Auto-Screenshot: Selection Mode & Auto Mode

Pluely v1's auto-screenshot feature lets you capture exactly what's on your screen — the full display or just a region you select — and feed it straight into Ask mode as context, either on demand or automatically on a schedule. It's a Pro feature designed for anyone who asks Pluely about visual things often: dashboards, code, error dialogs, or a screen that keeps changing.

Two ways to capture

Full screen or a selected region

From the overlay, you can capture:

• The full screen — a single click grabs everything currently displayed.
• A selected region — drag to draw a box around just the part of the screen you care about, so Pluely only sees what's relevant. Press Escape at any point to cancel a region selection without capturing anything. On macOS the selection layer never takes focus from the app you are sharing, and it is excluded from screen shares on macOS and Windows.
• Captured images show as thumbnails under the composer: click one to view it full size, flip between captures, or remove it. If you set a capture delay, the status pill counts it down.

Region capture works across multiple monitors — you can drag your selection on whichever display has what you need, not just your primary screen.

Auto-screenshot modes

Beyond manual capture, Pluely v1 offers two automatic modes, both enabled from the overlay's screenshot controls:

• Once — the next time you ask a question, Pluely automatically attaches a single screenshot, then turns the setting off again. This is useful when you know you'll ask a screen-related question next but don't want to fumble with capturing it yourself first.
• Interval — Pluely captures a screenshot and asks a question automatically every set number of seconds, on a repeating loop. This is built for monitoring a screen that changes — for example, watching a build log, a dashboard, or a live feed and having Pluely flag or explain anything notable without you needing to prompt it each time.

Capture area and prompt

Two settings under Dashboard → Screen Capture → Auto Screenshot keep automatic captures focused:

• Capture area. Click Pick an area, drag over the part of the screen that matters (your lecture, the document, the call window) and every automatic capture from then on is cropped to it, including the ones Use image attaches. Unrelated windows never reach the model. Whole screen switches back.
• Prompt sent with each timed capture. In Interval mode, the question Pluely asks about each capture is yours to edit. Something specific, such as "has the build log changed since last time?", works far better than an open question.

Screenshot with a follow-up chip

With Use image on (⌘/Ctrl+U), picking a follow-up chip, by click or with ⌘/Ctrl+1 to 4, takes the screenshot and sends it together with the chip's prompt in one step.

Where to find it

The screenshot and auto-screenshot controls sit alongside the composer at the bottom of the overlay, near the attachment button. Settings for interval length, capture delay, the capture area and the timed-capture prompt live in the dashboard under Screen Capture.

How it works

1. Open Ask at the top of the overlay.
2. Choose full screen or drag to select a region — or open auto-screenshot settings to enable Once or Interval mode instead.
3. For manual capture, the screenshot attaches immediately as a source chip, ready to send with your next question.
4. For Once, the screenshot is taken and attached automatically the next time you submit a question — no extra click needed.
5. For Interval, Pluely repeats capture-and-ask on your chosen cadence until you turn the mode off.
6. Optionally set a capture delay — a short pause before the screenshot is taken, handy if you need a second to switch to the right window or dismiss something first.

If captures never seem to arrive

Every automatic capture now tells you when it could not go out, in a line under the composer:

• Screen Recording permission. On macOS, Pluely can only capture the screen once you allow it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording. Until then the line says so; grant it and captures start right away.
• The model can't read images. A text-only model silently ignores screenshots. The line names it; pick a vision model in the model picker and captures resume.
• Timed captures in Listen. The timer now works during a live session too: each capture goes to the AI together with the transcript.
• What goes with the next message. A line under the composer always says it: "2 images attached", "Use image is on", or which auto-screenshot mode is active. When images are already attached, Use image does not add a second screenshot on top.
• Proof it went. When images travelled with a question, the answer's meta line reads "1 image sent" or "2 images sent".

Tips

• Use region selection instead of full screen when you only need one part of the display — it keeps the AI focused and avoids sending irrelevant content.
• Set a short capture delay if you find yourself needing to switch windows right before Pluely captures.
• Interval mode is best paired with a specific, repeatable question ("has this error changed?") rather than an open-ended one, since it runs unattended.
• Turn off Interval mode when you're done monitoring — it keeps capturing and asking until you disable it.
• On multi-monitor setups, double check which display your region selection landed on before capturing something on the wrong screen.
• Combine auto-screenshot with attachments for richer context — for example, a screenshot alongside a document open in another window.

Related

• Attachments
• Ask mode
• Keyboard shortcuts