Vida

The active AI Agent that resides on the macOS desktop will complete daily chores such as replying to messages, organizing files, and writing resumes for you before you speak.

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https://vida.app/

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In-depth Report

Vida is an "active AI Agent" that resides on the macOS desktop. Its main slogan is: "Before you ask, it's already done." (Before you ask, it's already done.) It does not wait for your instructions like ordinary chatbots. Instead, it continuously senses the applications and files you are using, and can complete "not difficult but troublesome" trivial tasks such as replying messages, organizing files, optimizing prompts, writing resumes, and making daily reports for you in advance. In early July 2026, it topped the Product Hunt daily list and received more than 300 likes. It was subsequently reported by many Chinese media such as Tencent News and Toutiao. The product pricing is friendly (the Pro version is US$9.9 per month, and there is a permanently free Basic version), but the price for efficiency is high desktop screen reading and data access rights. Trust and privacy are unavoidable issues.
Vida’s official website is vida.app, and the founder’s external signature is Giddens. The team did not publicly disclose the detailed company entity, headquarters location and financing status, which is not uncommon for new products of this type. It should be reminded that there are many products and companies called "Vida" on the market, and it is easy to be confused: Indonesia has VIDA (vida.id) for digital identity authentication, the United States has Vida Health (vida.com) for chronic disease management, and Vida (vida.io, listed on the New York Stock Exchange) focusing on AI phone customer service. The Vida referred to in this report specifically refers to vida.app, a desktop AI clone tool for knowledge workers, and has nothing to do with the products of the same name above. Vida’s product philosophy is exactly the opposite of the currently popular programming agents. Head tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, and Windsurf all focus on the "writing code" scenario and work in depth. The core group of services they serve is programmers. Vida believes that programmers are not the only ones who use computers to make a living. More knowledge workers are also consumed by a large number of repetitive trivial tasks every day. So it chose another path: it did not pursue a single perfection, but spread it horizontally to cover as many chores in daily work as possible. In order to prove that they are not empty talk, the team has publicly set a challenge - to stably deliver "the world's best results" (SOTA) in 100 real work scenarios. The progress is updated in real time on the vida.app/sotacases page.
Vida's desktop client has a main interface, but you don't really need to "open" it very often. Its core interaction method is a lightweight dialog box: double-click the Option key to wake it up, say a word, and disappear after use, without switching application windows. This experience is very similar to launcher tools such as Raycast and Alfred, but because of the superposition of AI, it can read the content on your screen, understand what you are doing, and then actually get things done, instead of just searching and jumping. So far, Vida has marked 5 use cases as "SOTA achieved". Reply Rescue can read the current conversation context (even a chat in Feishu or Slack), identify which item the other party is asking about, and even proactively pull out relevant documents from your local folder to generate a reply with accurate progress and a decent tone. Prompt Rescue sorts out the mess in your head into a structured, production-ready prompt before feeding it to the AI. It can also automatically extract character settings and core assumptions from project files. Resume Rescue will pull the latest LinkedIn experience and local resume documents, and combine it with the JD of the target position to generate a targeted and optimized resume. Faced with the messy download folders that have accumulated for several months, Workspace Cleanup can classify them by "project semantics" instead of simply by file type - put the briefs, documents, and screenshots of the same project into a subfolder, and classify non-project files such as weekly reports, recordings, and wallpapers separately. Daily Wrap automatically generates a "Today's Report Card" at the end of the day: what has been completed, key outputs, time distribution, and to-dos tomorrow. There are 5 more difficult scenarios that are being conquered: Investment Research, Market Research, Product Research, Deck Builder (PPT Specialist) and Sheet Builder (Form Specialist). From the 5 completed to these 5, it is obvious that Vida wants to gradually climb from "low-risk and highly repetitive small tasks" to "deliverables with a certain professional content".Supporting these capabilities are three underlying designs: active contextual learning (you work normally, and it quietly learns what you think, care about, and make decisions), cross-application context stitching (stringing information scattered in calendars, chats, notes, and folders into a continuous workflow), and adaptive long-term memory (remembering your preferences, such as your habit of receiving briefings before 9 a.m., your preference for short sentences, and a certain client that needs to be treated with high priority). Tencent News' actual test evaluation is quite accurate: The most impressive thing about Vida is not how strong the model behind it is, but the way it is embedded into the workflow is very smooth, like a piece of "adhesive". It does not replace any tool you are using, but just smoothes out the friction of switching back and forth between tools.
Vida’s pricing page is simple. The Basic version is $0, marked "forever" and is permanently free, including standard mode, basic chat, light tasks, and up to 2 scheduled tasks. The Pro version is $9.9 per month and includes Ultra mode, 500 credits, complex tasks, in-depth research, document/slide/sheet generation, image generation, long-term memory, cross-project memory, and proactive assistance. After the Ultra credits run out, add-on packs of 500 are $10. New users will automatically be activated for a 7-day free Pro trial after completing onboarding. Looking at the price alone, $9.9 per month is indeed not expensive, and the business model is clean enough – just a Pro subscription. But as the Chinese review pointed out, the real "bill" of this type of product is not only written on the price page, but also on the permissions page, privacy page and terms of service: in addition to money, you also pay for the authorization to continue reading your screen and application data.
On Product Hunt, Vida received over 300 likes and a lot of discussion. Optimists generally agree with its "outcome over output" approach and believe that using "real scene delivery" rather than "charting scores" to measure AI is a higher and more realistic standard. Developers also particularly like the naming of “Rescue”, feeling that it accurately hits the actual pain points, rather than just giving the function an AI label. The user reviews displayed on the official website also focus on "worry-free": some said that it drafted a reply to an angry customer before touching the keyboard, some said that screenshots all over the desktop were automatically organized into a structured competitive product analysis report, and some said that it is "the first Agent that I dare to trust with my eyes closed." The actual test feedback from Tencent journalists is relatively restrained but positive: Reply Rescue generates accurate reply content, no fabricated progress, and a well-chosen tone; Workspace Cleanup organizes folders according to project semantics, which is "really comfortable to use" and is much less troublesome than handwriting Hazel rules; Prompt Rescue can generate a structured prompt of several hundred words with just one command, which fills the contextual gap between tools very well.
Many media have placed Vida in the discussion of "desktop Agent", a popular track in the first half of 2026, and emphasized its differentiated route from programming agents. Chinese in-depth reviews (such as neodrop, Toutiao) generally agree that it captures a real pain point: the annoying part of most AI tools today is not that the models are not smart enough, but that the background must be re-explained every time. What Vida sells is not "let you write prompts more beautifully", but "let you write less prompts", which is considered to be more honest than many "reskinned chat box" automated products. At the product design level, it has been compared to Donald Norman's "Good design is invisible" - double-click to call out, say something, the thing is done, and disappear automatically without grabbing attention.
Vida’s biggest controversy is trust and privacy. Its capabilities are based on a premise: you have to give it high permissions, allowing it to continuously read screen content and application data, and even access tools such as Slack, Figma, and Notion that contain sensitive information. Many people on Product Hunt have raised big questions about this, directly questioning how data security and privacy are guaranteed. The founder made three promises for this: zero retention in the cloud (voice and screen data are processed in real time, no server storage), local priority memory (interaction history is stored on your own device), and no user data training model is required. In addition, some people are worried about whether Workspace Cleanup will accidentally delete files. The team responded that Vida never deletes files, only archives and organizes them, and there is strict manual preview and user confirmation before any operation. In addition to privacy, reliability is also a concern. Vida takes the route of "wide coverage as long as it is sufficient", but as the review said, the 80% success rate in actual use makes people feel "basically reliable", or "it's better to do it myself if I make two mistakes out of ten times". The distance between this is much larger than the numbers seem. Another real shortcoming is the platform: currently there is only the macOS desktop version, and the Windows version is still in the "coming soon" status. Public information also has few specific restrictions on Ultra mode, memory, and supported workflows. For new products, these need to be compensated for by longer-term performance and reputation.
Vida is suitable for knowledge workers who use computers as their main production tool and are troubled by a large number of repetitive trivial tasks: professionals who need to frequently reply to messages, organize information, and write weekly reports; managers who need daily reports, summaries, and structured reports; as well as freelancers and job seekers who need to polish their messy experiences into resumes. If you’re fed up with AI tools that “re-enter the background every time” and you’re using a Mac, then Vida’s 7-day free Pro trial is worth a try. The situations where it is not suitable are also clear: if you mainly work on Windows, you can’t use it yet; if your industry has extremely high data compliance and privacy requirements and cannot accept AI continuously reading screen and application data, then you should carefully evaluate its permission model. For alternatives, you can look at Cursor and Claude Code for programming scenarios; for local memory classes, you can look at Goldfish; for lightweight launchers, you can look at Raycast and Alfred (but they do not have the active execution capabilities of Vida).
Vida's core judgment is very clear: real automation is not to let users write prompts more beautifully, but to make users speak less. It uses the combination of "active context sensing + wide coverage of daily trivial matters" to create a differentiated route beyond the crowd of programming agents, and the product experience is indeed smooth. But this is a typical "trust for efficiency" transaction - whether or not they are willing to hand over screen and data permissions is a prerequisite that every user must first think about. For a new product that has only been online for more than a month, it is on the right track. The next step is to see whether it can use more stable delivery scenarios and time to truly build users' trust.

User Reviews

Lawrence834

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For new products, trust needs to be built up slowly. I agree with the direction. It depends on whether it can be delivered stably. Don't let the demonstration be beautiful but it will fall off when it comes to actual use.

Steven.Evans

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The biggest feeling after using it for a week is that I write less prompts and don’t have to re-explain the background every time. This is the automation I want.

MatthewCollinsK56

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Registration is very convenient. It supports Google, GitHub and QQ mailboxes. It can be installed and used in three minutes.

SharonJohnson_99

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The gameplay of publicly challenging 100 SOTA scenarios is interesting. It depends on whether you can catch the hard scenarios such as investment research and market research later.

Bryan_Gonzales_2020

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The group chat summary is amazing. I asked it to summarize the essence of yesterday’s WeChat group with hundreds of messages, and I even clicked on the links in it.

Carol.RogersQ

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The model is not very powerful, but the advantage is that the way it is embedded into the workflow is very natural, like an adhesive, smoothing out the friction of switching between tools.

JWilliamsII

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The permissions are a bit too much, and you can view everything from Slack to folders, which is very efficient, but you have to go through the hurdles yourself.

MYoungSr77

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It can sense which app I am currently using and which file I have selected. This context is automatically brought in, saving me a lot of explanation costs.

Isabella_Reyes168

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It's a bit like Raycast but different. It can actually read the content on the screen and help me get things done, not just search jumps.

Alan_Scott

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To be honest, I have reservations about broad coverage in this direction. For something with an 80% success rate, if I make two mistakes out of ten, I might as well do it myself.

trueکوروشرضایی_x

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The daily card is very considerate. At the end of the day, it automatically generates what you did today, key outputs, and to-dos tomorrow. You no longer have to rack your brains to compile a weekly report.

MarySanchezQ

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It has a really good memory. It knows everything I did on Saturday, even when I watch variety shows at night. It’s a little scary but really convenient.

djy3f_btc

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Currently there is only the Mac version, and I, the Windows user, can only watch it, saying it will be online at the end of July, and wait and see.

CPerezZ891

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It’s so cool to update my resume. JD took one look at the resume that I hadn’t touched in two years and helped me revise it. It also synchronized my experiences on LinkedIn.

BEvans_Pro

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I was worried about whether Workspace Cleanup would accidentally delete my files. After reading it, it said it would only archive but not delete, and asked me to confirm before operating, so I felt relieved.

organicwolf486

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US$9.9 a month is not expensive. I tried it out with the 7-day Pro trial for free, and it was more reliable than I thought.

Web3Hub_dev

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There is something special about the desktop organization function. The download folders that have not been organized for several months are actually divided according to project semantics, instead of simply being piled together according to file types.

TheMelikeAykaç_88

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As someone who works in AI, the most important thing is its promise not to use user data to train models. I give this attitude a thumbs up.

viLOP

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It mainly takes the initiative. Other agents wait for you to speak. It first sees what you are doing before helping you. The idea is indeed different.

AvalancheXWatson

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Prompt Rescue is easy to use. I just type a word and it will expand it into a structured prompt for me. Feeding it to Claude Code works much better.

Rebecca.Perry_88

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I forgot about the details of the project that the customer asked about, so I just threw it to it. It looked through the information on the computer and the GitHub warehouse and gave me a reply that could be copied directly. It was really nice.

greendog148

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Double-click Option to call it up, write a reply in one sentence, and it will disappear automatically after use. This interaction is really smooth and does not interrupt what I am doing.

Brittany.Ward_2020

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The function of replying to messages saved me. I used to have to look through documents for half a day when my boss urged me to make progress. Now, it finds project information from local files and directly generates a reply, which can be done in two minutes.

SigmaStack658

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I'm still a bit fussy about privacy, and it always feels weird to have it read my screen all the time, even though the official statement is that there is zero retention in the cloud.

JOher

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There are too many names with the same name. I first searched for VIDA, which does identity authentication in Indonesia, and it took me a long time to find vida.app.

松涛_27

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I came in first place in Product Hunt and spent the whole afternoon playing. Reply Rescue and Daily Wrap are the most practical.

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