MeetingFlash

A tiny macOS menu bar app that flashes your screen red right before a meeting starts, so you never miss one while heads-down. · Website

It reads the calendars in the macOS Calendar app, so it works with Exchange / Microsoft 365, Google, iCloud, or any account added under System Settings → Internet Accounts.

Install

brew install --cask frugoman/tap/meeting-flash

Then open MeetingFlash from Applications and allow calendar access.

Or download the latest .zip from Releases, unzip it, and move MeetingFlash.app to Applications. Because the app isn't notarized, the first launch needs a right-click → Open (or System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway).

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

Features

• Full-screen flash on every display, showing the meeting title, that stays until you click anywhere or press a key
• Flash in red (the default), any colour and opacity you like, or a photo of your choice
• Multiple alerts per meeting (at start, or 1–30 minutes before), each with its own flash and sound (a system sound or your own MP3/M4A/WAV) — e.g. a soft Tink at 5 min, flash + Sosumi at 1 min
• Sounds only on the outputs you choose — pick your AirPods and alerts stay silent on the laptop speakers at the office. Paired Bluetooth speakers and headphones are listed even when disconnected
• Wi-Fi rules: never make sound on certain networks (e.g. the office), or allow an output only on some (e.g. MacBook speakers only at home). Reading the Wi-Fi name needs Location access — macOS requires it
• Pick which calendars to watch
• Skips all-day, cancelled, declined, and (optionally) "Free" events
• Countdown in the menu bar when the next meeting is less than an hour away
• Upcoming meetings list with one-click join for Teams, Zoom, Meet, and Webex links
• Launch at login

Using only the Outlook app? MeetingFlash can't see Outlook's own calendar store. Add your work account to System Settings → Internet Accounts (turn on Calendars) and it'll show up.

Build from source

./build.sh
open build/MeetingFlash.app

Needs Xcode or the Command Line Tools (Swift 5.9+).

Releasing

./release.sh 1.1.0

Builds a universal binary, publishes the zip as a release on, and updates the cask in, frugoman/homebrew-tap.

Support

MeetingFlash is free and open source. If it's useful to you, you can buy me a coffee ☕

License

MIT