Rylo Sidekick asks for up to three Mac permissions the first time you use it. Each one has a specific, limited job — here's what each does, and why Sidekick needs it.

"Lets the people you call hear you."

Sidekick needs this to caption your own voice, labeled as "You" in the transcript. If you've told Sidekick you'd rather type than speak (see Speaking vs. typing), this permission isn't required at all — you can skip it.

"Lets Sidekick hear what others say so it can caption it."

This lets Sidekick caption the other participants on your call — the audio coming out of your speakers. This one is always required; without it, Sidekick can't caption anyone but you.

"Call detection — Lets Sidekick launch automatically and privately on calls."

This lets Sidekick recognize when you've joined a call in an app like Zoom or Teams, so it can offer to start captioning automatically. It's optional — if you skip it, Sidekick falls back to a less precise way of noticing calls, and you can always start captioning manually instead.

The first time Sidekick needs Microphone or System Audio access, macOS will show its own popup — just click Allow. If you accidentally clicked Don't Allow, or need to grant Accessibility, click Grant in Sidekick and you'll be taken straight to the right page in System Settings → Privacy & Security. Toggle the switch next to Rylo Sidekick on, then return to the app.

Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone (or Accessibility), and turn off the toggle next to Rylo Sidekick. Turning off Microphone or System Audio will stop Sidekick from being able to start a captioning session until you turn it back on; turning off Accessibility just means Sidekick will stop auto-detecting calls, without needing you to restart the app.