> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.parable.work/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Skipped Apps

> What Pulse records for an app it skips, which apps it always skips, and how a Workspace admin adds apps to skip on every Mac.

Pulse skips some apps on every Mac. For a skipped app, Pulse records only
which app was in front and for how long. It never reads the app's window
title, the text in its window, or its screen.

Two lists decide which apps Pulse skips:

* **The protected list.** It is built into Pulse. No setting can remove an app
  from it.
* **The Workspace list.** A Workspace admin sets it. It applies to every Mac in
  the Workspace. It can only add apps to the protected list.

There is no list per person. A person cannot add or remove skipped apps for
their own Mac.

## What Pulse records for a skipped app

| Data | Other apps | Skipped apps |
| - | - | - |
| The app's bundle ID and name | Yes | Yes |
| When the app came to the front and left, and the active and idle time | Yes | Yes |
| How often the keyboard and the pointer were in use, as counts | Yes | Yes |
| The window title, position, and size | Yes | No |
| The text and names of the controls in the window (Accessibility) | Yes | No |
| The text on the screen, read on the Mac (Screen Recording) | Yes | No |

Pulse does not read a skipped app's window through Accessibility, and it does
not capture a skipped app's screen. It only notes when the app comes to the
front and when its window changes. The [Pulse Primer](/pulse/primer.md)
describes everything Pulse collects.

## Apps Pulse always skips

The protected list holds:

* password managers, such as 1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass, Dashlane,
  Enpass, KeePassXC, and Keychain Access;
* banking and finance apps, such as Quicken, TurboTax, PayPal, and the apps
  of Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo;
* health apps, such as Apple Health and MyFitnessPal.

## Skip an app in your Workspace

You need permission to revoke Macs. Anyone who can see the Macs page can read
the list.

1. Open **Protection** > **Macs**.
2. In **Skipped apps**, type the bundle ID of each app, one per line.
3. Select **Save**.

Parable stores each entry in lower case, sorts the list, and removes
duplicates. To stop skipping an app, delete its line and select **Save**. An
empty list leaves only the protected list.

## Find an app's bundle ID

Every Mac app has a bundle ID, such as `com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap` for Slack.
To find it, run one of these commands in Terminal:

```bash theme={null}
osascript -e 'id of app "Slack"'
mdls -name kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier -raw /Applications/Slack.app
```

## How Pulse matches an entry

An entry is a prefix of a bundle ID. Pulse skips every app whose bundle ID
starts with the entry:

* `com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap` skips Slack.
* `com.microsoft` skips every Microsoft app, such as Outlook, Teams, and Word.

Pulse ignores case when it compares an entry with a bundle ID. Each entry
must have at least two parts separated by dots, such as `com.example`. A
part has only letters, digits, and hyphens. The list holds at most 200
entries, and each entry has at most 255 characters. Parable refuses a list
that breaks these rules and stores nothing.

## When a change applies

* A Mac gets the list when it enrolls, before its first capture.
* An enrolled Mac gets the list when Pulse starts, and then at least every
  six hours.
* When a new list skips the app that is in front, Pulse deletes the window
  title, window text, and screen text that it holds for that app's current
  time in front.

If a Mac cannot reach Parable, it keeps the last list it got. A failed
check-in never removes a skipped app.


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