---
title: Activity Timeline
description: Desktop activity timeline Toggl 2.0
---
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# Activity Timeline
## How to record the apps and windows you use, and turn that activity into time entries from My activity in the desktop app or the browser extension — with block names, suggested time logs, Auto-log day, and split and merge.
The Activity Timeline is a feature in our desktop app and browser extension that automatically records which apps and windows you use. In the desktop app, it also names each block of activity and suggests the time logs to create from it, so you can log a whole day in a few clicks.
### Where to find it
**Desktop:** Open the Toggl desktop app and go to **My activity** in the nav bar. This is where the Activity Timeline lives.
**Browser extension:** Open calendar view. The first column shows your activity.
#### Before you start: enable the feature
The Activity Timeline does not record anything until it is switched on.
**Desktop:** Go to **Profile Settings → Desktop Settings → Activity Timeline** and turn on **Enable activity recording**.
**Browser extension:** Open the extension dropdown, click your profile icon in the top-right, then go to **General → Activity Timeline**.
### Setup checklist (desktop)
If you've finished the desktop setup guide but activity recording is off, My activity shows a sample block and a short checklist instead of an empty page:
1. **Turn on activity recording.** Recording runs in the desktop app while it's open.
2. **Allow Accessibility access** (macOS only). Toggl needs this to see which app you're working in. Click **Open System Settings**; if Toggl isn't listed, add it with the + button.
Once both steps are done, your own activity replaces the sample within a couple of minutes.
### Settings
All Activity Timeline settings are in the same section as the switch above. The settings vary between apps.
#### Recording detail (desktop only)
Controls how much information is captured for each activity:
- **Apps and window titles:** records both the application name and the specific window or document title (e.g. "Notion: Weekly meetings" or "Chrome: PRD, Calendar"). This gives you the richest level of detail, and it is what AI names and suggestions work from.
- **Apps only:** records the application name only (e.g. "Google Chrome", "Notion"). Use this if you'd prefer not to capture window-level content.
#### Group activities by
- **Dynamic grouping** (default): consecutive activity from the same app is grouped into a single block, making the timeline easier to scan.
- **Fixed grouping:** each individual activity block is shown as a separate item. This gives maximum granularity but produces a denser view.
- **Split on app changes** (Beta): works like dynamic grouping, but also starts a new block when a different app takes over your screen, for example when you join a call.
- **On-device (adaptive)** and **On-device (layered)** (Beta): group your activity with a small model that runs on your computer. The model downloads the first time you choose one of these options. If you see *Update the Toggl desktop app to use this grouping option*, update the app first.
#### Show calendar events
Display events from your connected calendars next to your activity.
#### Show active time
Display how much of each activity block you were actively using apps.
#### **Show meetings**
Notes when an app is using your microphone and shows those calls in My activity. It's on by default. It only checks which app is using the microphone. Audio is never recorded.
#### Auto-assign tasks
When enabled, the top suggested task is applied automatically when you log time. You can always change it later. This needs Smart Suggestions to be turned on.
#### **Parallel lanes (Beta)**
- If you sometimes do two pieces of work at once, for example your job and your own projects, group your projects into lanes. Click **Add lane**, pick the lane's projects, and optionally list repos, sites or apps that belong to it. You can have up to 3 lanes.
- When My activity sees two lanes at the same time, it offers to log each one separately, as overlapping time entries.
- Under **Rules**, add keywords that always point to a project or are ignored. Rules run before suggestions. **Import Autotracker rules** copies your existing Autotracker rules.
#### Block list
The block list shows every app (and every website you visit in Google Chrome) detected while the desktop app is active. Excluding an app or website stops it from being recorded, and it no longer appears in your timeline. Blocked apps are excluded from all tracking features, including Smart Suggestions and Autotracker.
### Reading your activity (desktop)
Each block on the timeline gets a name, so you can see at a glance what you were working on:
- If you've turned on **AI names** (see below), an AI model on your computer names the block from its window titles.
- Without AI names, a block takes the name of a similar past time log and is marked **From a past time log**.
Hover over a block to see the apps and window titles in it. Hover over an app or a window title to see exactly which minutes went to it.
Websites you use in Google Chrome show as their own rows, with their icons, just like apps. Only the site's name is kept, never the full address, and incognito windows are skipped. On macOS, when you work in Claude, a terminal or a code editor such as VS Code or Cursor, the name of the project folder you have open is noted too, which makes suggestions more accurate.
#### **Calls and meetings (desktop)**
- When an app uses your microphone for a call, My activity shows the call in the **Calendar & meetings** column next to your calendar events. While you're on the call it's marked **Live**. Hover over the call and click **Log time** to create a time entry with the call's actual start and end times.
- To stop showing calls, turn off **Show meetings** in My activity settings.
#### **Week overview (desktop)**
Use the Timeline / Overview switch above My activity to see a whole week at once:
- **Active time by hour**: a heatmap of when you were active.
- **Active time by day**: your active time for each day of the week.
- **Apps**: how much time went to each app.
- **Where the time went**: your time grouped by **Project**, **Site**, **Channel** or **Session.**
### Logging time from the timeline
#### Suggested current work (desktop, Beta)
- When no timer is running, the desktop app can suggest what you're working on right now. A small **Looks like** panel opens outside the main window (on a Mac, under the menu bar icon). It shows the project or task it thinks you're on, and why, for example how many times you tracked it in the last 30 days.
- **Confirm** starts the timer from when you began that work.
- **Change** lists other guesses.
- **Not work** tells it this activity isn't work.
- To choose how much recent activity it uses (1, 2 or 5 minutes; 2 by default), or to turn it off on this device, open **Name activities with AI** and use **Suggest current work**. Activity recording has to be on. The AI model doesn't need to be downloaded.
#### Suggested time logs (desktop)
Hover over a block to see up to three suggested time logs, each with a description, project, task and tags taken from your time logs from the last 30 days. Click **Log** on a suggestion to create that time entry.
Suggestions get better as you log. If you don't have any time logs yet, they match your activity against your task and project names.
To limit suggestions to certain projects, open **Name activities with AI** (the AI button above the timeline) and choose them under **Suggest from**. Suggestions and Auto-log day drafts then come only from those projects.
#### Auto-log day (desktop)
**Auto-log day** drafts a time log for every unlogged block of the day in the **Logged time** column:
1. Click **Auto-log day** above the timeline.
2. Check the drafts. Blocks with a confident match come with a project already picked. Blocks marked **No confident suggestion** also offer their most likely project to pick.
3. Click **Log selected** to create the time entries, or **Discard drafts** to drop them.
Changed your mind? Click **Undo** in the confirmation message, or press ⌘Z (Mac) / Ctrl+Z (Windows).
#### Logging a block manually
Hover over any activity block to reveal the **Log time** option. You can also right-click a block to access the same action.
When logging time, you can:
- Add a description
- Assign a project
- Drag the edges of the block to adjust the duration. The time display on the left updates automatically
When a project is assigned, the activity block changes colour to match that project, making it easy to see which blocks belong to which project.
#### Splitting and merging blocks (desktop)
If a block covers two different pieces of work, hover over it and click **Split block** to cut it at the point shown. If neighbouring blocks belong together, use **Merge with previous** or **Merge with next**.
Both actions can be undone. Split and merge changes are saved on that device only.
### AI names
AI names are optional and turned on per device:
1. In My activity, click the AI button above the timeline (**Name activities with AI**).
2. Click **Download model**. This is a one-time download of about 3.4 GB; the exact size is shown before you start.
3. Once the model is ready, blocks are named on your device, and the model also helps rank your project and task suggestions. Names are suggestions you can edit when you log time.
After the download, AI names work offline. To stop using them, open the same menu and click **Turn off**. This deletes the downloaded model.
The model needs a graphics card that supports WebGPU. It has been tested on Apple Silicon Macs; Windows and other graphics cards haven't been tested yet. If your device can't run it, you see **This browser or device can't run the model**. Suggestions and Auto-log day still work without it.
### Privacy and data storage
- Activity Timeline data is device-specific and stored locally. Other workspace users (including admins) do not have access to it.
- Activity Timeline data is kept on the local machine for the last 30 days.
- AI names, suggestions and Auto-log day all run on your own computer. Your window titles, websites, project folders, calls and activity never leave the device. The network is used only to download models.
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- [Timeline](https://docs.toggl.com/using-toggl-page-by-page?hsLang=en#timeline)
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