Best mac interview app download that actually stays hidden in the background?
weird question for the macos people.
im on a macbook pro m2, job hunting, like 4 interview calls a week. im sure some of you have seen the ai "helper" apps that pipe answers to you during a call. ppl on r/cscareerquestions keep bragging about one on windows. i wanted the same thing on mac. that turned out to be a much harder ask than i thought.
the stuff i tried was bad. like. bad bad.
first one was a chrome extension. you can see where this is going. did a mock practice call, the practice partner said "share your screen for a sec", and literally the tab icon was right there. not even hidden. uninstall.
second one was a "native" mac app but. it showed up in the dock. it was in cmd+tab. activity monitor had it as its literal product name. one mock call it popped a tiny overlay above the zoom window and the partner went "bro whats that orange box in the corner". painful. also uninstalled.
third one actually worked better but killed my battery. my m2 air went from like 90% to 30% in a 40min mock and the fan was going. not usable for an actual panel that might run two hrs.
so i went pretty deep on this. turns out macos is harder to hide on than windows. theres these apis (cgwindowlist, the screen share enumerator, activity monitor) and most of these "interview assist" things dont bother defeating them. they slap a transparent window on top of zoom and call it stealth. its not stealth. its an overlay.
the one i actually stuck w is smaller, not much marketing behind it. does real process masking, masks the binary name in activity monitor to something generic, removes itself from the window enumeration, not in the dock, not in cmd+tab. had activity monitor open on my external while i did a mock round and could not see it. ran native on apple silicon too, no rosetta tax, didnt cook my battery.
ok so the ask. im here bc i figure there has to be other mac ppl in this boat. any of you using a download on mac for this that passes these checks:
- real native mac app, not a browser extension
- stays out of window enum during screen share
- doesnt show in cmd+tab or dock
- doesnt destroy apple silicon battery
found one i like already. curious what else is out there tho. open to trying more if anyone has a fav that actually holds up. weekends are apparently for this now lol