# What OpenAlly Companion Face does Companion Face is an optional OpenAlly face for gestures, moods and lip-sync on Android and Mac, with focus, wellness, now playing and system moments. Canonical: https://openally.ai/blog/what-is-openally-companion-face Markdown: https://openally.ai/blog/what-is-openally-companion-face.md Published: 2026-09-03 Reviewed: 2026-09-03 Author: Matterward Labs (https://matterwardlabs.com) Category: Feature Keywords: what is OpenAlly Companion Face; OpenAlly companion face; optional AI face Android Mac; lip-sync companion face; focus wellness now playing face; OpenAlly Slap companion hook Audience: You want an optional face for an agent you already use; You are deciding whether Companion Face belongs on Android and Mac; You use Slap and want to know whether the face is required Disclosure: Matterward Labs makes OpenAlly. Product claims come from OpenAlly's own catalogue and the public Companion Face feature page, read on 3 September 2026. The catalogue gives Companion Face one line: "A companion face that reacts to your assistant and helpful system moments." The job under that line is optional and easy to picture. You grant an approved agent a face. The face waves, changes mood, lip-syncs a short line, and idles when the day is quiet. ## Short answer > Figure: **Miro stands between two devices. A small living face sits in a Mac notch and at a phone corner, with no camera lens** The opening pose. Optional face on the two catalogue surfaces, Android and Mac. (light: https://openally.ai/images/blog/miro/miro-companion-face-short-answer.webp; dark: https://openally.ai/images/blog/miro/miro-companion-face-short-answer-dark.webp) **In brief:** **Companion Face** is an OpenAlly app that gives an approved agent an expressive face. The face does gestures, moods, lip-sync and idle cycles. The public catalogue lists it for Android and Mac. There is no iPhone listing for this app. You can leave the face off. [Slap](/blog/what-is-openally-slap) still works without it. [Matterward Labs](https://matterwardlabs.com) publishes Companion Face as part of OpenAlly. The [Companion Face feature page](/features/apps/companion-face) is the public receipt for every claim below. ## What the face actually does > Figure: **Miro stands by four mint tiles. A timer, a glass, a music note, and a battery feed a small reacting face** Useful daily moments. Focus, wellness, now playing, and system pulse. (light: https://openally.ai/images/blog/miro/miro-companion-face-powers.webp; dark: https://openally.ai/images/blog/miro/miro-companion-face-powers-dark.webp) **Powers** are the jobs you can give the face. They are not generic app utilities. The feature page groups them as focus, wellness, now playing, system pulse, an optional Slap hook, and idle cycles with Studio. | What you switch on | What the face does | | --- | --- | | Focus timer | Shows a countdown at a glance and a small celebration when the session ends | | Wellness nudges | Reminds you to stretch, drink water, or look away, with quiet hours you set | | Now playing | Reacts when a track starts or changes, on Mac and Android | | System pulse | Turns volume, charging, headphones, unlock, appearance, heat, network, and low power into short face reactions | | Slap hook | Adds desk-tap reactions if you connect Slap. You still control Slap from the Slap app | | Idle cycles and Studio | Plays playlists and expression sets when the day is quiet | For example, a focus session is a work block, a short break, or a long break. The face is a glanceable clock, not a second calendar. Wellness nudges can remind you to look away from a screen. The [National Eye Institute](https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/healthy-vision/keep-your-eyes-healthy) puts that rest in plain terms: take a break every 20 minutes and look at something about 20 feet away for 20 seconds (National Eye Institute, 2025). Companion Face does not claim that rule as a medical feature. It is a reminder you schedule. Quiet hours stay respected. Now playing follows a live media session. System pulse is the rest of the day: mute, a full battery, headphones that put their own pair on the face, a lid lift on a supported MacBook, heat, network, unlock, and a change of appearance. > [!IMPORTANT] The screens on the feature page are a demonstration > Panel titles and sample sessions on the public Companion Face page show the shape of the flow. They are illustrations, not measurements. No figure on that page reports usage, speed, or how many faces anyone has switched on. ## Sensors, not a camera > Figure: **Miro covers a camera lens. The other hand points at volume, battery, and headphone marks feeding an eyeless face** Sensors and system moments. Not a camera. (light: https://openally.ai/images/blog/miro/miro-companion-face-sensors.webp; dark: https://openally.ai/images/blog/miro/miro-companion-face-sensors-dark.webp) **A sensor moment** is an operating-system event the face can react to. Volume and mute. Charging, unplugging, low power, and a full battery. Headphones that connect, with the device name. Lid angle and lift on a supported MacBook. Heat, network, unlock, and appearance. On Android, motion, pocket, light, and selected accessibility moments. The companion does not keep raw sensor readings or typed text. It is deliberately without a camera. The feature page says that in one line: no camera. Voice features are opt-in. On Mac, the face lives by the notch. On Android, you use it in OpenAlly, or you choose the optional camera-edge view. That camera-edge view is a placement, not the whole product. It is not an overlay story for every platform, and it is not Aster. Aster is a separate, sideloaded Android companion for screen control. Companion Face is a face. ## Voice with lip-sync > Figure: **Miro holds a phone. The small face talks, with a local-voice mark and a separate key mark beside it** A short spoken line. The mouth follows on-device voice or a key you bring. (light: https://openally.ai/images/blog/miro/miro-companion-face-voice.webp; dark: https://openally.ai/images/blog/miro/miro-companion-face-voice-dark.webp) **On-device voice** is a voice already on your device. The face lip-syncs. No speech request is sent away. You can also bring your own [ElevenLabs](https://elevenlabs.io) key. The feature page lists that path for lifelike voices, Scribe, sound effects, music, and voice design. Generated audio is saved for playback. The companion can still lip-sync what you play. Short conversational lines are the fit. Longer text belongs in text. For instance, "Wave at me from your companion face and say hello out loud" is a starter on the [Companion Face skill](/features/skills/companion-face). The skill is how an approved agent controls expressions, speech, and idle moments. Grant it only to the agents that should have a face. Claude Code, Codex, and your own automations can also drive reactions. Progress, a permission request, attention, and done can show on the face. You choose whether that also notifies, speaks, or summarises. Those hooks are optional. They are not the definition of the app. ## Slap is an optional hook > Figure: **Miro taps a desk. A phone already plays a soundbite, and a tiny optional face recoils on a dotted unpluggable line** Slap already plays the clip. The face is a hook you can leave unplugged. (light: https://openally.ai/images/blog/miro/miro-companion-face-slap-hook.webp; dark: https://openally.ai/images/blog/miro/miro-companion-face-slap-hook-dark.webp) **Slap** is the app that turns a desk tap, a device shake, or the charger going in into a meme soundbite. It has its own [feature page](/features/apps/slap) and its own [explainer](/blog/what-is-openally-slap). Slap is listed for Android, iPhone and Mac. Companion Face is listed for Android and Mac. Connect Slap and the face can recoil while the meme clip owns the mouth. Leave the hook off and Slap still barks. The face is an optional power hook. You control it from the Slap app, not from a buried switch on the face. > [!IMPORTANT] The face is optional > OpenAlly and Slap keep working if you never switch Companion Face on. The hook is a connection you choose. ## Studio and agent authoring > Figure: **Miro sits at a studio desk. Expression cards are arranged, and one agent-suggestion card waits to be kept or dropped** Studio authoring. Inspect, reuse, or delete idle cycles and expressions. (light: https://openally.ai/images/blog/miro/miro-companion-face-studio.webp; dark: https://openally.ai/images/blog/miro/miro-companion-face-studio-dark.webp) **Studio** is where idle cycles and expression sets live. Playlists run when the day is quiet. Agents can suggest new expressions. Those suggestions are labelled so you can inspect them, reuse them, or delete them. The skill starters on the catalogue card are the same idea in chat form. Wave hello. Invent a playful expression and add it. Create a calm morning idle cycle and switch to it. None of that is a hidden animation pack. You can see what was added. ## Companion Face on Android and Mac > Figure: **Miro stands between two machines. An Android phone at chest height and an open Mac each carry a small companion face** Two catalogue platforms. Android and Mac, not a third device. (light: https://openally.ai/images/blog/miro/miro-companion-face-android-mac.webp; dark: https://openally.ai/images/blog/miro/miro-companion-face-android-mac-dark.webp) The public catalogue lists Companion Face for Android and Mac. OpenAlly itself remains a cross-platform product. This app is one of the focused apps whose platform list is narrower than the whole suite. Android is the OpenAlly app from [the download page](/download). Mac is a direct download from [the Mac download page](/download/mac) rather than a Mac App Store listing. The Mac side is not a separate account. Your agents and your chat history continue there. > Figure: **Android Companion screen labelled IN APP, with a large face card and a Listening status pill** Companion Face inside the OpenAlly Android app: the in-app face card with Listening on. This is the in-app surface, not a camera-edge overlay. (light: https://openally.ai/images/blog/ui/companion-face-android-inapp.webp; dark: https://openally.ai/images/blog/ui/companion-face-android-inapp-dark.webp) > Figure: **Mac Companion screen with a face in the notch and Idle Listening Thinking Speaking tiles, Thinking selected** Companion Face by the Mac notch: Idle, Listening, Thinking, and Speaking on the Companion face card, with Thinking selected. The face sits in the notch. (light: https://openally.ai/images/blog/ui/companion-face-mac-notch.webp; dark: https://openally.ai/images/blog/ui/companion-face-mac-notch-dark.webp) On Mac, the face lives by the notch. On Android, use it in OpenAlly or choose the optional camera-edge view. Approved agents can control expressions and speech. That is the placement copy on the live feature page. It is not a claim that Companion Face sits over every other app on every device. ## Where Companion Face sits in the catalogue The [app catalogue](/features/apps) lists Companion Face beside the other focused apps. The [full catalogue](/features) puts it next to the skills, tools and agents that share a workspace. The matching skill uses the same name and the same two platforms. If you already read the Slap explainer, the line you will recognise is the optional one. The face can recoil. Slap does not need it. ## How this was checked > Figure: **Miro holds a printed page. The other hand checks it against a short list** A catalogue check. Claims are read against the public Companion Face page. (light: https://openally.ai/images/blog/miro/miro-companion-face-sources.webp; dark: https://openally.ai/images/blog/miro/miro-companion-face-sources-dark.webp) The methodology is a catalogue read. Every product line above comes from OpenAlly's own catalogue and the public [Companion Face feature page](/features/apps/companion-face), read on 3 September 2026 (Matterward Labs, 2026). Where this page and the catalogue disagree, trust the catalogue. The look-away rest is the National Eye Institute's wording, not a Companion Face clinical claim. ElevenLabs is named because the feature page names that bring-your-own path. Powers, sensors, hooks and voice paths on that feature page are structured data. They are the receipt this article is checked against. - [METHOD] Every product claim was opened against the live catalogue and the public Companion Face page on 3 September 2026. Each of those pages is linked at the point of use. - [ORIGINAL DATA] The public catalogue lists Companion Face on exactly two platforms, Android and Mac. That count is a first-party catalogue read for this article, not a market survey. - [UNIQUE INSIGHT] Reading Slap as an optional hook, rather than as a requirement of the face, is an editorial framing of the feature-page line "optional power hook". Slap's own page already says the face is optional. About the author: [Matterward Labs](https://matterwardlabs.com) makes OpenAlly. It builds AI software, the apps around it, and the systems that run them. This article was reviewed by Matterward Labs on 3 September 2026. Corrections go to the company [contact page](https://matterwardlabs.com/contact). ## Declared sources - [National Eye Institute, Keep Your Eyes Healthy](https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/healthy-vision/keep-your-eyes-healthy) - [ElevenLabs](https://elevenlabs.io) - [Matterward Labs](https://matterwardlabs.com) - [Matterward Labs contact page](https://matterwardlabs.com/contact) ## Declared sources - [National Eye Institute, Keep Your Eyes Healthy](https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/healthy-vision/keep-your-eyes-healthy) - [ElevenLabs](https://elevenlabs.io) - [Matterward Labs](https://matterwardlabs.com) - [Matterward Labs contact page](https://matterwardlabs.com/contact)