Outbound 1.0 release notes: what’s new

New

The Network Monitor is redesigned in the native macOS style: a list with Sent, Received and Last Seen columns, live per-app traffic bars, and the map always shown beside the list, or above it in a narrow window.
Exact bytes per destination. When a connection closes, the filter records exactly how many bytes it sent and received, and the Network Monitor shows them under Sent and Received on each destination and domain row and in the inspector. Live per-app traffic still comes from sampling.
Search with scoped words: app:, host:, port:, proto:, country:, direction:incoming or direction:outgoing, rule:none or rule:any, and quoted values such as app:"Google Chrome". A menu in the search field inserts them.
Drag across a traffic chart to select a time window; the list and map then show only that window. Hover a column to read the time and rates. Charts work from the keyboard (arrow keys, Escape) and with VoiceOver: adjust to move through time, and use the actions to select from a point to now or clear the selection.
Alerts name the developer from the app’s Developer ID certificate, such as “Signed by Google LLC” or “From the Mac App Store”, say when a server belongs to the app’s own developer, and say “Outbound doesn’t recognise this server” when it doesn’t.
Choose the port in the alert: only this port, any port, or any port and protocol.
When an app ships an Internet Access Policy, the alert quotes the developer’s stated purpose and what happens if you deny. This applies only to apps signed by a developer team or Apple.
VoiceOver announces each alert, and an optional sound plays when an alert appears (Settings).
Help › Network Not Working? shows Outbound’s state with Pause for 15 Minutes and Turn Off, the blocks of the last 30 minutes with one-click Allow, other network filters and VPNs that macOS reports, and a note about iCloud Private Relay.
Help › Report a Problem: describe the problem and, if you choose, include diagnostics (versions, Mac model, macOS, Outbound’s mode and status, rule counts and open problem codes; no sites, addresses or app names). The last 30 minutes of Outbound’s own log, which can name sites, is added only if you tick it. You see exactly what will be sent before sending, or you can save it to a file instead. Reports go to outboundfirewall.com over HTTPS and are kept only to fix the problem; the site stores a salted hash of the sender’s network address to limit abuse, never the address itself.
The menu bar panel lists recent blocks with an Allow button, and has Network Not Working? and Report a Problem rows.
After a few days in Learn, Outbound suggests reviewing what it saw and switching to Ask, or you can choose Later.
Review can allow everything from verified developers in one step with Allow Verified Developers.
Priority rules in the rule editor, which win over other rules.
Licence keys. Outbound asks for the key from your purchase email when it first opens. Settings › Licence shows who the licence belongs to and moves it to another Mac. A Personal licence covers 2 Macs; a Family licence covers 5. A licence problem never cuts off your network: the filter keeps working as it was.
Rule manager window, with scopes, rule groups and their settings, and each rule’s details.
Right-click any app to Allow All Connections or Deny All Connections.
Analytics dashboard: traffic, apps, domains, countries, ports, a heatmap and newly seen apps. Connections that Outbound asked you about appear as their own series.
Health report, with an on-device summary on Macs that support Apple Intelligence. Outbound checks every half hour and notifies you at most once a day about a serious problem.
Command-line tools appear by name and icon, including Claude Code, Grok, Kiro CLI, opencode, Cursor Agent, Gemini CLI and Copilot, instead of a bare version number.
Remove Outbound in Settings › General removes the network filter, its System Settings entry and the background agent, and can delete your rules and history too.
A new app icon in the style of macOS 26, with dark, clear and tinted versions.
Menu bar add-ons: today’s data and the current mode beside the traffic meter.
Settings › Appearance: Automatic, Light or Dark, and a choice of window tints.

Improved

Traffic charts throughout the app are thin columns on a faint track: upload above the centre line in orange, download below it in blue, each half on its own scale.
On Macs with Apple Intelligence, the on-device assistant answers questions about this Mac’s network in plain language. Answers come with the records they used, shown as charts, a traffic timeline, a map or cards you can click to inspect; it highlights key records and suggests follow-up questions. Its numbers are checked against the connection records, and nothing leaves the Mac.
Learn never re-trusts a program whose pinned code changed: the replaced program is asked about like a new one, and is blocked if nobody answers.
Home shows a live traffic chart, Blocked today and the apps that need attention, and uses about a quarter of the CPU it did before.
When the health check finds high memory use, it offers Relaunch Outbound and Restart Background Agent buttons. Health checks again a minute after the Mac wakes.
One traffic sampler: the app shows the background agent’s samples instead of running a second one.
Notifications from the background agent show Outbound’s icon, and clicking one opens the place where you can act on it.
Security hardening: the app and the background agent verify the code signature of the filter they connect to; rule and settings files are opened without following symbolic links; CSV and history exports neutralise spreadsheet formulas; and a blocklist feed can’t shrink itself away gradually, because a refresh below 10% of the list’s largest size is refused.
One prompt per DNS server. Programs that look up names themselves, such as Node, Bun and opencode, used to ask again for every load-balancer name; their lookups now share one alert and one answer.
Saving a rule with large blocklists on is about 15 times faster: the check went from 7.5 seconds to 0.5 seconds with 100,000 blocklist entries.
A rule tied to one exact copy of a signed program follows that program’s updates once the filter has seen the new copy signed by the same developer team.
The menu bar meter lights segments from left to right, upload and download in their own colours, and its panel shows the last five minutes of traffic.
The window uses the Mac’s own backgrounds, sidebar and colours, with more contrast in light and dark.
Much lower CPU use while Outbound is open: map markers no longer animate without end, and All Rules opens about three times faster with 1,500 rules.

Fixed

Setup fits inside its window.
Analytics days start at local midnight in time zones with a half-hour offset, such as India.
The background agent registers itself again if it stops answering.
Menu bar settings (what it shows, colour, traffic colours) now change the menu bar.
Setup no longer waits forever when macOS does not answer the filter installation; it offers to try again.

Requires macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon or Intel. Signed with Developer ID and notarized by Apple. A licence key is required: see pricing.