Echo Help

Everything about installing and using Echo. Still stuck? Email thefranklinokolie@gmail.com, or use Contact Support… in Echo's menu, which fills in your Mac and Echo details for you.

Install

Echo runs on macOS 15 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel Macs. There are two ways in.

The one-line way

Paste this into Terminal. It downloads the right version for your Mac, checks it's an untouched release, installs it in Applications and opens it, with no security prompt:

curl -fsSL https://echo.franklinokolie.com/install.sh | bash

It only clears the download flag on Echo itself; nothing else on your Mac changes. You can read the script first.

The usual way

  1. Download Echo for Apple silicon or Intel (Apple menu → About This Mac shows which you have).
  2. Open the disk image and drag Echo into Applications.
  3. Open Echo. Because it isn't notarized by Apple yet, macOS says it can't check it. Click Done, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway. macOS asks once.

Prefer Terminal for that last step? This clears the flag on Echo only:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Echo.app

First launch

Echo opens a short setup guide. It needs one permission:

  1. Input Monitoring. Click Open Settings in the guide, then turn on Echo in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring. The step ticks itself off within a second; there's no need to restart Echo.
  2. Pick a sound and type in the box to try it.

Input Monitoring is how macOS lets an app know a key was pressed. Echo uses it for nothing else: it never records, stores or sends what you type.

Using Echo

Echo lives in the menu bar: a keycap trailing two fading outlines while it's playing, hollow while it's quiet. Click it for:

In Settings you'll also find Auto-mute: Echo goes quiet while any app uses the microphone (calls, recordings), and in any apps you add to its list. It only checks whether the microphone is on; it never listens to it. There's also Launch at login, which works once Echo is in Applications.

Trial and licence

Echo is free for 3 days from the first time you open it, with everything on. After that it's $3, once. Without a licence the sounds stop, though clicking a sound in the menu still plays a preview.

Troubleshooting

No sound in password fields
That's expected, and there's no way around it. Password fields (the Keychain prompt, sudo in Terminal, login forms) turn on macOS's Secure Input, which hides every keystroke from all other apps. Echo's menu says “Paused for a password field” meanwhile. It also protects you: distinct sounds for each key could let a nearby microphone pick up your password.
No sound anywhere, and the menu says “Paused by” an app
That app has left Secure Input on, usually by mistake. Quit and reopen it. In Terminal, turn off Terminal → Secure Keyboard Entry. Locking and unlocking your Mac also clears it.
No sound after an update or reinstall
Turn Echo off and on again in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring. If that doesn't help, remove it with “−” and open Echo again so it asks afresh.
No sound in one app
Check that app isn't in Settings → Auto-mute, and that nothing is using the microphone. The top of Echo's menu always says why it's quiet.
The first key after a break sounds a little late
After two quiet minutes Echo lets go of your speakers to save power; waking them takes a few milliseconds, a little longer with Bluetooth headphones.
“That key wasn't found”
Check you pasted the whole key from your Echo purchase email. Keys for other apps won't work in Echo.
“Already in use on 2 Macs”
Deactivate it on one of them (Settings → Licence), then activate again.
“This copy of Echo has been modified”
Its signature doesn't match the release. Download Echo again from this website and replace the copy in Applications.

Uninstall

  1. Quit Echo from its menu, and drag it from Applications to the Bin.
  2. Optionally, remove it from System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring with “−”.

Your licence stays activated on that Mac until you deactivate it, so deactivate first if you're moving to a new Mac.

Sound credits

Echo's sounds are cut from recordings shared on freesound.org. Thank you to everyone who recorded them. For Echo, each recording was cut into single keystrokes and clicks, cleaned of background noise and matched in loudness.