Habit trackers for Mac are usually the iPhone app running in a window, or a web page pretending to be an app. Reveal the Dream is built natively for macOS, and the thing you are working toward sits in Notification Center where you already look.
What it does
You pick a photo of the thing you are working toward. It starts covered, divided into one piece per day of a journey you choose. Every daily check-in uncovers one more piece, until the whole photograph is there.
Miss a day and that piece stays covered. Nothing resets, and everything you already uncovered stays uncovered. There is no streak to lose.
On Mac specifically
- A real widget. Put it in Notification Center or straight onto the desktop, in small or medium size, and the reveal is there without opening anything.
- A countdown to your next check-in. The app and the widget name the time your check-in opens and count down to it. One switch in Settings turns it off.
- Text color that suits your photo. White, cream, charcoal or black for the title, day count and countdown where they sit on the picture, so a bright photo stays readable. Free, and it saves as you click it.
- iCloud sync across your Apple devices. Check in on your Mac and your iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch all show it.
- Signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens without a Gatekeeper warning.
- Apple silicon and Intel, from one download. Drag it to Applications and open it. That is the whole install.
Setting it up
- Open the app and pick a photo of the thing you are working toward.
- Name the journey and choose 7 or 30 days.
- Open Notification Center, click Edit Widgets, find Reveal the Dream and drag the widget where you want it.
- Check in once a day. The widget redraws with one more piece uncovered.
Free, and what Premium adds
The free version is the whole idea, working: one journey at a time, 7 or 30 day lengths, the Petals reveal style, the widget, the countdown, your choice of text color, exporting a finished reveal as an image, and sync across your Apple devices through your own iCloud.
Premium adds several journeys at once with a widget for each, custom journey lengths, rest days so the weekdays you take off are not missed days, repeating journeys, seven cover colors, the Rings and Arcs reveal styles, your finished photos as a gallery with per-journey results, and sync between Apple, Android, Windows and Linux. It also adds App Lock, which asks for Touch ID, or your Mac password, before the app opens, and can hide the widget and your reminders with it. Buying on the Premium page is the lowest price.
Your photo stays yours
No account needed, no analytics, no tracking, and no third-party SDKs. On the free version your photo and your check-ins stay on your Apple devices and move between them only through your own iCloud. If you turn on Premium's cross-platform sync, your Mac encrypts a copy before it leaves, and we cannot read it.
There is one optional sign-in, and it is about the subscription: if you bought Premium on your iPhone, your Android phone or this website and want it here too, you can give us an email address and we email you a six digit code. It carries the subscription across. Nothing about a journey, a check-in or a photo goes with it.
Direct download or the Mac App Store
It is the same app either way, so the widget and the lock behave the same. The download from this site is signed and notarized by Apple, and it updates itself from inside the app. One download from the Mac App Store also covers your iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
It is not Mac only
The same journey runs on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Windows, Linux, Android and Wear OS. Premium bought once unlocks it on all of them. If you use a Mac and a Windows PC, the vision board app for Mac and PC page covers both. If you want the photo on your phone's home screen as well, there is a page about the vision board widget on each platform.