Is there a Dynamic Lock for Mac?

The short answer

There is no built-in Dynamic Lock on a Mac. Windows can lock the screen when your paired phone leaves Bluetooth range; macOS only locks after a set period of inactivity, regardless of whether you are still sitting there or have left the building. To get proximity-style or presence-style locking on a Mac you need a third-party app. Two approaches exist: Bluetooth proximity to a paired phone or watch, which is the closest literal match to how Windows Dynamic Lock works, and camera presence, which checks whether a face is actually in front of the screen. Either way, the lock is only secure if you have set "Require password after sleep or screen saver: immediately" in System Settings.

What Windows Dynamic Lock actually does

On Windows 10 and 11, Dynamic Lock pairs your phone to the PC over Bluetooth and watches the signal strength. When the phone moves far enough away that the Bluetooth signal drops below a threshold, and the PC is also idle, Windows locks the screen a short time later, typically around thirty seconds after the disconnect is detected, according to Microsoft's documentation. You enable it under Settings, then Accounts, then Sign-in options, in the Dynamic Lock section. It is a genuinely useful convenience: you stand up, walk away, and the machine secures itself without a keystroke.

The mental model people carry over to the Mac is "my computer locks itself when I leave". The Mac can be made to do this, but not with anything Apple ships in the box.

Does macOS have a built-in equivalent?

No. The closest thing macOS offers is the inactivity timer: the screen saver starts or the display sleeps after a set number of minutes, and if you require a password immediately, the Mac is then locked. That is time-based, not presence-based. It cannot tell whether you have walked away or are simply reading, so it locks on a stopwatch rather than on your departure. The guide on why your Mac is not locking automatically walks through those settings and the gap they leave.

One feature is easy to confuse with Dynamic Lock, so it is worth being precise. macOS does include "Unlock with Apple Watch", which automatically unlocks your Mac when you are wearing your unlocked Watch and wake the screen. That is the inverse of Dynamic Lock: it removes friction when you arrive, but it does nothing when you leave. There is no built-in Apple feature that locks the Mac because a paired device has moved away.

How to get Dynamic-Lock-style locking on a Mac

Because macOS has no native proximity lock, the feature comes from third-party apps, and they split into two camps based on what signal they use to decide you have gone. Both recreate the convenience of Dynamic Lock; they simply disagree on how to know you have left. The honest trade-offs between them are covered in depth in camera presence versus Bluetooth proximity, and the full landscape sits in the roundup of ways to auto-lock a Mac in 2026.

Bluetooth proximity: the closest literal match

The most direct translation of Dynamic Lock is a Mac app that watches a paired iPhone or Apple Watch over Bluetooth and locks when the signal weakens, exactly as Windows does. Near Lock and Tether Lock are examples of this Bluetooth-proximity approach. If you specifically want "lock when my phone leaves", this category is the literal equivalent.

It carries the same characteristic as Dynamic Lock, which is worth understanding rather than treating as a flaw. Bluetooth proximity measures where your paired device is, not where you are. If your phone is sitting on the desk while you step out, or in your pocket while you move to a colleague's screen nearby, the signal can still read as present. Signal strength is also coarse and affected by walls, bodies, and interference, which is why Windows and these apps wait and use a threshold rather than locking the instant a reading dips.

Camera presence: checking whether you are actually there

The other approach asks a more direct question: is a person actually in front of the screen? This is what Peeku uses to lock the moment you walk away. Instead of inferring your location from a phone's radio signal, it uses three signals that all stay on your Mac:

• Face presence from the built-in camera, analysed locally with Apple's Vision framework. No image or video leaves the Mac, and it detects whether a face is present, not who it is.
• An optional Apple Watch proximity gate over Bluetooth, so it only locks when both the camera and the Watch agree you have gone. This is the same Bluetooth idea the proximity tools use, but as a reinforcement rather than the sole signal. The Apple Watch reinforcement guide explains how that gate works.
• Keyboard and mouse idle time, so a brief pause does not trigger a lock.

Because the camera looks for a face rather than a device, a phone left on the desk does not keep the Mac unlocked, and all of the detection runs on-device, which is the reasoning behind Peeku's privacy-first, on-device design.

Which approach fits you

Neither is universally better; they suit different setups.

• Choose Bluetooth proximity if you want the most faithful Dynamic Lock replacement, you always carry your phone or watch, and you prefer a method that never touches the camera.
• Choose camera presence if you want the lock to react to you rather than to a device, you sometimes leave your phone at the desk, or you also want the eye-rest and posture coaching Peeku bundles alongside the lock.

Many people end up wanting both signals, which is why Peeku can use the Watch as an optional gate on top of camera presence rather than forcing a single source of truth.

Make the lock secure first

Whichever route you take, one macOS setting decides whether locking actually protects anything. Open System Settings, then Lock Screen, and set "Require password after screen saver begins or display is turned off" to "immediately". Without it, the screen can darken or the saver can start while the Mac stays unlocked, so any proximity or presence tool is only triggering an unlocked dark screen. There are two honest caveats with Peeku specifically. It needs that password setting to make its lock secure, and the full locking app ships free outside the Mac App Store, on Gumroad and as a notarised DMG, because the App Store sandbox blocks the screen-lock calls it relies on. The two-minute setup guide covers the whole sequence.

Quick reference

• Built-in Mac equivalent of Dynamic Lock: none. macOS locks on a fixed inactivity timer, not when a paired device leaves.
• Unlock with Apple Watch: a real macOS feature, but it unlocks on arrival; it does not lock on departure.
• Closest literal match: Bluetooth-proximity apps such as Near Lock and Tether Lock, which lock when a paired phone or watch moves out of range.
• A more precise option: camera presence, which checks whether a face is actually at the screen and treats the Watch as an optional gate.
• Either way: set "Require password immediately" or the lock is not a lock.