staywith.petDownload for Mac

Changelog

What's new

New versions of the Mac app, changes to how pets are made, and updates to this site. The app checks for updates once a day; you can also choose Check for updates in the menu bar.

Mac app

1.0.31 (2026-09-29)

  • Choosing and keeping a ready-made pet is quicker: the pet downloads about half as much, and its files come down side by side. The breed you tapped shows "Opening…" while it gets ready.

1.0.30 (2026-09-29)

  • Help: report a problem, suggest a feature or ask a question from the app window's sidebar or the menu bar ("Help and feedback"). Our answers show up there and by email, and you can send the app's log with a problem so we can fix it faster.
  • Privacy: the usage analytics switch is gone, because the app never sent any. "Delete my photos" has its icon back.

1.0.29 (2026-09-29)

  • Ready-made pet pictures always load (some showed only a placeholder icon), and stay loaded.

1.0.28 (2026-09-28)

  • No photos of your pet to hand? Choose a ready-made pet: 22 popular dog and cat breeds, from a French Bulldog to a Maine Coon. See it in 3D on your desktop for free, then keep it like any pet and give it your own name.
  • Pixel pets feel more alive at rest: they breathe, their tail sways, they glance around, shift their weight and twitch an ear, and they get up and do small things more often.

1.0.27 (2026-09-28)

  • Thrown pixel pets fly and fall at a proper speed instead of drifting down in slow motion.
  • No more stutter while you carry or throw a pixel pet.

1.0.26 (2026-09-28)

  • Throwing a pixel pet looks right: it curls into a ball and rolls through the air, then lands on its feet. It used to be tilted at odd angles, which broke up the pixels, and it flew in a standing pose.

1.0.25 (2026-09-28)

  • Pixel pets no longer flash out of place for a moment every second or two while walking.
  • No more head-bobbing twitch: pixel pets walk and trot level.

1.0.24 (2026-09-28)

  • Pixel pets can be unlocked on their own: tap one, or Unlock all pixel pets, and all ten are yours for $9. They still come included when you keep a 3D pet.

1.0.23 (2026-09-28)

  • Accounts where every pet is free say so plainly, instead of counting the free pets.

1.0.22 (2026-09-28)

  • Pixel pets now really are put away when you sign out or switch to an account without a pet (1.0.21 only checked after downloading a new pet, so they stayed out).

1.0.21 (2026-09-28)

  • Pixel pets glide: they move smoothly, one screen pixel at a time at 60 frames a second, while their legs keep the pixel-art step. They used to hop a whole art pixel at a time, which looked jerky.
  • Every pixel pet walks at its own steady pace, so two heading the same way no longer move as one.
  • Signing in to an account without a pet puts the pixel pets away (they come with a pet you keep).

1.0.20 (2026-09-28)

  • Pixel pets walk like proper pixel pets: always the speed they're drawn for, one pixel per step, ten even steps a second, starting and stopping at once. No more slowing, surging or stutter.

1.0.19 (2026-09-28)

  • With several pets out, each one does its own thing. They used to copy each other, walking in step and sitting down at the same moment.
  • Smoother pixel walk: the body moves one pixel with each step of the legs, so it no longer stutters.
  • The menu bar panel is wider: the pet's actions fit in fewer rows, more pets fit in Switch pet, and there is a Size control (Small, Medium, Large) right there.

1.0.18 (2026-09-28)

  • Pixel pets do what you ask straight away: asked to eat, play or climb into a box mid-walk, they stop and do it, instead of walking on for a second or two first.
  • Squad pets each get their own spot when they come out, instead of piling up in one place.

1.0.17 (2026-09-28)

  • Switching between pixel pets no longer turns the new one into two giant coloured blocks.

1.0.16 (2026-09-28)

  • New versions announce themselves: when one is out, a window shows what's new, with Install, Remind me later and Skip. The app checks shortly after it opens and then every hour.
  • Said later? The update stays in reach: a card in the sidebar, a banner in the menu bar panel, and an Updates section in Settings with your version and an Install button.
  • If we've given you a free pet, Your pets says so, and your pet's page offers to bring them home free.

1.0.15 (2026-09-28)

  • The option to share a pet's 3D preview by link is gone from the preview screen.

1.0.14 (2026-09-28)

  • The app window lays out properly at every size. On smaller windows (including the size it opens at) the sidebar was cut off on the left and the page ran past the right edge.

1.0.13 (2026-09-28)

  • If we've given you free access, the button to keep your pet says so ("Bring Milo to my Mac, free"), and your pet comes straight home with no checkout.

1.0.12 (2026-09-28)

  • The app is now signed with our Apple Developer ID and checked by Apple, so it opens with a double-click. No more "cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified" warning, and no trip to System Settings. You still download it from staywith.pet; it is not on the App Store.

1.0.11 (2026-09-28)

  • Eat has a food bowl: your pixel pet noses in while the kibble goes down, then licks its lips at the empty bowl.
  • Four new things to ask a pixel pet: Play ball (a wiggle, a swat, a catch and a hug), Box (it climbs into a cardboard box and peeks out), Roll over (belly up for a rub) and Say hi (a wave).
  • The app is called staywith.pet everywhere, including in the download and in Applications.

1.0.10 (2026-09-28)

  • Pixel pets go home to the Dock properly: they curl up asleep on the bed in the Dock icon (the bed used to stay empty).
  • Smoother walking for pixel pets: an even eight-step walk and a new trot, and they move in whole pixels, so they no longer shimmer as they go.
  • The buttons at the bottom of the menu bar panel show their full names.

1.0.9 (2026-09-28)

  • New things to ask a pixel pet from its right-click menu or the menu bar: Eat, Bath, Attack and Play dead (a very dramatic one).
  • Feed your pet: drag any file onto it, or onto the Dock icon, and it has a snack. The file is never opened, moved or changed.
  • Squad mode: under Your pets, add up to four pixel pets to your squad and they all come out together, alongside your own pet. Each one can be picked up, petted and fed.
  • A setting to hide the menu bar icon. The Dock icon's menu, or opening the app again, still gets you everything.
  • Seasonal outfits: pixel pets wear a witch hat around Halloween and a Santa hat in December. You can turn this off in Settings.
  • Click your pet seven times quickly and see what happens.

1.0.8 (2026-09-28)

  • Pixel pets: ten little pixel-art cats and dogs (Ginger, Pepper, Smokey, Mochi, Biscuit, Honey, Scout, Bear, Koda and Waffles) come with every pet you keep. Find them under Your pets, give them a name, and put one on your desktop. They walk the Dock, nap on windows, and have a few moves of their own.

1.0.7 (2026-09-28)

  • The app updates itself. It checks once a day and asks before installing; you can also choose Check for updates in the menu bar. Every update is signed, and the app refuses any that isn't.
  • Your pet's own recordings follow you to all your Macs.

1.0.6 (2026-09-27)

  • The sleeping pet in the Dock icon has a clean outline (it had a speckled blue and green edge).

1.0.5 (2026-09-27)

  • Sounds can be switched off from the menu bar panel and the right-click menu, as well as in Settings, where there is also a volume slider.
  • Use your own pet's voice: in Settings, choose a recording for "When picked up" and "When thrown". Reset goes back to the built-in sounds. Recordings are kept on this Mac.
  • The purr stops as soon as the pet is put down, and never runs longer than 20 seconds.

1.0.4 (2026-09-27)

  • Sounds: a cat purrs while you hold it and meows when thrown; a dog cries to be put down and yelps when thrown. Pitch follows the pet's size.
  • Up on a window, a cat settles into a loaf instead of sitting.
  • The pet no longer walks on the spot at the edge of the screen.

1.0.3 (2026-09-27)

  • Your pet likes high places: when it wants to rest and a window has room above it, it jumps up and rests on top of the window.

1.0.2 (2026-09-27)

  • A home in the Dock. The app's Dock icon is your pet's bed: send the pet home and it curls up asleep in the icon; click the icon to wake it. A setting turns the Dock icon off.
  • Sleeping pets close their eyes, and blinks look like blinks.
  • A calmer tail: it no longer flips up and down with every step.
  • The pet stays inside the screen: it could walk off the edge after its entrance was interrupted.

1.0.1 (2026-09-27)

  • The new laptop-peek logo in the app icon, the menu bar and the app window.
  • The app is called staywith.pet everywhere.

1.0.0 (2026-09-26)

  • First public release: your pet on the desktop, with walking, trotting, sitting, lying down, sleeping, grooming, jumping onto windows, being picked up and thrown, a dark app window and a menu bar panel.

Pets (the generator)

2026-09-29

  • No more tears in the fur where the legs fold: sitting, lying down and grooming stay smooth on pets whose tail is hard to find (like a tail curled round the body). All 22 ready-made pets were rebuilt with this, including the ones you have already chosen.
  • A sleeping cat lies with its chin down on the floor instead of a rolled-up heap that was hard to read from the side.

2026-09-27

  • Cats walk and trot like cats: a level back, a steady head and the tail carried up. (They used a dog's recorded walk before, which made them crouch.)
  • Sleep is a curled-up cat with its tail wrapped round, or a dog with its chin on its paws.
  • Grooming is a proper wash: a cat licks its chest and then a raised paw; a dog lies down and licks a front paw. It starts and ends standing instead of snapping into a sit.
  • Sitting, lying and sleeping pets rest on the floor instead of sinking into the bottom of the screen, and the tail lies on the ground round the pet.
  • Every pet gets a closed-eyes version of its texture for sleep and blinks.
  • A cat's sit is tidier from the side.

2026-09-26

  • Rest poses (sit, lie, sleep) are fitted to each pet's own body.
  • Recorded dog motion for walking, trotting and idling.

2026-09-25

  • First version of the generator: photos in, a rigged and animated 3D pet out.

Website

2026-09-29

  • Snow and Ginger now live along the bottom of the website on desktop: pet them, pick them up and throw them, like on your Mac. "Hide the cats" in the corner if you'd rather not.
  • Post and get paid back (staywith.pet/back): post a video of your pet on your Mac, and when one post reaches 10,000 views we refund half of what you paid, at 40,000 views all of it. You keep your pet.
  • New link preview image: Buddy and Snow on a Mac Dock with Ginger the pixel cat, drawn from the current 3D models.
  • Home page: Snow the cat now sits on the Dock, and Buddy walks over to sit beside her.
  • We're on Product Hunt: the badge in the site footer links to our page there.
  • The home page animations are re-rendered from Buddy and Snow's current 3D models and motion: smoother walking, paws that stay on the Dock, and sharper pets on large screens.
  • The download page has a full setup guide: installing, signing in, which photos work best, ready-made pets, keeping your pet, everyday controls, updates, troubleshooting, moving Macs, refunds and removing the app.
  • The privacy policy now lists Google Ads, which we use to see whether visitors from our ads go on to download the app.
  • Choosing a ready-made pet in the app is faster: its files are copied to your account side by side.
  • Ready-made pets on the site: the home page and the breeds page show them, and each of the 22 has its own breed page with the pet in six poses (walking, sitting, stretching, lying down, sleeping, looking around). Twelve new breed pages, from the French Bulldog to the Russian Blue.
  • The home page shows the Mac with your pet on it within the first screen on a laptop.
  • Pricing lists ready-made pets and the $9 pixel pets.
  • The owners' dashboard has a Support tab listing every help request from the app, with a reply box that emails the answer and shows it in the app.

2026-09-28

  • A Contact page, and the privacy policy now names every service that handles your data, including the AI models your photos are sent to. Privacy requests go to hello@staywith.pet.
  • A $9 Pixel pets purchase unlocks all ten pixel pets without a 3D pet. Free access we give now covers previews too, and unlocks the pixel pets.
  • The site now runs on Vercel, which is faster to update.
  • Free access: we can give anyone free pets by email; it applies when they keep a pet, with no checkout, even if they sign up later.
  • The download page no longer needs the "Open Anyway" steps: the app opens with a double-click.
  • Pixel pets on the homepage, the pricing and the FAQ: ten come with every pet you keep.
  • A What's new page (this changelog), also shown as the release notes for app updates.
  • The golden retriever and Persian guides show our own Sunny and Snow in 3D.

2026-09-27

  • Download clicks are measured (Google Analytics now, Google Ads conversion "App download click" once its ID and label are filled in).
  • The memorial gift page has a gentle "When you're ready" button, and every guide page has a share image.
  • Guides: desktop pet for Mac, custom desktop pet, Shimeji alternative, gifts for pet lovers, pet memorial gifts, pet loss gift ideas, best desktop pets, what a desktop pet is, and whether desktop pets are safe. Plus a guide for each of 20 cat and dog breeds.
  • A "tell me when gift codes are ready" signup on the gift page.
  • Personal share links are kept out of search results (their previews still show in chats).
  • Email to hello@staywith.pet reaches the team's Google Workspace inbox.
  • Discount codes at checkout.
  • "Another pet" is now $9 (was $12).
  • Checkout shows staywith.pet with its own logo (it showed the parent business before).
  • New logo everywhere, share images, Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity and search engine basics.
  • The owners' admin console: users, their pets and generations, and product analytics.

2026-09-26

  • Launch: new site, accounts, checkout with Dodo Payments, downloads.