The best Around alternative for macOS (2026)

Around was the little video app people genuinely missed. It kept your call in a small circle in the corner of the screen — floating heads, out of the way, present without ever becoming the window in front of everything. Then Miro bought it, and on 31 March 2025 it was shut down for good. This guide covers what made Around special, where it went, the honest alternatives, and why a native macOS app is the closest thing to having that corner presence back.

What made Around special

Around's whole idea was restraint. Instead of a full-screen grid that took over your desktop, it showed each person as a tiny floating circle — its signature "floating heads" — that stayed on top of your other windows while you worked. It cropped tightly to your face, kept the room quiet, and generally tried to disappear.

People did not love it because it had the most features. They loved it because it was ambient. It let a few people feel together without turning a working session into a meeting. That corner presence — small, always visible, never in the way — is the specific thing that is hard to find anywhere else.

What happened to Around

Around was acquired by Miro, the visual-collaboration company, in 2022. Over the following couple of years Miro folded the experience into its own product — building an Around-like "Video Calls" feature directly inside the Miro board — and then retired the standalone app. Around stopped operating on 31 March 2025, and people were told to download any recordings they wanted to keep before it went dark.

So the honest state of things in 2026 is simple: there is nothing left to sign up for. If you want what Around did, you need a different app.

The honest alternatives

There is no exact replacement, and it is worth being clear about what each near-option is actually good at:

Miro Video Calls is the literal inheritor — if your team already lives in Miro, the Around-style calling is right there in the board.
Tuple is excellent if what you really wanted was to pair on code, with real remote control of each other's screens — but that is a focused two-person driving tool, not ambient presence.
Slack Huddles and Discord give you always-available voice and video, tied to a chat workspace or a community server rather than a standalone corner window.
Zoom and Google Meet are the right call for scheduled meetings, and for anyone joining from Windows, Linux or a browser.

None of those recreate the specific feeling of a small, always-on-top circle that sits beside your work and folds away when you don't need it. That is the gap.

Why Møt is the closest native macOS successor

Møt is built around exactly that gap. It is a native macOS app that keeps your call as a small, always-on-top circle in the corner — present while everyone works in parallel, quiet when there is nothing to say. Media is peer-to-peer by default: audio and video go straight between Macs, so in the normal case nothing is stored on a server. It caps deliberately at five people, which keeps it a room rather than a broadcast, and there is no account — it is free during early access.

It is not a literal clone of Around, and it does not try to be. But if you loved Around's corner presence and you are on a Mac, it is the closest thing to having it back. See Møt vs Around for a side-by-side.

The honest limits

None of this makes Møt right for everyone, and pretending otherwise would be exactly the kind of overclaiming Around never needed:

It is macOS-only. There is no Windows, Linux, mobile or browser build, so everyone in the call needs a Mac with the app installed.
There is no link join. You cannot drop a guest in from a browser the way Around allowed — that convenience is a real thing you would be giving up.
Five is a hard ceiling, not a soft default, and it is early-access software: free, improving, but young.

On the media path, Møt is peer-to-peer by default; if your network blocks a direct connection, an encrypted relay can carry the call instead — and even then the server never sees your decrypted media, because the encryption (DTLS-SRTP) is held only between the Macs on the call. If you need cross-platform, a browser join, or big meetings, one of the alternatives above is the better tool. If you want the quiet corner circle, native to your Mac, that is the whole point.

Questions, answered

Is Around still available?

No. Around was acquired by Miro in 2022 and shut down as a standalone app on 31 March 2025. There is nothing left to sign up for; users were asked to export any recordings before the closure.

What is the best Around alternative on a Mac?

There is no exact clone. Miro Video Calls is the literal inheritor if you already use Miro. For the specific always-on-top corner circle Around was loved for, Møt is the closest native macOS take — small, peer-to-peer, capped at five people.

Does Møt work like Around on Windows or in a browser?

No. Møt is macOS-only and has no browser or link join — everyone needs the Mac app installed. If cross-platform or a one-click browser join matters, Zoom or Google Meet is the better fit.

Is Møt free?

Yes — Møt is free during early access, with no account and no card required.