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Mac setup

Connecting your browsers

One quick approval per browser. It lets Hubbub see which page you're on and close a single distracting tab, instead of quitting your whole browser.

In macOS it's called
Automation → Hubbub → your browser's name
Where to find it
System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation
Which browsers ask
Safari and Google Chrome (including Safari Technology Preview, Chrome Canary and Dev, and Chromium). Other browsers never ask.
Required?
No, but recommended — one approval per browser, no restart.

What Hubbub uses it for

  • Reading the address of the tab you're on.
  • Closing just the one distracting tab, instead of quitting your whole browser.
  • Taking you back to the tab you were working in.

What it never does with it

  • Reading your browsing history, bookmarks or saved passwords.
  • Reading the content of your pages.
  • Touching any tab except one you've asked Hubbub to block.

Turning it on

Step 1: Click Connect browsers

Hubbub's Browser Access screen lists the supported browsers that are open right now. If none are open, Hubbub skips this screen — each browser asks later instead (see below).

Hubbub's Browser Access step: “Close tabs that pull you off task — one approval per browser”, a note reading “Closes tabs only — doesn't navigate or modify them”, Safari and Google Chrome listed under “We detected”, and a Connect browsers button.

Step 2: Click Allow once for each browser

macOS shows one box per browser, one after another. It's the same standard wording macOS uses for any app.

macOS dialog: “Hubbub” wants access to control “Google Chrome”. Allowing control will provide access to documents and data in “Google Chrome”, and to perform actions within that app. Buttons: Don't Allow, Allow.
Illustration of macOS — the wording and layout shift a little between macOS versions, and your list of apps will differ.

Step 3: Click Continue

Each browser gets a tick as you answer. The step finishes whatever you choose — a browser you said no to will simply ask again later.

The same Browser Access step with green ticks beside Safari and Google Chrome, “All set”, and a Continue button.

A browser that wasn't open during setup

The first time Hubbub needs to read a tab in a browser it hasn't been allowed into, it shows a full-screen card naming that browser. Click Open System Settings: in Privacy & Security → Automation, expand Hubbub and switch the browser on.

Dismiss also works — Hubbub keeps going for that browser with less to go on, and asks again after you next quit and reopen that browser, or Hubbub.

Hubbub's full-screen card “Enable Google Chrome Automation”, explaining it's used to read the current URL and close distracting tabs, with a picture of the Automation settings, an Open System Settings button and Dismiss.

Where the switch is

Every browser Hubbub has asked about appears under Hubbub in Privacy & Security → Automation, next to System Events. Each has its own switch, so you can allow one browser and not another.

System Settings, Privacy & Security → Automation: Hubbub expanded showing System Events, Google Chrome (highlighted) and Safari, each switched on. Other apps are drawn as blank placeholders.

If you say no, or switch it off later

Hubbub keeps working. For that browser it has less information about which page you're on, and when it needs to stop a distraction there it has to quit the browser rather than close one tab.

Questions people ask

Safari or Chrome asked me for permission out of nowhere. Is that Hubbub?
Yes, if the box names Hubbub. It's the first time Hubbub has needed to read a tab in that browser. Allowing it keeps distraction detection accurate there.
I use Firefox, Edge, Brave or Arc. Why wasn't I asked?
Hubbub can't read tabs in those browsers this way, so it never asks. It handles them with a simpler rule you can set in Hubbub's Settings.
Is this the same as System Automation?
Same part of System Settings, different switch. System Automation (System Events) is required and covers which apps are open; these are optional and cover one browser each.

The other things Hubbub's setup asks your Mac for are on the Mac setup overview. Stuck, or something on screen doesn't match what's described here? Email support@77sparx.com and we'll walk you through it.