How to use StowerMessages

StowerMessages reads the Messages history on your Mac, finds the people you’ve left on read, and drafts a reply for each one, all on-device. It never sends anything for you: you always hit send yourself.

Requirements: macOS with the Messages app signed in (StowerMessages reads your local chat.db). Everything runs locally. No messages ever leave your Mac.

How to get StowerMessages

StowerMessages is available on the Mac App Store. Download it from the store and launch it from your Applications folder.

1. Install

1. Download StowerMessages from the Mac App Store.
2. Launch StowerMessages from your Applications folder.

2. Grant access to your Messages folder

On first launch, StowerMessages will ask to access your Messages data. Click Confirm on the popup to grant it read-only access to your Messages folder.

This uses a security-scoped bookmark, which is the most secure way to grant only read access to Messages. StowerMessages gets a persistent reference to the folder — nothing more. It can see your Messages database and nothing else on your Mac. The permission is sandboxed by macOS and lasts only as long as StowerMessages is running, with the bookmark allowing seamless re-access on future launches.

3. Let your board build

Once access is confirmed, you’ll see “Connected — preparing your board.” The first time, this takes 1 to 3 minutes: StowerMessages is reading your conversations and judging, on-device, which ones actually left you owing a reply. Threads are cached as it goes, so every launch after this is instant. The first one is the only slow one.

When it finishes, your board fills in. It has three tabs:

• Your turn — people who left you with something to reply to.
• Maybe follow up — threads where you said something reply-worthy and nothing came back.
• Drafts — every conversation you’ve started a draft for.

No analytics, no tracking

The Mac App Store version of StowerMessages has no analytics, no crash reporting, and makes no network connections. Nothing about how you use the app is ever collected. Your board is built entirely on your Mac.

4. Turn on names (Contacts access)

If your rows show phone numbers instead of names, a banner appears at the top: “Showing phone numbers.” Click Show names, then Allow in the macOS prompt, and your contacts’ names and initials fill in instantly. (If you’d previously denied it, the button sends you to System Settings to flip it on.)

5. Tidy the board: dismiss or mute

Right-click any row for two actions:

• Dismiss clears that one thread off the board (for example, once you’ve replied). It’s per-message: if that person texts you again later, the thread comes back. Hit ⌘Z or use the undo bar to reverse it.
• Mute Sender hides every thread from that person for good. The first time, StowerMessages confirms what this does (hidden from the board, not from Messages; you can unmute anytime from the Muted Senders button in the toolbar).

You can also hover a row and click the archive button to dismiss without the menu.

To clear several at once, click Select in the toolbar, then drag across the rows you want to dismiss.

6. Optional: Accessibility for one-click paste

Accessibility is optional. It just makes replying one step smoother. With it on, StowerMessages can paste your draft into Messages for you automatically. Without it, everything still works; you just paste it yourself (it’s always on your clipboard). StowerMessages asks for this the first time you send a draft to Messages, so you can skip it now and decide later.

7. Send a draft

Click a row to open the composer, edit the draft however you like (it saves as you type), then click Reply in Messages.Here’s exactly what happens:

1. Your draft is copied to the clipboard (always, so it’s safe even if anything below hiccups).
2. The Messages conversation opens to that person.
3. If you granted Accessibility, StowerMessages posts a synthetic ⌘V and your draft lands in the compose field.

StowerMessages never presses Return. It only ever pastes: it will never send a message for you. You read it, adjust if you want, and hit send yourself. If you skipped Accessibility, just press ⌘V in Messages and the draft is right there.

Once you’ve sent it, come back to StowerMessages and click Mark as sent to clear it off your board (⌘Z if you change your mind).

Need a hand?

Email emily@emilykang.dev and I’ll help.