Know your next move while the conversation is happening.
Ariade is a private live coach for the calls that matter. It listens on your Mac, keeps your goal in view, notices when the tone shifts, and shows one short cue at a time. Only you see it.
Free to start. Requires macOS 26 or later.
The floating panel during a call. One cue, the people on the line, your goal. Nothing else.
You know what you want from the call. Then the call starts.
Under pressure, people forget the point they came to make, miss the moment the other person got defensive, and hang up without a date or an owner. Ariade closes that gap from the side: it never speaks for you and never takes over. It shows the next best move, quietly, and then gets out of the way.
Stay on goal
Tell Ariade what you want from the conversation, or let it figure it out from context. It tracks what has been covered, what is still open, and what you have not asked yet.
Read the shift
Tone, pace and loudness of each participant, refreshed as the conversation moves. Every label comes with its evidence and a confidence level, one tap away.
One cue, at the right time
At most one cue on screen, never more than a sentence, and never a stream. A quiet coach beats a noisy dashboard when you are the one talking.
Three steps around the conversation. During it, almost nothing to do.
Prepare
Pick the kind of conversation, add a goal and any private context if you have them, choose the tone you want to keep. Ten seconds, or skip it and let Ariade infer the goal on the fly.
Coach live
Start listening. A small translucent panel floats over your call app. It shows the people on the line and their tone, your goal progress, and one cue at a time. Optionally, cues are whispered into your earpiece instead.
Close and learn
When you stop, Ariade lists what was decided, what is still open, and who committed to what. Rate the cues, note whether one changed what you said. The session is gone unless you ask to keep a recap.
Short, specific, and about your next move.
Seven kinds of cue, each under 25 words, each tied to something that was actually said. In Blunt Mode, the default, labels are direct; the evidence and confidence behind them stay one tap away.
The refund request has not been made yet.
Ask for the date and the exact next step.
Summarize what you heard before proposing an option.
Slow down. Acknowledge the concern, then ask one question.
Eight minutes to the planned end; the decision owner is still unclear.
You have spoken 70% of the last three minutes. Invite input.
Confirm the case number, the owner and the promised date.
Ariadne did not walk into the labyrinth for Theseus. She gave him a thread. Ariade does the same: it does not have the conversation for you, it helps you find your way through it.Why the name
Ephemeral by default. Built for the person on the call, not for the archive.
What stays on your Mac
- Audio never leaves your computer. Speech is transcribed on-device with Apple’s speech engine. No audio is uploaded, ever.
- The transcript lives in memory only and disappears when the session ends. There is no transcript view to open, because there is no transcript to keep.
- You see the listening state at all times, and you can stop in one keystroke.
What Ariade’s service sees
- Short text excerpts and your goal are sent to Ariade’s coaching service to produce each cue. They are processed and discarded, not stored.
- Only what you opt in to is kept: a per-session recap, if you ask for one, with a retention period you choose.
- Tone labels are evidence-linked and not persisted. A label is a reading of words, pace and loudness, with its confidence attached, never a claim about what someone truly feels.
Ariade is not covert software. You are responsible for any notice or consent that call-recording rules in your location require, and the app asks you to acknowledge that before it listens. It will not coach you to deceive, manipulate or game an interview, an exam or a legal proceeding.
Free to start. Pro when the calls that matter add up.
Free
$0
- 60 coached minutes a month
- Every kind of cue, tone and goal progress, whisper channel
- Lighter coaching model
- Recap shown once when you stop, not stored
Ariade Pro
$14.99 / month, or $119 / year
- 20 hours of coaching a month on the stronger model
- Coaching never stops mid-call: past 20 hours it continues on the lighter model
- Recaps kept when you opt in, with the retention you choose
- Bought in the app through Apple; cancel any time in your Apple account
Prices in US dollars; the App Store shows your local price. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period.
Straight answers.
Which calls does it work with?
Any call that plays through your Mac: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, FaceTime, WhatsApp, a browser tab, a phone call routed through your Mac. Ariade uses your microphone for you and the system audio for the other side. It does not join the call and does not appear to anyone.
Does it work on iPhone or iPad?
No. Ariade runs on the Mac only, because iPhone and iPad do not let an app hear the other side of a call. Phone calls work well from the Mac, though: turn on “Calls on Other Devices” on your iPhone, place or answer the call in the Phone app on your Mac, start listening in Ariade, and the call is coached like any other. Your iPhone stays in your pocket.
How fast is a cue?
Ariade waits for enough new speech to say something useful, then a few seconds to produce the cue. Expect roughly ten seconds from the relevant moment to the cue on screen, and one cue every 45 seconds at most (you can change that). We measure this per session and it is the number we are working hardest on.
Does it record or transcribe my meetings?
No. There is no recording, no saved transcript, no notes and no summary of what was said. If you want a meeting recorder, Ariade is the wrong tool. What it keeps, only if you opt in, is a recap of where the conversation converged: decisions, open questions, commitments.
Which languages?
English and French. Ariade follows your Mac’s language setting: the conversation is transcribed in that language and the cues are written in it.
What do I need?
A Mac on macOS 26 or later. Ariade transcribes both sides of the call on-device. You will grant microphone access and system-audio access the first time; the setup screen walks you through it.
What does it cost?
Nothing to start: the Free plan gives you 60 coached minutes a month. Ariade Pro is $14.99 a month or $119 a year for 20 hours a month on the stronger model and kept recaps. See Pricing.
Is it a “meeting copilot”?
Meeting copilots write notes and answer questions about what was said. Ariade is for the conversation you did not script, while it is happening, with a goal you may not have written down. It is closer to a coach in your ear than to a note-taker.
Help shape a coach you would actually keep open.
What we ask of early users
- Use Ariade on real calls, at least two in your first two weeks.
- Answer the three questions at the end of each session (they take ten seconds).
- Tell us when a cue was wrong, late or distracting. That is the feedback we need most.
- Hold the app to its privacy promise and tell us if anything feels off.
What you get
- Ariade for macOS from the Mac App Store. Free to start: 60 coached minutes a month; Ariade Pro for more.
- English and French coaching, on-device speech.
- Direct line to the people building it.
- Your say on what ships first.
Requires macOS 26 or later. Questions: support@ariade.me.