Install & first launch

• A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or newer) on a recent version of macOS, or a PC on Windows 10 or 11 (x64).
• An internet connection (the twin talks to your chosen AI model over the network).
• A Twinly account, created right in the app on first launch (email or Google). The Free plan needs no card; plans are covered in Powering your twin.

Optional capabilities, voice calls, the Gmail connector, top-tier cloud voices, each have their own page in this sidebar and none of them block the first launch.

1. Download Twinly for Mac from twinly.tech. You get a standard .dmg disk image.
2. Open the disk image and drag Twinly into your Applications folder, the same as any Mac app.
3. Open Applications and double-click Twinly. The first time, macOS may ask you to confirm you want to open an app you downloaded; click Open.

1. Download Twinly for Windows from twinly.tech. You get a standard installer, Twinly-Setup.exe.
2. Run the installer. It puts Twinly in your apps and on the Start menu, no options to puzzle over.
3. Open Twinly from the Start menu. The same guided setup greets you on first launch.

Windows keeps the same brain, the same screens, and the same approval-gated behavior as the Mac app. Platform differences are the honest ones: texting rides your linked messaging apps and Google Voice instead of iMessage, calendar and contacts use the Windows system stores, and keys live in Windows Credential Manager instead of the macOS Keychain.

On first open you get the main Twinly window with a short guided setup, plus the Twinly Island: a Dynamic-Island-style strip at the top of your screen. On a Mac it fuses with the notch (Macs without a hardware notch get a virtual one drawn into the menu bar); on Windows it draws its own floating strip. Press Command + \ on a Mac or Ctrl + \ on Windows, anywhere, to message your twin straight from the island.

The setup walks you through three things in order: sign in to power the twin, grant the permissions it needs to act, and, optionally, give it your voice. Each is one or two taps, and each has a full page here if you want the detail.

Twinly's Access tab has a Set everything up button that requests every permission the twin needs in one pass, opening the right System Settings pane for each so you just flip toggles. It is the fastest way to go from installed to working; the full list and what each grant unlocks is in Permissions.

To confirm you are ready, open the Showcase tab. Its readiness panel runs live checks, model connected, voice ready, calling enabled, screen access, accessibility, disk access, with a plain-English fix-it hint for anything still missing.

1. Connect the brain: Powering your twin.
2. Grant access: Permissions.
3. Give it your voice and set up calls: Voice & calls.