decafSetting upUser guide

Setting up Decaf.

Decaf is a calm iMessage Mac app that relays time-sensitive and important texts to a second phone.

How to set it up, and what you find on your Mac afterwards. Using it from your second phone has its own guide.

Setting up

Setting up.

The first time Decaf opens, it asks how you will use it. There are two paths.

Just iMessage on this Mac

Read and answer your texts here. Nothing changes on your iPhone. About 5 minutes to set up.

iMessage on this Mac, plus a second phone

Your iPhone keeps your main number. A Light Phone, flip phone, or second iPhone with a separate phone number receives time-sensitive texts from Decaf in one thread. You reply to the thread to answer the texts from your second phone. About 10 minutes to set up, need both phones handy.

The first screen. Choosing a path starts setup. Every screen after it has Open inbox · Set up later at the bottom, so you can stop at any point and come back.

On this Mac

Both paths start with the same three screens.

  1. Disk access

    Your texts are already on this Mac, in Messages. macOS keeps them locked until you turn on Decaf under Full Disk Access. macOS has no switch for Messages alone, so this is the one it asks for.

    In System Settings → Full Disk Access, find Decaf in the list and turn it on. If it isn’t there, press + and choose Decaf from Applications. macOS may ask for your Mac’s password.

    Decaf watches for the switch. Once it is on, the screen changes by itself and shows the people who texted you most recently. Press Continue.

    Keeping your iPhone with you? Green-bubble texts, like sign-in codes and friends on Android phones, come to this Mac only if your iPhone passes them on: Settings → Messages → Text Message Forwarding → your Mac. This screen offers it as an optional row.

  2. Send replies

    Decaf sends your replies through Messages on this Mac, so they come from your own number. Three permissions, each a dialog that Decaf names before it opens:

    • RepliesmacOS asks if Decaf may use Messages.
    • Photos and voice notesShortcuts asks to add a shortcut Decaf makes. macOS may ask once more to let Decaf use Shortcuts.
    • Texts to several peopleShortcuts asks to add one more.

    The button names the next dialog each time: Allow replies, Add the photos shortcut, Add the second shortcut, then Continue. A row ticks once Decaf has proved it.

    Not now: you can still read texts here and answer them on your iPhone, and Decaf asks again the first time you reply. With a second phone, Decaf needs Replies to text it.

  3. Desktop notifications

    Messages alerts you for every text and counts them on its icon. Turn its alerts off on this Mac, and Decaf alerts you only when a text can’t wait.

    • Decaf’s alertsmacOS asks once. Decaf then shows you one sample alert.
    • Messages’ alertsOn this Mac, in System Settings → Notifications → Messages, turn off Allow notifications. Leave Messages running; Decaf sends through it.

    Then Open inbox, or Continue to the second phone.

Setup ends in the inbox, where one card says what was set up: Important shows what needs you. All unread has every unread text. Time-sensitive texts are flagged with a black dot. Click a name to read and answer; replies send from Messages, as you.

Your second phone

The second path continues here, with both phones in hand. Decaf relays important messages to this phone in one thread. You can reply directly in the thread, and Decaf will relay the reply.

  1. Your second phone

    Choose what you carry.

    • A Light Phone or flip phoneDecaf relays messages as SMS texts in one thread. Before a reply is relayed, it asks for confirmation.
    • An iPhoneDecaf relays messages as iMessages in one thread. You can reply directly to a relayed iMessage by using the thread reply feature in iMessage. Smoothest functionality.

    Then type the second phone number. It needs a number of its own; your main number stays in your iPhone. Don’t know its number? Text your iPhone from your second phone. The number shows there.

    A second iPhone should be signed in to iMessage with its own Apple ID, not your main one, so your everyday texts don’t land there too.

  2. Your iPhone stays home

    For Decaf to work correctly, your main iPhone needs to be charged and logged into every few days. Alternatively, you can leave the iPhone plugged in at home with the passcode turned off.

    • Text Message ForwardingFor SMS texts to get relayed. On your iPhone: Settings → Messages → Text Message Forwarding → turn on your Mac. On a newer iPhone the path starts Settings → Apps.
    • Call forwardingCalls to your main number still ring your iPhone. To ring your second phone instead, turn on call forwarding with your carrier (on many iPhones: Settings → Phone → Call Forwarding).
    • Logging inEnter its passcode at least every three days. Left longer, it restarts, and regular SMS texts stop reaching Decaf until someone enters its passcode once. The same happens after an update. Decaf tells you on this Mac when regular texts stop.
    • Save Decaf as a contactDecaf’s texts come from your own number, because your iPhone sends them. Save that number in your second phone as Decaf, so you know who’s texting.

  3. The test text

    Press Send the test text. Your second phone gets Decaf: this is a test text. Reply with any word, and your Mac will show it.

    Reply with any word. When your reply reaches the Mac, the screen changes to Your reply arrived and asks where urgent texts should go from now on. Send them to my second phone is the usual choice. My second phone and this Mac keeps alerting the Mac too.

    The test text on a Light Phone. The reply arriving on the Mac proves both directions at once.

    Nothing arrived, or it arrived but the reply didn’t reach the Mac? See If something is off.

  4. Your second phone is set up

    When a time-sensitive text arrives, Decaf relays it to your second phone. To reply, answer in the same thread, with the person’s name and a colon: Maya: all good, me too.

    You can also reply using the number that’s in the relayed text. If Decaf relayed 3 Maya: I’m running 5 min late, reply 3 all good, me too.

    Your iPhone at home: leave it plugged in with Text Message Forwarding on, and enter its passcode at least every three days. Calls to your main number still ring there.

    This Mac: leave it plugged in and online when you go out. If it comes with you, urgent texts reach your second phone only while it’s open and online. Closed in a bag, they wait in Decaf until you open it.

    Text these steps to my second phone sends a short version to the phone; the full guide to using Decaf from your second phone is here. A Mac that stays home, plugged in, can take over later, so urgent texts keep going out while your laptop is closed. Decaf offers that the first time it would have helped, and it is in Settings.

On your Mac

On your Mac.

Important shows what needs you. All unread has every unread text. Time-sensitive texts are flagged with a black dot. Click a name to read and answer; replies send from Messages, as you.

All unread. jules carries the black dot, so jules is in Important too; sam can wait.

The inbox

Important opens first. When nothing is waiting, it says so. All unread is every unread text, time-sensitive or not. Group chats sit under their own heading.

Click a name to open the conversation. Type in the box and press Send; Emoji, Attach, Photos and Voice sit beside it. Done clears the thread from the inbox. Later sets it aside under the others until you are ready.

All texts, in the top bar, is every conversation, not only the unread ones. Search looks through all of them. New message starts a conversation.

Rules

Decaf decides what can wait and what can’t, and you can teach it. Teach a rule sits at the top of every thread; Rules, in the inbox footer, lists what you have taught. A rule is a plain sentence: someone who always gets through, someone who can wait, or a topic that matters, like anything about the kids. You can also text rules from your second phone.

Notifications

On this Mac, Decaf notifies you only for time-sensitive texts. Messages’ own alerts are off, so nothing counts or blinks. Pause Mac alerts, in Settings, quiets this Mac only. Your second phone still gets urgent texts.

Good to know

Decaf works while your Mac is awake and online. While it sleeps, nothing is relayed and texts wait in Decaf. When it wakes, texts more than 30 minutes old stay on the Mac rather than going to your phone, so look at the Mac. If anything urgent waited, your phone gets one line saying so.

A ⚠ or … next to Decaf’s d in the menu bar means it has stopped reading. Quit Decaf and open it again.

Settings holds your second phone’s number, where urgent texts alert you (this Mac, your phone, or both), quiet hours, the activity log, and the end date of your trial.

Everything about texting Decaf from your second phone is in the user guide.

If something is off

If something is off.

The test text didn’t arrive

Most often, Text Message Forwarding is off for this Mac. On your iPhone: Settings → Messages → Text Message Forwarding → your Mac. Then check the number, and press Send it again.

Still nothing after a second try? On this Mac, open Messages → Settings → iMessage and make sure your number is ticked under You can be reached for messages at.

It arrived, but my reply didn’t reach the Mac

The same switch, in the other direction: Text Message Forwarding on your iPhone, for this Mac. Until it works, you can’t answer from the phone, and the inbox keeps a note saying so.

My phone has gone quiet

  • The Mac is asleep or offline. Nothing is relayed until it wakes; texts wait in Decaf. Leave it plugged in and online when you go out.
  • The iPhone at home restarted and is waiting for its passcode. Regular texts stop reaching the Mac until someone enters it once, and Decaf tells you on the Mac when that happens. Enter the passcode, and the waiting texts arrive.
  • Decaf stopped reading. A ⚠ or … shows next to its d in the menu bar. Quit Decaf and open it again.

Messages still alerts me for every text

On this Mac, in System Settings → Notifications → Messages, turn off Allow notifications. Leave Messages running; Decaf sends through it.

Shortcuts didn’t open

Open the Shortcuts app once, then press the button again. Still nothing? Skip it. Decaf asks again the first time you need it.

Decaf didn’t answer a text from my phone

Its AI server may be slow; after five minutes Decaf says so on the phone, and it replies once the server is back. Everything about texting Decaf is in the user guide.

I stopped setup halfway

The Mac half works on its own. A note at the top of Important brings you back to the step you left; Not now hides it for a week, and after that Finish setting up waits in the inbox footer and in Settings. Got a second phone later? Settings has Set up a second phone.

Decaf for Mac.

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