Ask AI about anything on your screen, in any app

The slowest part of using a chatbot is getting your text into it: select, copy, switch to the browser, paste, explain what it is. An AI bar that reads what you're looking at skips all of that. Select, press the shortcut, ask.

How it works

When you open layman, it checks what you were looking at and attaches it as a chip under the input:

Selected text, from any app: a browser, Word, Outlook, Slack, VS Code, a PDF viewer.
Nothing selected? On Windows it reads the text of the window you were in, using Windows' built-in text recognition, on your computer.
Files selected in File Explorer, Finder or on the desktop: their contents.

Every question in that chat uses the chip. Click it to see exactly what's attached, or press × to drop it.

Things to try

Select a paragraph of jargon → "explain this like I'm 12".
Select your draft email → "make this friendlier and shorter", then Replace selection to put the rewrite back where your draft was.
Select an error message in a terminal → "why did this fail?"
Select code → "find bugs" or "add comments".
Select a foreign-language paragraph → "translate to English".

You often don't need to type at all. With text selected, the bar opens with suggestions for that kind of text: Explain, Rewrite clearer, Shorten, Fix grammar, Translate, plus a word count. For an error you get "Why it failed" and "Just the fix"; for an email, three reply drafts.

Without touching your clipboard

On Windows, layman reads most selections through Windows' accessibility interface, so your clipboard is left alone. Some apps hide their selection from it; for those it copies, reads, and then puts your clipboard back exactly as it was, every format included. On a Mac it uses the Accessibility permission you grant during setup.

Privacy

layman only reads the screen when you press the shortcut, never in the background.
Password fields and password managers are never read.
With a local model, what you select never leaves your computer.

Opening it

The default shortcut is Alt+Space on Windows and Option+Space on a Mac, and you can change it in Settings. A quick tap of Ctrl+Shift (Windows) or a three-finger tap on the touchpad works too. See a Spotlight-style launcher for Windows for everything else the bar does.