betterpal for Mac

betterpal for Mac is a native desktop app built on the same codebase as the iPhone app. There is no account and no cloud service: everything lives in a single file you own — the vault (betterpal-vault.json) — in any folder you pick. Put that folder in iCloud Drive and Apple syncs it between your devices. betterpal never sees your data.

The Mac app is coming soon — the download link will live on this page.

Install & first run

1. Download the .dmg, drag betterpal to Applications, and open it.
2. On first launch the app asks where to keep your vault. The suggested default is a folder in iCloud Drive (recommended if you want iPhone sync); any local folder works for a Mac-only setup.
3. That's it. The app opens with an empty vault, or adopts an existing betterpal-vault.json if the folder already has one.

You can move the vault any time in Extras → Vault → Change folder.

Sync with your iPhone

Syncing works the way a file should: both devices edit one betterpal-vault.json in your iCloud Drive, and Apple carries the changes.

1. On your iPhone: Extras → Backup & Restore → turn on Sync with Desktop. This creates a betterpal folder in iCloud Drive. (It can take a minute to show up in Files the first time.)
2. On your Mac: point the app's vault at that betterpal folder — in the first-run picker, or later via Extras → Change folder.
3. Done. Edits flow both ways automatically.

How it behaves

• What syncs: pals (notes, tags, relationships, photos, birthdays, reminders), tag definitions and groups, and shared settings. Device-local things like window layout stay put.
• How fast: the Mac picks up iPhone edits within seconds of iCloud delivering them; the iPhone pulls on launch and whenever it returns to the foreground, and pushes shortly after any change.
• Sync status: the indicator at the bottom of the Mac's side rail shows Synced / Saving… / Updated / Sync error — clicking it is "Sync now". The iPhone has a matching Sync Now row with a last-synced time.
• Safety: writes are atomic, the Mac keeps rotating .bak backups next to the vault, and the iPhone refuses to auto-apply a remote file that would drop most of its pals.

What the desktop adds

• A real table: name, description, tags, birthday, added — click headers to sort, drag column edges to resize, group by tag, export the current view to CSV.
• Multi-select & bulk actions: click, ⌘-click, ⇧-click, ⌘A like any desktop list; right-click to open, copy, bulk edit, bulk process, or trash a selection (with Undo).
• Details panel: selecting a pal opens a persistent right-side panel that follows you across Pals, Network, and Upcoming — editing and processing new entries happens right there.
• The network, big: the full force-directed graph with tag islands, filters, force sliders, and the family-tree view.
• Keyboard everything: ⌘N new pal · ⌘K quick-jump · ⌘F search · ⌘1–4 switch views · arrows drive the table.

Contacts & photos between iPhone and Mac

• Contact linking is an iPhone feature. Linking a pal to an iOS contact, importing contacts, and reviewing contact changes all use Apple's Contacts access on the phone — the Mac can't reach your iPhone's contacts database.
• Photos show everywhere. A pal's photo is stored in their data, so it syncs through the vault and displays on the Mac like any other field. On the Mac you can also set a photo from a file picker in Edit Pal.
• On the Mac, a pal linked to an iPhone contact shows a read-only badge — manage the link on your iPhone, and the changes sync over on their own.

iPhone vs. Mac

The desktop app is fully unlocked — subscriptions are handled in the iPhone app.

Troubleshooting