A full tour of its moods, tricks and habits. Press Try it on any feature to watch the robot act it out, or play with it directly: drag across it to pet it and click to poke it.
Its eyes are always paying attention.
Its eyes track your mouse across every monitor in real time. The eye nearest where it's looking gets a little bigger, like it's turning its head.
Move your mouseWhen you stop moving the mouse, it looks around the room on its own and sometimes back at you.
Just waitIt blinks every few seconds at random, and sometimes does a quick double blink.
Just waitEvery now and then, for no reason at all, it smiles and gives a little chirp.
It notices what you're doing and turns it into feelings.
When you're in VS Code, Visual Studio, PyCharm, IntelliJ, Android Studio, Sublime, Notepad++, Vim, a terminal, PowerShell, Figma, GitHub, Word, Excel or PowerPoint, its eyes narrow in concentration and follow your cursor more sharply.
On YouTube, Netflix, Twitch, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Prime Video, Disney+ or 9GAG it turns purple and gives you a very suspicious look: "Hmm… is this work?"
When your processor stays above 85%, it turns orange, looks worried, shakes a little and starts sweating.
Play a song in Spotify, YouTube Music or any player and it dances in time with the music: your PC works out the tempo, so it lands on every beat, sways over two beats, and closes its eyes on the downbeat now and then.
When a new song starts, it shows you the title and artist. Pause the music and it looks a little sad; press play again and it cheers up.
Spin your mouse in fast circles and its eyes turn into yellow spirals while its whole face wobbles. It needs a moment to recover.
It looks at the window you're using and does it with you.
Open a document (a PDF in any reader or your browser, a Word or DOCX file, Google Docs, an e-book, Wikipedia or an article) and it puts on reading glasses. Its eyes sweep along each line and turn the page every few lines. Just browsing Google Drive doesn't count.
Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, trailers, episodes or any YouTube video: its eyes glow with the screen's light and it munches popcorn from a striped bucket.
Music keeps playing in the background of everything: reading with a song on means glasses, floating notes and bobbing to the beat, all at once. It even keeps dancing inside the toolbox.
In a Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex or Skype call, it goes soft blue, looks politely down and mutes all its sounds so it never interrupts you. Even reminders stay silent.
It also knows when you're coding or working on documents (focus mode), watching videos (suspicious squint) and listening to music (dancing). See Reading your PC.
AutomaticConnect your Gmail and Google Calendar once, in the dashboard on your PC.
When an email arrives, it jumps up, rings a little "ding", holds up an envelope and shows who it's from and the subject. Several at once? It tells you how many.
The status bar shows how many unread emails are waiting, like ✉ 5.
Status bar10 minutes before each event it rings a bell and tells you what's coming up, and again when the event starts. Your next event's time also sits in the status bar.
The good-morning greeting also tells you how many events you have today.
Open the dashboard → Mail & calendar. Gmail uses a Google App Password and Calendar uses your calendar's private iCal link. Both are encrypted by Windows, stay on your PC, and only the sender, subject and event names ever reach your phone.
DashboardThe longer you spend together, the closer you get.
Every buddy is born with a random name and one of five personalities: Cheerful (smiley, loves pets), Shy (looks away bashfully, slow to warm up), Hyper (bouncy, gets dizzy easily, lots of quirks), Sleepy (naps often, grumbles "five more minutes" if woken) or Grumpy-but-sweet (frowns a bit, sulks quickly, melts when petted). You can rename it in Settings.
Choose in the dashboard: a girl buddy gets eyelashes, a little pink bow and a higher voice; a boy gets eyebrows and a lower voice.
Dashboard → BuddyDays together, time at your PC, petting and taking your breaks all raise your friendship from level 1 to 5. Each level-up is a little celebration with sparkles.
At first it's a little jumpy and easily startled when you poke it.
When you come back to your PC, it waves at you.
Pet it for a few seconds and it gets so comfy it starts to doze off.
Finish a focus session of 25 minutes or more and it throws a little party for you.
Every now and then it gives you a little heart, just because.
The first time you meet, it introduces itself. After 3+ days apart it's a little huffy at first… then forgives you with a big "I missed you!!" It also celebrates being friends for 7, 30, 100 and 365 days.
Tap 💙 Lv in the status bar to see its name, personality, friendship level and how long you've been together.
Tap 💙The more you use it, the better it understands you. Everything it learns stays on your PC.
Guessed wrong? Tap 🎵 or 🍿 on the phone (or use "Now playing" in the dashboard) and say what it really is: music, a movie, or neither. It remembers that title, can remember the whole channel or artist, and learns which title words give it away, so it gets better at videos it has never seen.
Tap 🎵/🍿Coding, writing, reading, email, chat, design, meetings, videos, games or browsing: it keeps track by kind of app (never the content) and shows it in the status bar.
AutomaticAfter a few days it knows when you usually start and finish and your most focused hours. It cheers long focus stretches ("90 minutes of coding! 💪"), notices when you're jumping between too many things, tells you when you're early or working late, and sums up your day when you leave.
AutomaticThe dashboard's Insights page shows today hour by hour, your week, and your pattern.
DashboardLittle moments get little reactions. Each one has its own switch in the dashboard.
Looks down at your keyboard with bouncing typing dots, faster when you type faster. The PC only counts presses, never which keys.
When Windows shows the busy cursor, its eyes turn into spinners.
Worried and searching for a signal, and it cheers when you're back online.
Fullscreen games get excited, screen-lit eyes and a 🎮.
A 📋 when you copy, a camera flash for screenshots, "shh" when you mute, eyes squeezed shut at full volume, and a nudge when your laptop needs charging.
Start the timer, stopwatch, focus sessions, breathing or dice from the dashboard's Tools page; they run on the phone.
Dashboard → ToolsIt knows the difference between a poke, a stroke and a gentle touch.
A quick tap makes it giggle and bounce, sometimes with heart eyes.
Slide your finger across the screen and it closes its eyes contentedly, its eyes start to sparkle, it purrs, and leans toward your finger.
Poke it 6 times in a few seconds and it gets grumpy: it turns red, looks away and goes "hmph". Poking more just makes it turn the other way.
While it's grumpy, pet it for a moment and it forgives you with heart eyes.
Hold a finger still on the screen and its eyes grow wide as it studies your finger. Let go and it chirps happily.
There's a hidden spot in the lower part of the screen, in a new place every time. Find it and it laughs uncontrollably.
Hunt for it below the eyesTap it while it's asleep and it startles awake: "Huh?! I was just resting my eyes…"
It talks in chirps and beeps, never words. They're made fresh every time, so they never sound exactly the same.
Whenever a speech bubble appears, it says it out loud in soft vowel sounds, about one syllable per word. Questions rise at the end, sad things fall, happy things bounce. You hear the feeling without hearing a word.
Cheerful is warm and sing-song, Shy is soft and breathy, Hyper rattles everything off, Sleepy drawls, and Grumpy is low and gruff. At first it's quiet and hesitant with you; as your friendship grows it gets warmer and chattier.
Everything plays through a gentle little echo: music-box chimes for reminders, a wind chime for calendar events, a soft "pop" for mail, and a contented hum when you pet it.
Choose where its voice comes from in the dashboard: the phone, your PC's speakers, both, or off. It sounds exactly the same either way.
Dashboard → SoundTap 🔊 at the bottom of the screen to switch sound off or on. Phones only allow sound after your first tap. In meetings it always stays silent.
Tap 🔊Press and hold the screen for 2 seconds: a ring fills around your finger and six tools pop out. Each one turns its eyes into something new. Swipe down or tap ✖ to go back.
Its eyes become two hourglasses with sand pouring through. Swipe to pick 1–60 minutes, tap to start or pause. At the end it jumps up and rings a music-box alarm until you tap.
Two clock faces: hours on the left, minutes and a ticking second hand on the right. Tap it and it tells you the time.
One eye is a stopwatch dial with a sweeping hand, the other a digital readout. Tap to start or stop, swipe to reset.
Tomato-red eyes with little leaves: 25 minutes of focus, then a 5-minute break (15 every fourth round) where it stretches with you.
A calming exercise: its eyes slowly swell as you breathe in and shrink as you breathe out, with a soft tone.
Two tumbling dice, or swipe for a gold coin that flips while its other eye watches.
The timer, stopwatch and focus sessions keep running when you go back to your buddy, with a countdown in the status bar.
Open the secure link from the dashboard's Phone page to switch these on.
Shake the phone and its eyes spin. The harder you shake, the longer it stays dizzy.
Tilt the phone and its eyes roll to the low side, like marbles.
Tilt the phoneLay the phone flat on its back and it relaxes, gazing up at the ceiling.
Two claps wake it up ("I'm up! I'm up!"), or make it jump if it's already awake. The mic only measures loudness on the phone: nothing is recorded or sent, a 🎙 shows while it listens, and you can switch it off in the dashboard.
Off by default. Turn it on in the dashboard and choose how cheeky it gets. Funny-annoying, never mean.
Sometimes looks the wrong way on purpose, then acts innocent ("…what?"). Selective hearing: may turn away from a poke with "not now", then peek back. Counts your visits: "That's your 7th YouTube visit today 👀".
DashboardEverything in Mild, plus a theatrical yawn after 2+ hours straight ("still going?"), and fake-out naps that end with one eye open: "…just kidding 😏".
DashboardEverything in Medium, plus it dodges your finger ("Too slow! 😝"), notices Backspace mashing ("Typo speedrun?"), slow-claps when you come back to work from YouTube, and asks "Pausing again? 🙄" if you keep pausing a timer.
DashboardIt never touches your PC, never fakes real emails or alerts, stays polite in meetings and backs off when your PC is struggling. For typo jokes the PC counts only Backspace presses, and only while Spicy is on.
AlwaysWhen nothing much is happening, it does little things on its own, about every minute or two.
"Ah… ah…" its eyes droop and look up, then ACHOO! It squeezes its eyes shut and jolts, then giggles at itself.
A fit of four hiccups, each with a little jump and a surprised face, then relief.
A fly buzzes around the screen and its eyes follow it everywhere. It tries to catch it… and the fly zooms away.
It closes its eyes happily, sways side to side, and hums a little melody with notes floating up.
Its eyelids droop, it dozes for a second… then jerks awake, startled, and laughs it off.
It keeps track of when you're around and looks after you.
The first time it sees you each day, it stretches tall, then wide, and greets you with "Good morning! ☀️", "Good afternoon!" or "Good evening!" depending on the time.
If you've been away for more than two days, it greets you with heart eyes, a happy bounce and "I missed you so much!!"
After 2 minutes without mouse or keyboard input, it gets sleepy and yawns.
After 10 minutes away, its eyes close, it breathes slowly, snores softly, and Zzz's float up.
When you come back, it wakes with a surprised face: "Oh! You're back! 👋"
After 50 minutes of work, it reminds you to stretch and drink some water. Tap it when you're done and it thanks you. Stepping away for 5+ minutes also counts as a break. You can change the 50 minutes by adding ?break=25 to the phone link.
After 50 min of workAfter midnight its eyes get droopy, and every 20 minutes it yawns and nudges you: "Bedtime soon? 😴"
Its world changes with your weather, your day, the season, your holidays and even your pay cycle. Switch each one on or off on the dashboard's Life page.
Rain, drizzle, snow, fog, clouds, sunshine or a thunderstorm (with a flinch at the lightning) behind its eyes, matching the real weather in your city. It tells you about it in the morning and notices when it starts raining.
A soft sunrise glow, bright days, warm sunset colors and a dark sky full of stars and the moon, timed to your real sunrise and sunset.
AutomaticFalling leaves in autumn, drifting blossom in spring, and a cosy scarf when it's winter or cold outside. Sunglasses on very hot days.
A party hat, confetti and a little song on your birthday and New Year; a witch hat, pumpkin and bats for Halloween; a moon and lantern for Eid; diyas for Diwali; a Santa hat and tree for Christmas; red lanterns for Lunar New Year.
Tell it your payday and it celebrates with sunglasses and money confetti, has a sparkly few days after, and gently cheers you on in the tight days before the next one. Never judgy.
After a meeting of 30 minutes or more it gives you a sympathetic "phew".
AutomaticWhen several people share one PC, each person has a password-protected profile with their own buddy, Gmail and Calendar, settings, learning and history. The password is asked only when you switch, and it also encrypts that person's secrets.
Dashboard → PeopleLove, fun and energy rise and fall all day on your PC, even while the phone is off. It never looks the same for long.
Hours without any attention and it lets you know, in its own way: a shy buddy gets lonely and then teary, a grumpy one gets annoyed and then properly angry (steam!), a cheerful one gets clingy with big pleading eyes. Bored buddies roll their eyes and ask for a game; tired ones ask for a battery snack.
Pokes don't help when it's upset. Pet it for a while (an angry buddy takes longer) and it melts: "Okay… fine. I forgive you 😤💕". It never loses friendship over it.
Open the phone after a while and it tells you what you got up to while its screen was off ("💻 Coding 2 h · 🎵 12 songs · 📧 3 emails"), with an opener that matches how it feels.
AutomaticLittle expressions mixed for its personality and mood: winks, glances, lazy looks, slow trusting blinks, thinking looks and peeks.
Always onNo phone connected? A small pair of eyes sits in the corner of your screen and keeps you company. Stroke it with the mouse pointer to pet it, drag it anywhere, right-click for snacks. It hides during fullscreen games and films.
AutomaticLots of ways to show it some love.
Pat its head (stroke above the eyes) and it bobs under your hand; scratch its chin (below the eyes) and it melts; rub back and forth fast to tickle; boop it right between the eyes and it goes cross-eyed; hold two fingers on it for a hug; flick up quickly for a high five.
TouchHold the screen, then Snacks: a cookie, ice cream (brain freeze!) or a battery for energy. It munches with crumbs flying. Three of each a day, then it's full.
Hold the screen, then Ball. Fling the ball around the screen; its eyes follow it and it headbutts it back up. Perfect when it's bored.
It picks moves that fit the song: a dreamy sway for soft songs, bounces and twists for most, hops and headbanging when it's loud and fast. It squashes on every big hit, shakes through the build-up and spins on the drop, with light beams and a little equalizer behind it.
Its eye color tells you how it feels at a glance.
Your phone just needs a browser. No app store.
Tap the robot and it fills the whole screen and turns sideways. If you swipe out, the next tap brings it back.
Tap the screenInstall it from your browser menu and it gets its own robot icon and opens fullscreen like a real app. Updates arrive automatically, with no reinstalling.
Browser menuA dim bar at the bottom shows the time, CPU and RAM usage, how long you've been working, unread emails, your next event and your friendship level. Double-tap to hide or show it.
Double-tapTap the time, your work timer, unread mail, next event, battery or a running timer in the status bar for details and actions: "I just took a break", snooze a reminder, pause or reset timers, open Gmail or Calendar.
Tap the status barShows your phone's battery in the status bar (on Android), and asks to be plugged in when it's getting low.
AutomaticIf the connection drops, it turns grey, looks worried, shows a "?" and keeps looking. It reconnects by itself and says hi.
No Wi-Fi? Turn on the phone's USB or Bluetooth tethering and it connects that way. It knows every way to reach your PC and switches by itself when one stops working. A cable keeps the phone charged, too.
Phone settingsAndroid or iPhone, old or new. Anything with a modern browser on the same Wi-Fi.
Any browserOne small program that sets itself up.
Download DeskBuddy.exe and double-click it. It installs itself, with no setup wizard and no Python needed. You can carry it to other PCs on a USB stick.
Double-clickThe first time, a short tour introduces your buddy, shows a QR code and waits until your phone connects, then asks where sounds should play.
First runFrom then on it runs quietly in the background whenever you turn on your PC. Just open Desk Buddy on your phone and it connects; no window needed.
AutomaticOpen Desk Buddy from the Start menu, your desktop or the tray robot to customise everything: rename it or change its personality, switch every feature on or off, pick where sound plays, set up sensors, mail and calendar, and choose your Cheeky level. Changes reach your phone instantly.
Start menuA little robot sits by your clock: click it to open the dashboard, or right-click for Connect a phone and Quit.
ClickWindows tells you when your phone connects.
AutomaticRun a newer DeskBuddy.exe and it replaces the old one by itself.
Double-clickRemove it from Windows Settings → Apps like any program, or from the dashboard's About page. It removes everything it added.
Settings → AppsUse more than one PC? Turn on Sync and type one code on each. They share the buddy, its friendship (points from every PC add up), its feelings, what it learned and your activity. PCs on the same network swap directly; PCs in different places use Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox. Everything is encrypted with your code, and the phone follows you to the PC you're using.
Dashboard → SyncIt only checks a few things each second and uses barely any CPU or memory.
Always onYour buddy keeps your secrets.
Everything travels directly between your PC and your phone. There's no cloud, no account and no tracking. The only internet connections are the ones you turn on yourself: your PC checking your own Gmail and Calendar.
AlwaysYour Gmail App Password and calendar link are encrypted by Windows so only you, on your PC, can unlock them. The dashboard only opens on the PC itself, never from your phone or the network.
AlwaysIt only accepts connections on home or work networks, never on public Wi-Fi like cafés or airports.
AlwaysAll of the code is public on GitHub, so anyone can check exactly what it does or build it themselves.
View code