Comparisons

"Continue Watching" for your whole Mac

By the Echo team · 17 June 2026 · 5 min read

Netflix has a Continue Watching row. YouTube has one. So does Apple Podcasts. The problem on a Mac is that every app keeps its own resume list and none of them talk to each other, so there is no single place that knows everything you started. Here is how to get one resume list across every app and browser.

The "Continue Watching" idea is brilliant inside a single service: it quietly catches the things you started and offers them back. But your Mac is not a single service. In one day your half-finished media is scattered across a streaming app, a couple of browser tabs, a podcast app and a music app, each with its own private notion of where you got to. The result is that the most useful list of all, "everything I started and have not finished," does not exist anywhere.

Why doesn't my Mac have one Continue Watching list?

Because macOS has no system-wide media history. Each app tracks its own. Spotify shows recently played, YouTube has watch history, Apple Podcasts remembers episode positions, and none of them are aware of the others. There is no shared layer that says "here is everything you played, in one place, with where you stopped." Apps are islands, and your attention is what falls into the gaps between them.

Echo vs per-app history

The fix is not to replace any app, but to add a single layer above them that remembers across all of them. That is what Echo does. Here is how a per-app resume list compares to one Mac-wide history:

 Per-app historyEcho
Covers more than one appNo, one app eachYes, all of them
Includes the browser & YouTubeSeparate, per-siteYes, in the same list
Music, podcasts and video togetherSplit across appsOne timeline
Resume at the exact secondSometimesYes
One keystroke to any of itNoYes, with ⌘⇧E
Private & on-deviceVariesYes, no account

What Echo's "Continue Watching" looks like

Echo keeps one running, searchable history of everything you play, and a Shelf for the half-finished things you mean to return to. Press ⌘⇧E, and instead of remembering which app a thing was in, you just search for it. Echo reopens the right app or tab and seeks straight to the second you stopped. It is the Continue Watching row your Mac never had, spanning every source at once.

The list you actually want is the cross-app one

"What did I start and not finish?" is only useful when it spans everything. A per-app answer is half the picture; Echo gives you the whole one.

Which apps and sites does it cover?

Echo spans both halves of where your media lives:

So whether you started a lecture on YouTube, an album in Apple Music or an episode in Podcasts, it is all in the same place, ready to continue.

Who needs a Mac-wide resume list?

Anyone whose media is genuinely spread out: knowledge workers juggling talks and tutorials, students working through lecture series, and heavy YouTube watchers drowning in tabs. If your half-finished things live in more than two apps, a single Continue Watching list stops being a nicety and starts saving you real time every day.

Frequently asked

Why is there no single Continue Watching list on a Mac?
Because macOS has no system-wide media history. Each app keeps its own resume list, like Spotify recently played or YouTube watch history, and they do not share data with each other. There is no built-in place that knows about everything you played across apps and the browser.
How do I get one Continue Watching across every app?
You need a layer that sits above the individual apps. Echo records what you play across your native apps and the browser into one history and lets you resume any of it at the exact spot with one keystroke, which is effectively a Continue Watching list for your whole Mac.
Does Echo replace each app's own history?
No. The apps keep doing what they do. Echo adds a single cross-app layer on top, so instead of checking Spotify, then YouTube, then Podcasts, you ask Echo once and it knows about all of them.
Does it work for music and podcasts too, not just video?
Yes. Echo treats music, podcasts and video the same way. Anything you played across Spotify, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, YouTube and the web can be resumed from one list.
Written by the Echo team

We build Echo, a native macOS app that remembers everything you play across your apps and your browser, and brings any of it back at the exact spot with one keystroke.

One Continue Watching for everything

Echo gives your whole Mac a single resume list, across every app and tab, back in one keystroke.

One-time purchase, yours forever.
All articles