What does Littlebird actually see? What it reads, what it ignores, and what you can exclude
No, Littlebird doesn't record your screen. It isn't a screen recorder: no video, no screenshots, no keystroke logging. What it does is read the visible text and elements of the active window every few seconds, through the macOS accessibility permissions you grant, and during meetings it listens along on your computer to transcribe and summarize, with no bot joining the call. It's designed to ignore password fields, it excludes password managers by default, and it stops for anything you pause or exclude. The memory it builds is encrypted and stored in the AWS cloud. That's the whole mechanism, and the rest of this page states each part as precisely as we can verify it.
Does Littlebird record my screen?
No. Littlebird is not a screen recorder. It doesn't record video of your screen, doesn't take screenshots, and doesn't log your keystrokes. The capability that does run is called Context Awareness: every few seconds it reads the visible text and elements of the active window, the one you're working in, and builds a private, encrypted index of recent activity. That index is why the assistant already knows the doc, the thread, or the ticket when you ask about it an hour later, without you filing or forwarding anything. The shorthand for the mechanism is screenreading, reading the text on your screen. Reading, not filming.
What does "the active window" include?
The window in front of you: the doc you're writing, the site you're reading, the thread you're answering. Littlebird reads the visible text and interface elements of that application, and nothing is collected until you've granted the accessibility permissions it asks for on Mac. Two practical details from the docs. Turning on Google Docs screen-reader support (Cmd+Option+Z) improves what Littlebird can read from a document. And there's an on-demand read alongside the background one: on a Mac, turn on Hover in Settings > Hover, open the document, and double-tap Option, and Hover reads the active screen when you ask (support.littlebird.ai, How Littlebird sees, read September 27, 2026).
Does Littlebird see my passwords?
It's designed not to. Password fields are ignored by design. Password managers such as 1Password, Bitwarden, and LastPass are auto-detected and excluded by default, and credit-card numbers and API keys are auto-redacted before anything is stored. One honest limit, straight from the support docs: designed to ignore password fields is not the same as guaranteed never to see a secret. Plain text visible elsewhere on screen, a password someone pasted into a chat message for instance, can still enter context. If that matters where you work, add those apps and sites to your exclusions, which is what the pause and exclusion controls below are for.
Does Littlebird record Zoom calls?
It transcribes them, on your computer, with no bot joining. You're on the call, the other side says they'll send the numbers Thursday, and you're already in the next tab. Littlebird listens along to the audio playing on your computer, whichever app the call is in, and produces a full transcript plus a structured summary: what was discussed, what was decided, and the action items split into yours and everyone else's. The same mechanism covers any audio or video playing on your computer, a recorded webinar included, not only live calls. You can turn on auto-start transcription for supported meeting apps in Settings > Meetings and filter which calendars it watches. One limitation stated plainly: Littlebird doesn't currently claim to tell speakers apart reliably, so if per-person quotes matter to you, test that on your own calls first.
What can I pause or exclude?
Everything, on your terms, and the controls are visible rather than buried. A status button sits in the bottom-left of the app, green when Context Awareness is active and gray when it's paused, with the same control in the Mac menu bar and the Windows system tray. Pause for 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes, or until the next launch, and resume whenever you like. Exclude specific apps, specific website domains, or whole content categories: Banking, Social Media, Shopping, Entertainment, and Health. Adult content is always excluded by default. You also decide whether Littlebird runs at startup at all. Nothing is collected without your permission.
Where does what it sees end up?
In an encrypted memory stored in the AWS cloud, in the US East region. The app runs on your computer; the memory it builds does not stay there, and we'd rather say that plainly than have you find out later. Encryption is AES-256 at rest and in transit, every connection uses TLS 1.3, and keys are managed with AWS KMS. Littlebird is SOC 2 Type II compliant, verified by an independent audit. Littlebird never sells your data. You can delete the last hour, the last day, or everything, and deleting your account removes the memory with it. The full picture, including who should not use a cloud-based tool at all, is in Is Littlebird safe?, and the formal documentation lives at trust.littlebird.ai.
What does Littlebird not claim?
A section most vendors skip. Two capture questions people reasonably ask have not been through our verification process: what happens in a browser's private browsing mode, and whether anything below the level of visible text is ever read. Until the engineering answer is confirmed, we don't publish claims about them in either direction. Everything above this line is stated in our maintained fact base and, for the capture claims, in Littlebird's public support documentation, and the controls are the kind you can test yourself in five minutes: exclude an app, pause capture, and watch the behavior.
Common questions
How does Littlebird understand my work?
It pays attention to the active window (the doc, the site), listens during meetings, and can optionally connect email, calendar, and apps.
Does Littlebird record my screen or take screenshots?
No. Littlebird is not a screen recorder and not a keylogger. Every few seconds it reads the visible text and elements of the active window through the accessibility permissions you grant, and it stops for anything you've paused or excluded.
Does Littlebird see my passwords?
It's designed to ignore password fields, excludes password managers such as 1Password, Bitwarden, and LastPass by default, and redacts credit-card numbers and API keys before storage. Plain text visible elsewhere on screen can still enter context, so exclude the apps where that matters.
Can I stop it from seeing something?
Yes. Pause Context Awareness for 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes or until the next launch, exclude specific apps, website domains, or whole categories, and delete the last hour, the last day, or everything.
Does a bot join my meetings?
No. It listens along on your computer to transcribe and summarize, and no bot joins the call.
Does Littlebird see my phone screen?
No. The iOS and Android companion apps let you ask about the context your desktop collected. They don't capture activity from your phone.
Does Littlebird work on Windows?
Yes, on Mac and Windows. On Mac it needs the accessibility permissions you grant. On both, the status control, in the menu bar on Mac and the system tray on Windows, shows whether Context Awareness is active or paused.
Consent-based capture, with the controls in your hands.
Install it, grant exactly the permissions you choose, and test the pause and the exclusions yourself on the free Basic plan.
Capture-mechanism language on this page uses only phrasing verified in our maintained internal fact base, which records these statements as checked against Littlebird's public support documentation (support.littlebird.ai, How Littlebird sees, re-read September 27, 2026).
