the window you were in, not the whole screen. Nothing leaves your Mac until you press Return, and ✕ takes the picture off.
• Thumbnails in Recent Chats. A chat keeps a small thumbnail of each screenshot, on your Mac only, and shows it over the question it went with.
• Your shortcut, or none. After updating, Flyby shows what's new once, where you can keep ⌥⇧Space, record a different shortcut, or turn it off. New installs meet it in the walkthrough, and Settings › Shortcut has it any time.

Fixed

• Double-tap and chord shortcuts work on macOS 27. On macOS 27 these gestures need Input Monitoring as well as Accessibility. Without it they stopped working without saying so, including the default, double-tap Right ⌥. Flyby now asks for both, and onboarding and the menu bar say which one is missing.

Good to know

• Screen Recording permission. macOS asks the first time you take a screenshot. Flyby is ad-hoc signed, so macOS treats every update as a new app and forgets this permission (and Accessibility and Input Monitoring). When that happens, Flyby tells you how to fix it: remove Flyby from the list in System Settings with the − button, then add it again.
• Google or Gemini, not Apple Intelligence. The on-device model can't see pictures, so the Screenshot button hides while Apple Intelligence is selected.
• Google AI Mode takes the picture through Google's own page, the way pasting an image into it would. If Google changes that page it may stop working. Gemini is the steadier path for screenshots.

Fixed

• AI Mode follow-ups keep the conversation. In 0.4.0 every follow-up started a new Google chat, so Google lost what you'd been talking about: "what is its AnTuTu score?" after "iPhone 16 Pro performance" got an explanation of AnTuTu. Follow-ups now go into Google's own conversation on the page Flyby already has open, so Google answers them in context.
• Chats reopened from Recent Chats carry on too. When there's no open page to continue (a chat reopened from Recent Chats, after quitting Flyby, or after another provider answered part of the chat), Flyby asks Google a new question that includes your earlier questions and a short summary of the last answer.

What's new

• Looks like macOS 27's Siri. A dark glass bar at the bottom of the screen that grows up into an answer card when you hit Return, always dark, in Liquid Glass. The dropdown at the end of the bar ("Google ⌄") picks who answers; ⌘1–⌘4 and ⌘K work too.
• Follow-ups and Recent Chats. Once an answer is up, keep typing to ask a follow-up in the same conversation. Gemini and Apple Intelligence answer with the conversation so far; Google AI Mode answers each question on its own. Chats are kept on your Mac only, never uploaded: ⌘Y, ↑ in an empty bar or the Recent Chats pill reopens one, ⌘N starts a new chat, and Settings › History clears them.
• Apple Intelligence. A fourth provider, running on Apple's on-device model: no key, no account, and your question never leaves your Mac. It has no live web access, so for anything recent it points you to Gemini or AI Mode. Needs Apple Intelligence turned on in System Settings.
• Keyboard map and "/" commands. ⌘/ (or the Shortcuts pill) shows every shortcut. Type "/" at the start of the bar for commands: /settings, /history, /new, /google, /gemini, /apple, /browser and more.
• New onboarding and Settings. A short walkthrough with a live demo of the bar and a practice step for your shortcut. Settings is rebuilt in the shape of macOS 27's System Settings, with its own Shortcut and History panes.

Requirements

macOS 27 on Apple silicon. Flyby 0.3 and earlier still run from macOS 14.

Good to know

• Ad-hoc signed and not notarized: install with the command above rather than downloading the zip in a browser.

What's new

• Looks like macOS 27's Siri. A dark glass bar at the bottom of the screen that grows up into an answer card when you hit Return, always dark, in Liquid Glass. The dropdown at the end of the bar ("Google ⌄") picks who answers; ⌘1–⌘4 and ⌘K work too.
• Follow-ups and Recent Chats. Once an answer is up, keep typing to ask a follow-up in the same conversation. Gemini and Apple Intelligence answer with the conversation so far; Google AI Mode answers each question on its own. Chats are kept on your Mac only, never uploaded: ⌘Y, ↑ in an empty bar or the Recent Chats pill reopens one, ⌘N starts a new chat, and Settings › History clears them.
• Apple Intelligence. A fourth provider, running on Apple's on-device model: no key, no account, and your question never leaves your Mac. It has no live web access, so for anything recent it points you to Gemini or AI Mode. Needs Apple Intelligence turned on in System Settings.
• Keyboard map and "/" commands. ⌘/ (or the Shortcuts pill) shows every shortcut. Type "/" at the start of the bar for commands: /settings, /history, /new, /google, /gemini, /apple, /browser and more.
• New onboarding and Settings. A short walkthrough with a live demo of the bar and a practice step for your shortcut. Settings is rebuilt in the shape of macOS 27's System Settings, with its own Shortcut and History panes.

Requirements

macOS 27 on Apple silicon. Flyby 0.3 and earlier still run from macOS 14.

Good to know

• Ad-hoc signed and not notarized, like 0.3: install with the command above rather than downloading the zip in a browser.

What's new

• Google AI Mode in your own Google session. Connect Safari or Firefox in Settings › Google Account and AI Mode runs signed in as you — which is what keeps Google's "are you human?" checks away. Only google.* cookies are copied, into Flyby's own private store.
• Answers in Flyby's own UI. AI Mode's answer — headings, lists, tables, cited sources — is read from Google's page as it streams and drawn natively, the same way as Gemini's. If Google does ask for a CAPTCHA or consent, the page appears in place with a banner; deal with it once and Flyby carries on.
• Liquid Glass. A Spotlight-style glass pill whose ↩ and provider controls morph out as you type, a glass answer panel, and a new sidebar Settings window. macOS 27's glass refinements apply automatically; macOS 14–15 get the classic look.
• Stop, retry, copy: ⌘. / ⌘R / ⌘⇧C.
• Gemini now defaults to gemini-3.8-flash (2.5 models shut down on 16 October), with readable errors and a retry on rate limits.
• Update checks. Flyby tells you when there's a newer version (Settings › General › Updates; turn on "Include beta versions" to hear about betas).
• Lots of fixes: the shortcut can no longer get stuck off after recording, the installer no longer asks to move itself on every launch, typing "@" on German layouts no longer triggers a double-tap ⌥, and more.

Known limitations

• This beta hasn't been tested on real hardware yet — it was built and unit-tested in CI. Connecting your Google account and reading AI Mode answers are the parts most likely to need fixes; please report what you see.
• Not notarized: install with the command above rather than downloading the zip in a browser.
• Chrome-family browsers can't be connected (Chrome ties its Google session to the Mac); use Safari or Firefox, or sign in within Flyby.