Waylight
Your on-device AI assistant that remembers everything you do on your computer.
Waylight is a solid pick for privacy-first users who want a photographic memory of their computer activity. Its on-device approach and specific app integrations give it an edge over cloud alternatives like Rewind. The free tier is basic; Pro at $19/month is the sweet spot for heavy indexers.
Verified 10h ago · liveness 73/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/waylight
- Knowledge workers drowning in digital information who need instant recall
- Remote employees attending many meetings who want automatic notes
- Researchers needing to quickly find past references across apps
- Developers managing multiple tools and documents simultaneously
- Users needing cloud-based team collaboration and sync
- Those on legacy operating systems (only macOS/Windows supported)
- People uncomfortable with constant background indexing of their activity
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Skip Waylight if you need cross-device mobile access, are not comfortable with constant background indexing, or require cloud-based team collaboration with real-time sync.
The Free tier only retains 1 day of memory and limits you to 100 questions per month, so you'll quickly hit the ceiling if you use it daily.
Waylight's Pro at $19/month is competitive for a privacy-first memory tool; it's cheaper than Rewind's Pro ($20/month) but offers on-device processing. The free tier is useful for evaluation, but the 1-day retention makes it impractical for real recall. Teams should budget $49/user/month, which is on par with other team AI tools.
In short
Waylight — Your on-device AI assistant that remembers everything you do on your computer. Best for Knowledge workers drowning in digital information who need instant recall, Remote employees attending many meetings who want automatic notes, Researchers needing to quickly find past references across apps. Free to start; paid plans from $19/mo.
What people actually say about Waylight — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
30 mentions across 3 sources (Hacker News, YouTube, Product Hunt) · researched Jul 3, 2026.
- +Privacy-first: all data stays local on your machine.
- +Eliminates copy-pasting context into ChatGPT manually.
- +Cross-app search across tabs, meetings, and documents.
- +Works with common tools like Slack, Zoom, and Chrome.
- +Retrieval-Augmented Generation ensures cited sources.
- −Community feedback is virtually nonexistent for real-world use.
- −No user reports on indexing accuracy or speed.
- −Unclear how it handles large volumes of activity data.
- −Potential high resource usage from constant screen indexing.
- −Integration with Telegram etc. not yet confirmed.
- • Potential hardware upgrade if indexing slows old machines
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Waylight? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: August 2026
How we score →Key Features
- On-device memory of all computer activity
- Natural language question answering with cited sources
- Cross-app search across documents, tabs, messages, meetings
- Real-time indexing of screen content and audio
- Privacy-first: all data stays local, offline by default
- Supports local and cloud LLMs
- Daily journal generation from activity timeline
- Live to-do list populated from recent activity
- Customizable retention periods and memory rules
- Exclude specific apps and incognito windows
- Instant recall with context from viewed content
- Works with Slack, Teams, Zoom, Chrome, VS Code, and more
- Export and share context snippets
About Waylight
Waylight is an on-device AI assistant that runs locally on your computer, passively indexing your screen content, audio, and documents in real time. Designed for knowledge workers, researchers, and professionals overwhelmed by digital information, it builds a private memory of your activity across meetings, tabs, messages, and files. You can ask natural language questions like 'What did I agree to in that meeting?' and get instant, cited answers without uploading data to the cloud. Waylight supports both local and cloud LLMs, giving you flexibility on performance versus privacy. Its on-device processing ensures zero cloud uploads, making it ideal for handling sensitive or confidential material. The tool also generates a daily journal and a live to-do list from your activity, helping you track accomplishments and stay organized. Key features include cross-app search across Slack, Teams, Zoom, Chrome, VS Code, Notion, and more; customizable retention periods and memory controls; and the ability to exclude specific apps or incognito windows. Responses are grounded in actual content with cited sources.
Behind the Verdict
Waylight is a compelling option for individuals and teams who need to retrieve information from their digital activity without sacrificing privacy. Unlike cloud-based AI assistants that upload your data, Waylight processes everything locally, which is a major advantage if you handle sensitive information. The tool's ability to search across apps like Slack, Teams, Zoom, Chrome, VS Code, and Notion makes it a powerful personal memory. You can ask natural language questions and get cited answers from your own content, which is a standout feature. The daily journal and live to-do list are nice touches for productivity, but they may not replace dedicated task managers. The main trade-off is platform: Waylight only works on macOS and Windows desktops, with no mobile or web app, so it's not for users who need access on the go. The free tier is quite limited (1-day retention, 100 questions/month), but Pro at $19/month offers 30-day retention and 1,000 questions, which is reasonable for heavy users. For teams, the $49/user/month Team tier adds memory sharing and admin controls. Compared to Rewind, which also captures screen activity, Waylight's local-first approach and broader integration list give it an edge. However, if you need cross-device sync or prefer a cloud-based solution, Waylight may not be the best fit. Overall, if you're a knowledge worker who's privacy-conscious and spends hours in multiple apps, Waylight is worth trying.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Waylight actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
You're on a client call, and afterward you need to recall a specific commitment you made about deliverables.
Outcome: You open Waylight and ask 'What did I promise to send to the client?' and get an instant answer with the exact meeting transcript and relevant context, saving you from digging through call recordings.
You saw a code snippet in a Slack message last week but can't remember which channel or when.
Outcome: You search 'the code snippet that demos the API' and Waylight finds the Slack message with the snippet, including a citation, so you can quickly grab it for reuse.
You need a summary of all action items from your last three status meetings to prepare for the next one.
Outcome: You ask Waylight to list action items from your recent meetings, and it synthesizes a to-do list from the transcripts, which you can export and share with your team.
Use Cases
- Ask 'What did Sarah say about Q3 budget in yesterday's meeting?' and get an instant answer with audio transcript.
- Find that one Slack message from last week about deploying to production without scrolling through history.
- Recall a specific code snippet you saw in a VS Code session last month.
- Quickly retrieve a key point from a long document you read days ago.
- Get a summary of all action items discussed across your last three meetings.
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-08-19
Limitations
- Free tier only retains 1 day of memory and allows 100 questions per month.
- Pro users get 30 days and 1,000 questions.
- The tool only runs on macOS and Windows desktop.
- No mobile or web app.
as of 2026-08-24
Verification history
We have re-verified Waylight 7 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
Showing the 6 most recent of 7 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Waylight tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Free
$0
Ideal for
Individuals who are curious about memory tools and want to test the basics without commitment.
What this tier adds
Starting tier: basic indexing, limited to 100 questions/month and 1 day retention—enough for a taste, not for real recall.
Pro
$19/month
Ideal for
Serious individual users who rely on daily recall and want 30-day retention with full cross-app search.
What this tier adds
Adds unlimited indexing, 1,000 questions/month, daily journal, to-do list, and all integrations—the core value for heavy users.
Team
$49/month per user
Ideal for
Teams that need shared memory, admin controls, and priority support for collaboration on projects.
What this tier adds
Adds memory sharing and admin controls on top of Pro, billed per user per month.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Waylight's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Waylight's Pro at $19/month is competitive for a privacy-first memory tool; it's cheaper than Rewind's Pro ($20/month) but offers on-device processing. The free tier is useful for evaluation, but the 1-day retention makes it impractical for real recall. Teams should budget $49/user/month, which is on par with other team AI tools.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Waylight — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Setup is quick: download the app for macOS or Windows, install, and grant permissions for screen/audio capture. Within 10 minutes you can start searching past activity, but indexing builds over time—give it a few days of use to see full recall.
Switching to or from Waylight
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From Rewind: Export your important data from Rewind if possible, then use Waylight's natural language search to find and organize past content. You'll need to re-capture activity going forward.
- ↗To Rewind: Waylight doesn't offer a direct export for your memory, so you'll need to manually export any critical snippets or documents before switching.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Tutorials & Learning
Official links
Tools that pair well with Waylight
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Waylight, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
Waylight vs Surge Ai
Waylight and Surge AI are entirely different tools. Waylight is for individual knowledge workers who want a private, on-device memory of their digital activity. Surge AI is a B2B platform for AI labs needing expert human feedback for training and evaluation. Choose based on whether you need personal productivity or enterprise AI alignment.
Waylight vs Praktika
Don't compare apples to oranges: Praktika is for spoken language practice, Waylight is for desktop productivity recall. Pick Praktika if you want to improve speaking fluency with AI tutors; pick Waylight if you need a searchable memory of your computer activity. No overlap in use cases.
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