Why loon exists.
We built loon because the voice on your computer should sound like a friend — not a brand, not a robot, not a salesperson.
My mom is 71. She is sharp, funny, and impatient with technology. The cursor confuses her. The mouse drifts. She knows what she wants to say to her email; she just can't always find the keys. Most voice assistants treat her like a customer. They are loud, eager, and full of upsell.
loon is the opposite of that. It waits. It listens when you ask it to. It uses fewer words. It doesn't try to be your friend on day one. It just helps.
The bird
The loon is a Canadian water bird. It has a haunting, calm call you can hear across a still lake at dusk. Anyone who has spent a summer near water in Ontario knows that sound. It's the opposite of the bright, performative voice that ships in most software. It's the voice we wanted on our Macs.
The company
loon is made by ConnectRoots Inc, a small team in Toronto. We've been building software for fifteen years. We pay for our own coffee and our own servers. We don't take ads, we don't sell data, and we don't have a growth team. We have engineers, a designer, and a writer.
The founders
loon is built by Ahmed Nadar and Mohamed Fawzy, co-founders of ConnectRoots Inc. Two engineers who have shipped software together for years and wanted to make a Mac feel calmer for the people in their lives.
What we believe
Software should be calm. Voice should feel human. Your data should stay yours. That's why loon listens only when you say "hey loon," why everything we can run on-device runs on-device, and why we have a one-page privacy policy a teenager can read.
