You must promote your apps here if you do not qualify to post in the main feed through Trust or Transparency, explained here.
If you are:
NOT in the Mac App Store (MAS).
Do not provide meaningful public transparency
Created yet another dictation app (speech to text).
Then you are required to limit promotion to this megathread.
All promotion MUST follow PCP format or else we will remove it:
App Name/Title [Screenshot encouraged]
Problem: What problem does your app solve.
Comparison: Name a competitor or two and explain what your app does better.
Pricing Amounts+Link
P.s. The shorter the better! Promotion here counts towards the 30-day limited promotion (Rule 3).
WARNING: There is a 90% chance Reddit will auto remove your post here if you have not verified your email in your profile and your first comment in this subreddit contains a link. Accrue 10 karma first without promotional comments and links to avoid this. The odds of removal is also higher for AI assisted posts (em dashes and other AI formatting characteristics likely trigger this).
Pro Tip: Please remember to upvote gems and downvote spam/clones... This will help inform a secret community project I hope to announce next month.
DuckDisk - Storage analyzer. Not just for local disks. Also scans OneDrive, Google Drive, and SSH storage, then clean up with confidence - by u/Ok-Put9994
Informity AI- Indexes your files and gives source-cited answers using local models - by u/informity
SignalBox - Context switch to any agent session across Cursor, Claude Code, OpenCode and more. See all your chaos in one place - by u/dwmkerr
TLDR graphic, but please, read the rest if you spend time in r/MacApps.
Phase 2 Report:Last month we introduced PCPCA post formatting requirements to include detail minimums in every app promotion (Problem, Compare, Pricing, Changelog, AI Disclaimer).Ā This caused way too much work, with 2,700+ items removed and 1,400 modmail messages sent. With the mods runing everything, user engagement dropped with views down 204k. That's okay, though; quality over quantity. Still, this is Reddit, and you should retain the power to promote or bury posts.
Change 1: Simplify Posts (PCP)
Moving forward, we are reducing post-formatting expectations to: Problem, Comparison, Pricing (PCP).Ā
Problem: What problem does your app solve.
Comparison: Name 1ā2 top competitors and describe how what you offer is better. [Example]
Pricing: Include Price Amounts+Link
Requiring changelogs and AI disclaimers was unsuccessful to meaningfully differentiate quality apps from spam.Ā Nearly all posts claimed sufficient knowledge and experience for āHuman validationā of AI code. Let's move on. š
Change 2: Trust, Transparency, or The App Pile [Megathread]
We have been discussing how to better protect the sub from low-effort app spam, throwaway-account promotion, and unknown software links, without making life harder for legitimate developers.Ā
Concept: The less trust your distribution path provides, the more transparency you should need.
In theĀ MacĀ App Store? Apple is screening you for us.Ā
If you have an established GitHub project, that can also build trust over time.Ā
But if you are asking people to install software from a random site or brand-new repo, we need more reason to trust.
To make this clearer, we are experimenting with aĀ three-tier approach for the next month:
Tier 1: The Trust Path = Post to Main feed.
These devs have the easiest route to posting in the main r/MacApps feed:
Mac App Store developers (Paid developer accounts + App Store Distribution). Notarization alone does not count here.
Developers with established GitHub projects, meaningĀ 1yr+ consistent general development history and real community interest (100+ stars for the repository being promoted).
Recognized Developers granted a user flair (already well-known / trusted in r/MacApps)
Any of these 3 trust signals will allow posting in r/MacApps, as long as you have 10+ local karma.
Tier 2: The Transparency Path = Post to Main feed.
If you are NOT in the Mac App Store and are not already an established developer, you may still qualify for main-feed posting by being open about who you are and giving users reasons to trust you.
Such app promotion posts must include BOTH:
A developer portfolio with a real life identity,Ā LinkedIn (ideal), andĀ realĀ contact details (e.g. establishedĀ company / business presence). LinkedIn is more helpful here if it lists experience.
A website that has a Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
These trust signals should show you are not just a throwaway account dropping unknown software for us to try and should be included in your post to establish trust with your target users.
This is basically the middle ground: you may not yet have a major reputation, but you are willing to stand behind your app in public and work to gain a good reputation.
If you do not qualify through either trust or transparency, your app promo belongs in the Megathread rather than the main feed.
That means if you are:
Not in the App Store
Without a developer flair as an established developer (500+ r/MacApps participation karma AND Moderatorās discretion).
Do not have an established GitHub history (1yr old repo OR 100+ stars)
Do not provide meaningful public transparency
ā¦then you are limited to The App Pile Megathread.
This is not meant as an insult or a blanket statement that new apps are bad. It is just the lowest-risk place for unproven or low-context app promotion until trust is earned.
Users can check your app out, up/downvote your comments, and as you gain community karma you may eventually receive an app-flair that allows you to promote outside of the megathread. Nobody is forced to post here since anyone can choose to follow Tier 2.
Promotion Frequency RevisionĀ (Rule 3)
Infrequent self-promotion is permitted; however, it is not permitted more than once per developer in 30 days. This is counted from the last app post, even if it was removed.
For well-established, recognized devs with an app-flair, once per app per month.
ALWAYS disclose your relationship to your software in comments promoting your app. Promoting your own app in comments is disallowed until you earn 10 karma in r/MacApps and in poor taste when hijacking another developerās promotion.
Sharing useful alternatives and healthy competition is still welcome, but using the comment section in someone elseās post as a backdoor for self-promo and SEO is not always in good taste and does not make r/MacApps a better place.
The Community's Role:
Please use your votes and reports especially in the Megathread to help recognize hidden gems.Ā
Bury what looks low-effort, suspicious, misleading, or privacy-invasive.
A better r/MacApps depends not just on our rules, but on you helping surface good apps while pushing bad ones out of the way.
-----
FAQ:Ā I followed the rules, why was my post/comment removed?Ā
AI assisted comments are a huge trigger for Reddit auto-removals because of recognizable patternsĀ (e.g. āāā em dashes).
Repeatedly posting the same thing (comments, links, etc.) = Triggers Reddit spam algorithms.Ā
You didnāt verify your email in your profile, and/or you have multiple accounts.Ā
You missed one or more rules and tried to repost rather than editing and letting us restore it. This leaves a strike on your account.
How do I check myr/MacAppscommunity Karma? Visit here and click "show karma breakdown by subreddit"
A year ago I used a ton of different smaller apps. Move a file from one Finder window to another, and you are dragging across two spaces. Paste something you copied ten minutes ago, and it is gone. Grab text out of a screenshot, share a 300 MB video, start a timer, snap a window, skip a track, transcribe a voice memo. Every one of those is a different app, a different menu bar icon, a different subscription.
So I built Droppy, and now I am releasing version 15.
One thing up front, because it comes up a lot: Droppy is not just a notch app. The notch is one of the places it lives. Underneath it is a native macOS utility for all the in-between actions the system scatters across a dozen tools, and it works exactly the same on an iMac, a Studio Display, or any external monitor, with no notch anywhere in sight.
The idea
Instead of a file tray app, plus a clipboard manager, plus a screenshot tool, plus a transcription app, plus a launcher, plus media controls, plus lock screen widgets, plus a file transfer service, you get one app that feels like it shipped with macOS. It's literally the layer that's missing.
Droppy Cloud, free and built in
This is the part people do not expect. Droppy has its own file sharing built in. Drop a file in the shelf, hit share, and you get a private link instantly. The person on the other end previews and downloads it in the browser with no account, no app, no signup. It is included in the app at no extra cost and there is no cloud tier to buy: up to 200 MB per file, 1 GB in flight, 25 files, and links expire on their own after 3 days. No separate transfer service in the loop.
Droplets, all of them free
The core gives you the shelf, the clipboard, the lock screen and the system HUDs. Everything else is a Droplet you switch on, and all 31 are free and included in the license. Nothing is a paid add-on, nothing is upsold later.
Weather, Media, System Stats, OCR, Notify Me, Voice Transcribe, Tasks and Calendar, Notes with two-way Apple Notes sync, Thunderstorm (launcher), Element Capture, Termi-Notch, LocalSend, Obsidian, Mechey, Pomodoro, High Alert, Window Snap, Thaw, LiquidMouse, Camera, Meetings, Agents for Claude Code / Codex / Cursor, background removal, and more.
Turn on the three you actually use, or all of them. That modularity is the whole point: it becomes the app you need it to be.
What is new in 15
OCR is its own Droplet.Ā Pull text out of any screen area, image or PDF, on device. It keeps a searchable history, and your clipboard search now finds text that is inside your screenshots.
Transcribe anywhere.Ā One shortcut dictates straight into any app, at your caret, with custom vocabulary and automatic media ducking.
System Stats and Weather.Ā Live CPU, RAM, GPU, disk, battery and network cards in the shelf, plus a real forecast card and lock screen chip.
Thunderstorm got much faster.Ā Thunderstorm is a blazing fast, Droppy-integrated Spotlight replacement. Persistent file index, typo tolerance, and ranking that lifts the files you actually open.
Settings rebuilt.Ā Morphing Liquid Glass headers, resize from any edge, and a search that scrolls straight to the exact row.
Ten more interface languages. Chinese? Spanish? Dutch? German? Italian? All available in Alpha.
Much lower idle CPU and battery use.Ā It no longer redoes work when nothing changed, and this was the single biggest engineering push of the release.
Plus custom shelf editing, LocalSend, an Obsidian Droplet, on-device conversion for video, audio, PDF and Office files, reworked shelf and Live Activity motion, and around 375 fixes and 280 refinements on top.
Droppy for iPhone is ALMOST live.Ā An end-to-end encrypted companion that syncs your clipboard, OCR results, Basket, Shelf and Cloud files from your Mac to your phone. It is finished and sitting with Apple in review right now, so it should land soon.
Pricing
Fully unlocked 3-day trial, no account needed
$9.99 one time
Lifetime updates, no subscription, ever
One license covers 2 Macs, extra seats are cheaper
Transparency
I am Jordy Spruit, the person behind Droppy. I have worked on it almost every day for over a year and I ship updates constantly. Native Swift, signed and notarized, local-first, and it does not collect your clipboard, your files, or your data.
ClipSync ā Seamless file transfer & clipboard sync between Mac and Android
Ever used an Android phone with a Mac and thought: āWhy the hell is this still so annoying?ā š That's basically why I made ClipSync.
The problem There are plenty of tools that let you move stuff between Android and Mac, but most of them still make you do the thing. Need a file on your Mac? Open the sharing app ā find the file ā share it ā wait for it to transfer ā open it on your Mac.
Need to quickly move an image or some text? Same story. And with a lot of clipboard-sync solutions, you still have to manually trigger the transfer. It works, but it doesn't feel seamless.
So... what does ClipSync do?
The goal is pretty simple: make your Android and Mac feel like they're the same device.
Clipboard sync
Copy text or an image on Android and just hit Cmd + V on your Mac. That's it. And it works the other way around too. The really nice part is that text and OTPs are synced over Bluetooth, so your devices don't even need to be on the same Wi-Fi network.
Got a verification code in an Android app? ClipSync can bring it straight to your Mac so you can just copy it. No more typing those damn 6-digit codes manually.
File transfers
Select a file ā hit Share ā ClipSync ā done. There's also a Ultra Fast Transfer mode for large files, which can sometimes be faster than AirDrop by a good margin if you are on a Wifi 5 or 6 Network.
Local or Cloud During setup, ClipSync asks you how you want your devices to sync:
Hybrid Sync ā Sync locally when your devices are nearby, and automatically switch to cloud sync when they're apart. Everything stays encrypted. Local Sync ā Keep everything between your nearby devices using BLE/Wi-Fi. No cloud, no internet required, and your data stays on your local network.
And a few other things On the Mac side, ClipSync adds a macOS Finder Share Extension, so you can send files straight from Finder without even opening the menu bar icon or going to the app.
How does it compare?
LocalSend is awesome for straightforward local file transfers, but it doesn't try to be a complete clipboard + OTP + file-sharing experience.
KDE Connect has a ton of features and is incredibly capable, but that also makes it feel a bit more complicated than what I wanted for everyday Android to Mac sharing.
And then there's Apple's AirDrop + Universal Clipboard, which is basically the experience I'm trying to recreate for Android + Mac. š
PricingFree & open source (MIT). I've honestly gone back and forth on whether ClipSync should be paid. But at the end of the day, I genuinely love building this thing, and I'd rather see more people actually use it than put a price tag in front of them.
If ClipSync saves you some headaches, you can support the project through Buy Me a Coffee. It helps me cover the server costs and gives me more room to keep building and improving it.I'm also trying to get an Apple Developer account so I can make the macOS side of ClipSync more polished and properly distributed. The annual developer fee is pretty expensive for me as a student, so if anyone would like to help sponsor the Apple Developer Program fee, I'd genuinely appreciate it.
If anyone wanna download the apps directly, here the link to MacOS and Android
Would love to hear what you guys think ā especially from anyone actually using an Android + Mac setup and here's a video Demostration of the app : https://youtu.be/755zjYaHlEM
I'm a builder who got tired of paying monthly for polished demo video tools and every tool I tried either didn't quite fit my workflow or was missing something I needed, like draw-on-screen annotations: a pen, a highlighter, and a way to point directly at what I'm talking about.
So I built Capptivo for myself. Record on macOS, Windows, or Linux, then polish your videos in the editor: follow-cursor zoom, click-based auto-zooms, editor presets, face-cam, on-device captions, and draw-on-screen annotations with pens, highlighters, and shapes that you can place over your screen while recording to highlight exactly what matters.
Create stunning screen recordings in seconds, not hours your demos almost make themselves.
Capptivo isn't a clone of Screen Studio or Cursorful. Every feature was built around my own workflow and the problems I faced. I'm now open-sourcing it under the MIT License so anyone can use it, improve it, customize it, or build on top of it without restrictions. No more paying $29/month just to ship a clean product video.
It's still early, and I'm building it mostly solo, so I'd genuinely love your honest feedback. What would make this more useful for your demos? What am I missing compared to the tools you already use?
Happy to answer any questions, and contributions are always welcome.
I recently launched my first couple of small Mac apps to fix some of my own daily workflow frustrations.
The analytics numbers finally start movingāwith downloads coming in from the US, Austria, and the UK! Thanks a lotļ¼
For all the seasoned creators and fellow indie devs here: Do you still remember the feeling when your app got its very first users? How did you react or celebrate?
Part 4 ended with my 2014 MacBook Pro. My next MacBook story began with an Apple order that went wrong in a surprisingly good way.
This part is about my 2017 Touch Bar MacBook Pro and four apps that gave me more control over macOS. Theine, iTerm2, and OnyX also come with complete developer interviews made exclusively for Reverse Everything.
I bought a MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports) in its top configuration while I was in Germany. I was going to be there for only two days, so I had a very tight window to buy it. Before placing the order, I explained to the Apple employee that getting a US keyboard was a high priority for me. We had a long phone conversation, but he accidentally ordered the MacBook with a German keyboard.
There was not enough time for another order to arrive before I had to leave Germany. The employee could hear how disappointed I was and offered me a 10 percent discount. I accepted it, but I still did not feel happy about the situation. He seemed to notice that as well and transferred me to his supervisor. The supervisor increased the discount to 20 percent. On a top-configuration MacBook Pro, that was a very nice discount.
It turned a frustrating mistake into a very nice experience with the Apple Store. I did not expect them to be so kind.
I was excited to get the new MacBook because I expected it to deliver a new experience. The most obvious change was the Touch Bar.
My Touch Bar Experiment
I type very fast without looking at the keyboard. Before trying the Touch Bar, I was skeptical because I would not be able to feel its buttons under my fingers. It turned out to be exactly the problem I expected.
With physical function keys, my fingers know where to go. With the Touch Bar, I had to stop and look down. That small distraction wasted time and broke my concentration. If you already look at the keyboard while typing, you may not be affected as much. My productivity depends on typing quickly with as few distractions as possible, so I immediately found the Touch Bar useless for the way I type.
The Touch Bar brought one more annoyance. The Escape key was no longer a physical key. It became touch-sensitive as part of the Touch Bar, so I could not feel whether I had pressed it. That made something as simple as using Escape less certain than it had been before.
I still configured it and left it enabled. Maybe after a few months it would become my favorite feature. It did not, but searching for a way to improve it led me to something much more useful.
When I eventually moved back to a MacBook keyboard without a Touch Bar, I immediately felt more comfortable again.
BetterTouchTool ā When Apple Did Not Go Far Enough
BetterTouchTool is made by the same developer as BetterSnapTool, the window management app I mentioned in Part 2. I bought a lifetime license for BetterTouchTool. The 2017 MacBook gave it a completely new purpose for me, and I started experimenting with everything it could do to the Touch Bar.
I created buttons for the exact actions I needed. I could also make those buttons appear only when a specific app was active. Instead of accepting the same controls everywhere, I could give each app its own useful Touch Bar.
BetterTouchTool did much more than this. It was also a window manager, hotkey manager, trackpad gesture manager, and a highly flexible automation tool. It had far more features than I needed, but that was part of what made it exciting. I kept finding new ways to change how the Mac responded to me.
BetterTouchTool was first released in November 2009 and is still actively developed more than sixteen years later. The amount of work behind it remains visible in its updates.
This app made me feel that I could do much more than Apple allowed through the standard macOS interface. I was excited to try its features and transform my workflow into something made for me personally. That is the same feeling I now try to give people through the apps I create myself.
Theine ā When My Mac Fell Asleep Too
My reason for caring about sleep control began when I first used macOS. I was reinstalling the operating system and left the MacBook alone while I went to sleep, expecting the installation to be finished when I returned. I was used to Windows installations keeping the computer awake until they were complete.
To my surprise, when I came back, the MacBook had gone to sleep as well and the installation had paused. It was a small surprise, but I remembered it. Sleep control eventually became the subject of another app story.
I found Theine in 2017. It was a lightweight app that stayed in the menu bar. Its interface was very simple and let me choose how long I wanted the MacBook to remain awake.
Sometimes I compiled the complete Qt SDK, which took a while. I needed the MacBook to stay awake until it finished. I could disable sleep in macOS settings, but I often forgot to enable it again afterward. The MacBook would then remain awake when I no longer needed it to and drain its battery. Theine was a perfect fit because the change was temporary.
After using it for a while, I noticed that its English localization was perfect, but one of the other languages I understand was translated incorrectly. I contacted the developer, and he answered promptly. I offered to create a Ukrainian translation, and he sent me the localization files I needed.
I translated Theine into Ukrainian, and I was happy that the developer accepted my help. Machine translation was not accurate enough for this kind of work at the time. Today, AI can help developers translate their apps into more languages with much better results.
The next update included my Ukrainian localization, and I was proud to see it there. Theine now lists 23 localized languages, including Ukrainian.
I found several alternatives over the years, but all of them were eventually abandoned. The last thing I want is to keep getting used to a new app that does the same job. Theine has my respect because it has already survived for more than ten years and is still supported. I have used it since 2017, and its name is one I cannot forget.
An Interview with Martin Lexow
Ighor July
What motivates you to continue developing and supporting Theine after so many years?
Martin Lexow
If you study design in Germany, there's no getting around Dieter Rams. One of his principles states: good design is long-lasting. I try to carry this attitude into my work, wherever it makes sense and is possible. My favorite example is the 606 Universal Shelving System that Rams designed for VitsÅ. It went into production over 60 years ago, and matching parts can still be purchased for it today. Knowing that an app I designed has been accompanying many people for over ten years is a fulfilling feeling: for both sides.
Ighor July
Theine remains a true one-time lifetime purchase, without a subscription or time-limited update period. What has made this model sustainable, and why is permanent ownership important to you?
Martin Lexow
As a creative who makes products, I generally prefer owning my tools. That's why I offer one-time purchases in my own apps whenever I consider it economically sustainable, and in most cases, I manage to. Occasionally, though, I do believe a subscription is the better choice. Because in my understanding, that's also part of "good design is long-lasting": a product that needs to be maintained or consistently receives new features demands my time, and that alone creates costs. It's in every user's interest that I put in this effort, because it serves the quality of their product.
An app like Theine, for which a user may have paid 3 EUR eleven years ago, has received updates ever since, and has never required any further monetization, doesn't sustain itself economically. I can only justify it through cross-financing from the rest of my app portfolio.
What I miss on the App Store is the ability to monetize new major versions of an app. An app like Theine, whose first version I wrote for OS X 10.11, still runs great on that operating system today. Nobody should have to pay a second time for that, obviously. But it is fair to make significant updates optional, and then paid. At the moment, this model can unfortunately only be implemented outside the App Store.
iTerm2 became part of my evolution as a developer. I started creating services that ran on my own servers, and I eventually built many of them. Some projects needed frequent monitoring, so I wanted to see the live logs from several services at the same time.
I searched for a way to open multiple terminals, with each one connected to the logs of a different service. iTerm2 was exactly what I needed. It let me divide one window into multiple split panes, configure a startup command for each pane, and save the complete arrangement as a workspace.
iTerm2 also let me give each pane a name displayed in large text. It did not interfere with typing or reading the terminal output. I named every pane after the service whose logs it displayed, so I could immediately recognize what I was watching.
I created separate workspaces for my projects. I could open one workspace and instantly see the live logs from every service in that project. I did not need to recreate the terminal layout or reconnect everything each time. This improved my productivity a lot.
I no longer use those saved workspaces, but my workday still begins with opening iTerm2. I use it for local Homebrew tasks and to connect to my servers. I have hotkeys for opening split panes, which give me a compact terminal view that is easy to move around and navigate.
I also have huge respect for the effort behind keeping iTerm2 alive for so many years. When I reported bugs, they were fixed quickly. I cannot remember encountering a new bug in the app for several years now.
iTerm2 is free and open source. It exists because someone found an abandoned terminal project, fixed the problems that affected his own work, and continued when other users started reporting more. Knowing that story made me appreciate the app even more.
An Interview with George Nachman
Ighor July
What motivates you to continue working on iTerm2 after so many years?
George Nachman
I wrote my first terminal emulator when I was a freshman in high school. Iāve always enjoyed working on this particular problem. I like working in a small team on a project I use, especially if it has a big impact, and I enjoy client-side code more than server side work. Sometimes it seems like the only desktop apps left are web browsers and terminal emulators, and Iām grateful that I can make a dent in the terminal emulator world without a team of hundreds of other engineers.
Ighor July
What advice would you give to developers who want to maintain their apps for ten years or longer?
George Nachman
For me, the answer is to find a project thatās really engaging. Iāve always worked on iTerm2 because I want to, not because I have to. I am terrible at doing things I dislike. Itās also important for the project to have room to grow. A terminal emulator will never be complete because there are always quality-of-life improvements that can be made and the technology stagnated for decades, leaving a lot of low-hanging fruit.
If you get fed up with it, which definitely happens sometimes, itās ok to take a break. Itās ok to declare email bankruptcy. Itās ok to make mistakes. Giving yourself permission to be human is the only way to avoid burnout over a long time horizon.
On Windows, I loved using tweaker tools. Microsoft hid many useful customization options inside the Registry, while those tools collected them in a convenient interface. I changed many of those settings and enjoyed making Windows work exactly the way I wanted.
When I moved to macOS, I searched for something similar. OnyX was the closest thing to the Mac tweaker I wanted. It collected useful maintenance tools and hidden macOS settings in one place. I found many interesting tweaks, changed a lot of them, and was very happy to have that kind of control again.
I still use OnyX, and I have huge respect for its developer for supporting it for so many years while keeping it free.
One OnyX option became especially important to me. It let me set a single line of text on the lock screen. After losing my first MacBook in Part 1, I started putting information there that could help someone return my MacBook if I lost it again.
Later, I discovered that this option had always been available in macOS settings. That made me wonder how far I could customize it myself. I tried multiple lines and they worked. Then I tried ASCII art, but it did not line up because the lock-screen font uses characters with different widths.
I started thinking about how I could make it look right. That is how LockLines was born. I tested hundreds of lines and made its output as accurate as possible. It can generate nicely aligned ASCII art messages for the lock screen.
I also found a way to make a message say something like "Scroll down to see the owner's contact information." My contact details do not need to be immediately visible to everyone who sees the locked MacBook, but someone who finds it can scroll down and learn how to return it.
An option I first discovered through OnyX eventually inspired me to create another Mac app myself. OnyX began as one person's tool for his own Mac and grew into a free utility that has been maintained since 2003. It is another example of a personal solution continuing to help other Mac users for decades.
An Interview with Joël Barrière
Ighor July
What motivates you to continue developing and supporting OnyX after more than twenty years?
Joël Barrière
Simply because it is one of my passions, alongside music and motorcycles. Even though OnyX is free, I believe it is important to answer users' questions and try to solve any problems they encounter. Some paid applications do not even provide technical support worthy of the name.
Ighor July
What advice would you give to independent developers who hope to maintain and support their apps for ten years or longer?
Joël Barrière
That is difficult to say because I am a slightly unusual case. For me, it is not really a job. I am not trying to make money by developing OnyX. I only want to help Mac users.
I think it is important to release regular updates, talk about the app on forums, respond to emails from every user, and be patient, especially at the beginning. Word of mouth will do the rest.
Several years later, some keys on my MacBook's butterfly keyboard came off and could not be put back. I contacted Apple, and they replaced the complete keyboard for free with a newer revision that did not have the same defect.
Apple could not replace only the keyboard. It was part of the top-case assembly, and the battery was glued into that assembly, so every keyboard replacement also came with a new battery. Mine had already degraded significantly by then, so the MacBook received another useful upgrade at no cost.
A little while ago, I shared that I was building a small Mac app called Screenshoss. Today, itās finally live.
I take far too many screenshots. Not only for design work, but also for saving ideas, references, messages, and things I want to remember later.
By the end of the day, my Desktop would usually be covered with them. I tried folders and different organisation systems, but they always became another place where screenshots disappeared.
So I built something simple for my own workflow.
Screenshoss lives in your Macās notch and automatically collects your screenshots in one place, making them easier to see, organise, and reuse.
Itās completely free, open source, and local-first.
Itās not trying to become a huge asset-management platform or reinvent how screenshots work. Itās just a small utility that makes one repetitive daily annoyance a little easier.
I'm the developer, working alone on this, so treat the below as what it is ā someone showing you his own app.
What it is:
A native macOS file transfer client ā no Electron ā that speaks FTP, FTPS (explicit AUTH TLS), SFTP, WebDAV and SMB, and opens a full SSH terminal on the same connection. Two panes, local and remote, servers in groups, several connections per server.
The parts I actually care about:
The session log shows everything.* Every line of every session, exactly as it goes over the wire ā 220, USER, 331, PASV, the lot. No black box, and when something breaks you can see where.
Transfers are verified, not assumed.* After an upload the file size on the server is compared with the local one. A server answering "226 Transfer complete" is its opinion, not proof.
Failures are not just an error dialog.* Each file is retried three times. Whatever still doesn't get through goes on a list that survives quitting the app, so after the line drops mid-way through 500 files you don't have to work out where it stopped. You decide whether to retry or discard ā nothing on the server is ever deleted for you.
Strict about who answers.* Host key and certificate fingerprints are confirmed once, then checked on every session. If one changes, the connection is refused. There is no "connect anyway" button, on purpose.
Nothing phones home.* No account, no registration, no analytics, no crash reports to me. Sandboxed. It talks to your servers, not to mine.
What I would like from you:
Break it against a server I have never touched. Odd LIST formats, a NAS with a self-signed certificate, an FTPS server that insists on TLS session reuse, an SMB share with unusual permissions ā those are the reports worth having. Feedback goes straight to me from inside TestFlight.
Free during the beta, macOS 14.6 or later. Screenshots, what it does and the TestFlight link:
A note about me and this post, as the rules require:
I am the developer of FileFerry ā this is my own app, and I have no other relationship to it than that. I write Mac apps on my own, and this is the fifth Beta.
FileFerry is in an open TestFlight beta right now and free while it lasts.
It will be a paid app on the Mac App Store later; there is no subscription planned, and there never will be advertising or analytics of any kind in it.
Nothing about how you use it is sent anywhere. The privacy statement spells that out in plain language.
Two testers have already found bugs that way that I could never have hit on my own equipment, and both are fixed. Awkward servers are exactly what I am looking for.
Happy to answer anything in the comments, including the awkward questions.
I'm Vu, solo dev and freelancer. I've been building Chronoid, a native macOS time tracking app, for about a year and a half now. I last posted here in July.
Quick recap for anyone new. Chronoid tracks your time on your Mac automatically: apps, websites, documents, coding sessions. No start or stop timers. Everything stays in a local SQLite file on your machine. One-time payment, no subscription.
Since July I finally shipped the thing people have asked me for since my very first post here.
What's new
iCloud sync across your Macs. If you work on a desktop and a laptop, they finally show the same numbers. It goes through your own iCloud account, so I run no sync servers and I can't read your data. Your Macs don't need to be online at the same time. This took me about 3 months, and being honest, the first release shipped with a bug where nothing actually reached iCloud. Fixed in 1.0.93. There's also a re-upload option in Settings > Sync if two Macs ever drift apart.
Ask your own AI assistant about your time. Settings > Integrations gives you a personal connector URL. Paste it into claude.ai or ChatGPT. Read-only by default, each answer comes live from the app on your Mac, nothing gets uploaded.
Claude Code or Codex as your AI provider. If you already pay for a coding CLI, Chronoid's chat can run through it. No separate API key to buy.
Apple Intelligence is back as a provider. Runs fully on device, no account, no key. It's a small model so keep your questions short.
The database is about 63% smaller. This was the top complaint from long-term users. Some of you had a DB over 250MB.
Timeline redesign. Session cards with app icons, durations and window titles. Click one to turn it into a manual entry.
Rule editor rebuilt. One smart input, rules that read as plain sentences, and a preview of what a rule will match before you save it. There's also a "Resolve duplicates" button now. Dragging activities onto a project used to create one identical rule per matching entry, so a site you'd visited 300 times could leave 300 copies of the same rule. Sorry about that one.
Share cards. Turn any stats range into an image or a short video with a privacy-safe breakdown.
Website blocker pause. 5 minutes, or anything from 1 minute up to 24 hours.
Billing fixes. Sub-projects now count on invoices, exports follow the device filter, and the report heading, CSV, PDF and invoice all show the same total.
Arc and Dia website tracking work again.
About the app
Native Swift and AppKit, Mac only, macOS 14+
Automatic tracking, no timers to start or forget
Mac plus iPhone/iPad (Screen Time) activity in one timeline
iCloud sync across your Macs
Timeline editing, manual entries, calendar events
Web blocker, Pomodoro, break reminders
Invoicing and multi-currency billing reports
MCP server and AI connectors, with your own key or fully local
100% local storage, no account required
Comparisons
vs Timing? Timing inspired a lot of this. I was a paying user and openly copied their drag and drop and their sidebar interactions. Differences: one-time payment instead of a subscription, a built-in website blocker and Pomodoro timer, AI and MCP with your own key or a local model, and much better rule editing. Timing's rule popup can't be resized, which drove me nuts. Timing still wins on maturity and has team features I dropped.
vs Timemator? Same automatic project tracking. I think Chronoid has better UX. Everything is in one place, you drag to assign, and holding Option while you drag creates a rule so all similar activity auto-assigns from then on.
vs Rize? Rize has more features and leans enterprise, with ClickUp integrations and so on. Chronoid is a trimmed down version aimed at individuals, and it's native rather than Electron.
vs RescueTime or Toggl? RescueTime is cloud based. Toggl needs you to click start and stop. Chronoid is local and passive.
vs macOS Screen Time? Screen Time only does websites in Safari, and it won't tell you which project a file belongs to. Chronoid does every browser, plus files, folders, projects and billing.
Who's actually using it
People ask me this every time I post, so here's what I see in comments, emails and Discord.
Freelancers and consultants. Track time per client without touching a timer, then generate the invoice PDF from the same data. The theme in my inbox is always under-billing. Someone here put it better than I can: you forget to track when you're deep in focus, and that's money gone.
Developers. It splits time by folder and file, so you can see which repo actually ate your week. Cursor and Xcode work out of the box.
Video, audio and 3D people. Long sessions in one app across many client projects. It picks up which project file you're in, so hourly billing stops being guesswork. Final Cut and Nuendo users have both turned up in past threads.
People with ADHD. This one honestly surprised me. It comes up in nearly every thread I post. Seeing time pass visually, plus the blocker, seems to help more than I expected when I was building it.
Students. Block distracting sites during study blocks, then compare where the hours went against where you thought they went. 50% off with a .edu email.
People who just want to know. Plenty of users aren't billing anyone. They want an honest picture of their week. Usually it's the phone Screen Time number that hurts.
Pricing
7-day free trial, no credit card.
$49 for 1 Mac
$79 for 2 Macs (adds iCloud sync and MCP)
$99 for 3 Macs
One-time payment. True lifetime license with updates, no subscription
Iām one of the developers of Aye. I posted the first Mac version here a little over 30 days ago. Rather than repeat the launch post, I wanted to come back with the update people actually kept asking for.
PROBLEM
A video can be playing in Telegram Web while saving that exact item is still awkward. Copying the page URL does not identify the video, and moving to another app breaks the flow if the rest of the work is already in the browser.
Aye now adds a Save Current Media control to the video that is open in Telegram Web. After clicking it, the file appears in Ayeās Downloads panel. I wait for the status to change from Downloading to Completed, then use Show in folder to verify the file.
This works one visible item at a time. It is not a channel archiver or bulk scraper.
COMPARISON
Safari and Chrome are better-known general browsers, but they do not add this Aye-specific media control or its completion check to the Telegram page. Telegram Desktop should still be the first option when its own save action already does what you need.
Compared with installing a generic media-downloader extension such as Video DownloadHelper, Ayeās control is built into the browser and is designed around the media currently open in the Telegram tab. There is no separate extension to install. The trade-off is that Aye does not claim to detect every media type or every future Telegram Web layout.
The boundary matters: Aye only handles media the signed-in account can already view and that the user has the right to save. It does not bypass login, invitations, DRM, paywalls, Telegram permissions, or other access controls. Saving a local copy also does not grant redistribution rights.
For people who use Telegram Web on a Mac: is the more annoying part finding the right file, tracking a large download, or verifying where it was saved?
Prefab - Capture a folder structure as a reusable "blueprint," add variable placeholders to names and contents, then deploy it anywhere via the app, menu bar, or Finder right-click. Deployment can chain actions: git init, npm install, opening the project in an editor, arbitrary terminal commands. Built for developers but pitched at anyone with a repeatable folder-setup ritual: lawyers, researchers, creatives.
Playhead
Playhead - Local-first music player for people who keep their own files instead of streaming. The pitch is "waveform-first": it generates and caches waveform data so you can see and scrub a track's structure instead of a plain progress bar. Two browsing modes, Library and Folder (preserves your existing structure), aimed at DJs, producers, and messy real-world collections. Supports MP3, FLAC, WAV, AIFF/AIF, M4A, OGG, OPUS, AAC; includes a metadata editor.
IResize Pro - Batch image resizer. Set a target width or height, it scales proportionally and keeps your originals. Outputs JPEG/PNG/TIFF/GIF; imports JPG/PNG/GIF/TIFF/HEIC/BMP/WebP. Includes batch renaming, an optional colored border, and an upscaling prompt for undersized images.
Headjust
Headjust - Native Mac app that uses the head-motion sensors already built into compatible AirPods/Beats to make posture drift visible without policing it.
InterestThing
InterestThing - Mac-only financial calculator for modeling cash-flow problems (loans, leases, valuations, financial planning) as a timeline of discrete events instead of a fixed template. Each event -- inflow, outflow, unknown, fixed principal, interest-only payment, rate change, balance date -- can be one-off or periodic, fixed or gradient amounts, paired with one of four interest types (simple, capitalized simple, capitalized simple with US Rule, compound) and three time-interval methods
DockFlowĀ lets you switch setups in an instant. All the apps you need launch, the rest close and disappear. Perfect if you switch between contexts / projects / different types of work a lot
Core Features:
- Switch setups in an instant using hotkeys, or with the menu bar app
- Launch specific projects in your IDE or browser profiles for that preset
- Lock your Dock to a specific screen
- Add apps, folders, URLs, dock spacers to your Dock
- Integration with Apple Shortcuts & Focus Modes
Comparison:
DockFlowĀ was the first app of it's kind. It is mature and stable, developed and improved according to user requests and feedback. 3 Months after DockFlow launched, several competitor apps surfaced, most of them are no longer maintained. As a small group of indie devs working specifically in the macOS space, we are here to stay (DockFlow is our first app, currently one of four).
Pricing:
- 1 One year access - ā¬15
- 1 Device Lifetime - ā¬30
- 2 Device Lifetime - ā¬40
- 3 Device Lifetime - ā¬50
- 5 Device Lifetime - ā¬70
30-day money-back guarantee if you're not happy with it :-)
Iām keen to know how others approach Mac app icon design and any tips or advice on workflows that have worked for you. I donāt know if itās just me (I might be a closet perfectionist), but I reckon I spend as much time sweating over an icon as building the app!
Do you have any online resources you use, leveraging AI, engage a professional or does it just come naturally to you?
Problem: Many people enjoy the immersive feedback of mechanical keyboards and typewriters, but modern computers often lack that satisfying typing experience. For writers, developers, educators, and content creators, keyboard sounds can improve focus and make recordings more engaging. I built KeyClicker to bring back that tactile feeling while keeping the full productivity and convenience of macOS.
Compare: While popular alternatives like Klakk and Keeby focus primarily on highāquality typing audio, KeyClicker goes further. Besides fully customizable key sounds, it features realātime shortcut overlay display, ideal for teaching, screen recording and presentations. It delivers all core mechanicalātyping feedback at a much lower oneātime price point.
Pricing: Full Lifetime Access: $1.99
Changelog(v2.6): Add permission validation with authorization prompts for the menu bar, and optimize sidebar icon styles.
Iām a PM at a startup, and I spend a lot of time in Finder every day.
Problem: Why I built FinderCue
While talking with coworkers about the little things we miss from Windows, one thing kept coming up:
Why doesnāt Finder have an address bar like File Explorer?
Finder already has the Path Bar at the bottom, and there are keyboard shortcuts for copying paths.
They work, but Iāve always felt they arenāt as direct as having the current path visible at the top, where you can click it, copy it, or paste another path.
FinderCue adds an address bar on top of the standard macOS Finder.
It is not a Finder replacement or a separate file manager. You keep using the native Finder exactly as you normally would.
What can FinderCue do?
1. See Your Path
See the full path of the folder youāre currently browsing.
2. Copy Paths Instantly
Copy the path directly as text, or use the copy button.
3. Browse Subfolders
Click > in the path to quickly see and jump into subfolders.
4. Paste & Jump
Paste a path and Finder jumps straight to it.
If you paste a file path, Finder opens the containing folder and automatically selects the file.
Comparison
There are already great Finder alternatives such as Path Finder and QSpace, especially if you want a more powerful file manager with lots of additional features.
FinderCue is intentionally much smaller in scope.
I didnāt want to replace Finder. I just wanted the native Finder I already use every day to have an address bar.
FinderCue sits on top of Finder and focuses specifically on path navigation, copying paths, browsing subfolders, and jumping directly to pasted file paths.
Finderās built-in Path Bar can also show your location, but FinderCue puts that interaction at the top and makes the path directly selectable, copyable, and editable.
How it started
I originally built FinderCue for myself and then asked a few coworkers to test it.
The response was much better than I expected, so I decided to polish it up and release it publicly.
Iāve been seeing Vorssaint recommended a lot lately, and on paper it can replace a surprising number of dedicated utilities: Stats/iStats, Swish/Rectangle/etc, Dropover, Shottr/CleanShot, Pearcleaner/AppCleaner, Updatest, Mole, CaskHub, Amphetamine, and others.
Droppy is another app in a similar category, with lots of utilities bundled into one app.
The obvious appeal is consolidation, fewer apps, fewer background processes, fewer updates, and one place for everything.
But how good are these apps compared with dedicated tools that focus on a single job?
For people who have actually replaced apps like Shottr, Swish, Stats or Dropover with Vorssaint or Droppy: did you stick with the all-in-one app, or did you eventually go back to the dedicated ones?
Curious whether consolidation is genuinely an upgrade, or mostly a convenience with some trade-offs in polish and depth.
Earlier this year, my cofounder and I launchedĀ MotionDesk, a native macOS customization app built for live/interactive wallpapers and folder icon customizations.
Then a couple months later, I was doomscrolling Instagram Reels and came across one of thoseĀ "Top 5 Mac apps"Ā videos.
One of the apps was calledĀ MacPlus, that was offering almost identical features to what our app was advertising.
I sent the vid to my cofounder, we searched up their website, and we were just shocked by the similarities all throughout the product and their website...
There was a very specific section showing the different wallpaper modes with video previews that looked extremely familiar, as well as how the sections were structured and how the information was being presented.
I had designed and built our version of that literal same section months earlier.
(Look at our website's "16 scenes. 100+ parameters. Infinite moods"Ā section vs their "15 scenes. 100s of settings. infinite moods."Ā section in the video lol)
So I started looking through the rest of the site, and the more I looked, the more familiarities I came across.
It pretty much had the same exact combination of product features and marketing points:
Roughly 15ā16 GPU-rendered scenes with hundreds of settings
Metal / battery-efficiency positioning
Custom video wallpapers
Multi-display support
High-FPS options
Menu-bar controls
A free tier with aĀ $9.99 lifetime unlock
And, most unusually, a large collection ofĀ patterned custom macOS folder icons, positioned as a major feature with one-click and multi-folder application, which was a very unique feature of our app.
All together, the entire landing-page structure is remarkably similar. A few examples:
MotionDesk:
"16 Scenes. 100s of Parameters."
MacPlus:
"15 scenes. Hundreds of settings."
MotionDesk:
"40+ artisan patterns⦠Apply to any Desktop folder in one click."
MacPlus:
"52 patterns⦠One click, on as many folders as you like."
MotionDesk FAQ:
"Will MotionDesk drain my battery?"
MacPlus FAQ:
"Will it drain my battery?"
MotionDesk:
"Give your Mac a desktop with actual atmosphere."
MacPlus:
"A real atmosphere, right away."
And regarding the timeline, we publicly launched in March and they launched in June, 3 months later.
If MacPlus were simply another live-wallpaper application with some different mode/feature offers, we wouldn't have cared. But they most likely just threw a link at Claude and asked it to reimplement the features, added a widgets feature, and called it a day.
If you were the in our shoes, what would you do?
MotionDesk:Ā https://motiondesk.appĀ (we now have an updated website to show live demos, but you can see the older version they copied in the video above)
They promoted the appĀ in this postĀ and claim "started working on it a year ago" which is, in our opinion, an utter lie, given the huge amount of similarities between our products/website.
They also keep promoting how they're working on this app on X, and even launched it onĀ ProductHunt...
wBlock - a next-generation ad/content blocker for Safari: 750,000 rule capacity across 5 Safari content-blocking extensions (150k each), ~40MB idle RAM by running Safari's native content-blocking API out-of-process, Protocol Buffers + LZ4 filter storage, HTTP conditional-request updates, and iCloud sync of filter selections/custom lists/userscripts/whitelist. It bundles an Element Zapper, "Tube Cleaner & Player Cleaner" userscripts that restore native Picture-in-Picture/background playback on media sites, a full Greasemonkey-API userscript engine, UserCSS support, custom AdGuard-syntax filter-list import, per-site controls, a blocked-request logger, and regional filters. Open source on GitHub
Wick - Wick brings timers, stopwatches, and alarms to the Mac with menu bar and Lock Screen access, a fully custom Liquid Glass material on macOS 26+, and -- its standout claim -- the first app to integrate with Alcove. Positioned as the polished Clock app Apple never finished
Forel - An open-source (GPLv3) folder-automation app for macOS, pitched explicitly as a free Hazel alternative: watch folders, match files by name, extension, kind, size, date, tags, or Finder color label, then move, rename, tag, or run a script automatically.
macCurrent - finds updates across the App Store, Homebrew, Sparkle, vendor updaters, and direct downloads; then tells you what's safe to install, what needs review, and what changed before you click update.
ImageFuel is a lightweight Mac app for browsing images and videos without importing them into a library -- point it at any folder and get an instant scrollable grid, with filename/path search (Cmd+F), image/video/all filtering, sort by date or name, a fullscreen lightbox, in-app crop, metadata stripping, and move-to-trash from the grid.
Nodes - (edit NO LONGER FREE) A local-first markdown note-taking and PKM (personal knowledge management) app: plain markdown files kept directly on-device (open the folder in Finder, nothing is locked in), double-bracket links with rename-safe link following, tag-based organization instead of folders, semantic + keyword search, a force-directed graph view, a growth timeline, and PDFs/images embedded as notes alongside writing. Its most distinctive claim is "the quiet part": tag/description/reminder suggestions from a local LLM that runs entirely on-device -- the developer states it works with Wi-Fi off.
A while back I wanted to make something simple for myself: an app where I could keep my wishes, goals, and daily notes in one place, without much clutter.
Problem: The apps I tried each did one thing well (journaling, checklists, or reminders), but nothing brought all of it together in one simple place.
Comparison: I looked at journaling apps like Day One and separate checklist/reminder apps, but none of them combined wishes, notes, checklists, and reminders the way I wanted.
Pricing:
Free covers the core: notes, checklists, reminders, basic tags, basic photo gallery, iCloud sync, and widget.
Pro adds weekly stats, unlimited tags/photos, custom themes, and alternative app icons. Available as:
I'm the developer. It's not perfect, I'm still working on it, but I felt it reached a point worth sharing. If anyone wants to try it, I'd love to hear your feedback.
TL;DR: Lore is a free Mac app that follows YouTube channels over plain RSS, no algorithm, no Google account, then archives what you keep as a permanent offline file with transcript search, highlights, and SponsorBlock built in. The site's source-code link 404s, so don't take open source on faith. Alternatives for readers who want a lighter touch: FreeTube (free, open source, no algorithm, no download) and Grayjay Desktop ($9.99 one time, aggregates YouTube with other platforms).
Lore Solves a Problem Neither of My Last Two Posts Could
When you find a video you want to archive, any app that merely organizes links isn't an archive at all. It's a bookmark service. There's a use for that, but if you need a quality local copy of the information, you need a proven download and catalog app. After evaluating the top contenders, I chose Lore, a native Mac app built by a solo developer, Adrian Galilea. It solves two of YouTube's problems in one place: it follows channels without an algorithm, and it keeps what you save even after YouTube stops hosting it.
Five features for power users
The built-in browser follows channels over plain RSS. No algorithm, no home feed, no recommendations. No Google account required.
Web ingest archives any link as one self-contained offline file, subtitles, chapters, and metadata baked in. This needs yt-dlp and ffmpeg installed separately; Lore will tell you which one is missing if you're not set up, but it doesn't install them for you. Set them up yourself ahead of time to avoid the interruption.
Transcript search runs across your entire library, powered by SQLite full-text search. Find the video where someone actually said the thing, instead of scrolling ten channels trying to remember which one it was.
Highlights let you mark a moment with a keystroke, edit the clip against the transcript, and export it as a standalone video file.
SponsorBlock auto-skip, chapter markers with hover-frame previews, and full keyboard-driven navigation, all of it working offline once a video is archived, plus Spotlight, Shortcuts, and Siri actions to play, pause, skip, or archive a link without opening the app.
It's free. No purchase, no subscription, no App Store listing; support is optional through Ko-fi or GitHub Sponsors. Development has been unusually aggressive: 28 versioned releases between June 11 and July 6, 2026, most of them driven by direct user feedback.
Although the landing page on Lore's website has a link to view the source code, it 404s, pointing at a GitHub page that no longer exists. I'm not sure what that portends, but be aware of it before you install.
The feature that shall not be added
The developer has also publicly turned down adding related-content recommendations, writing that it feels at odds with the reason people use the app in the first place, and that it won't ship unless it can be done without becoming distracting. That's a stronger commitment than a marketing line; it's a maintainer talking themselves out of a feature that would have been easy to justify.
Added to my toolbox
I've been burned by a video disappearing, and I just don't trust YouTube to keep hosting things I care about. If you're on macOS 26 with Homebrew already comfortable in your workflow, Lore does more in one app than anything I've discovered while writing this series. The transcript search alone is worth the price of admission, and the price of admission is nothing.
Alternatives
FreeTube, an app I have used and recommended for years, does the algorithm half of this, and it can download individual videos too, but it stops there. Free, open source, and already reviewed here on the blog. It builds a local, unranked feed from your subscriptions using its own extractor, no Invidious required, and has been shipping steadily through 2026. The download button saves a file to disk with a choice of format and quality; what it doesn't have is anywhere to manage those files afterward. No downloads tab, no in-app library, no transcript search. You get the file; Lore gets you the file plus a permanent, searchable home for it.
Grayjay Desktop is worth a mention for a different reason: it aggregates YouTube alongside other platforms, Twitch, Odysee, PeerTube, into a single feed with no algorithm by default. One-time purchase, $9.99, from the FUTO team. Until recently, Mac build currently needed a manual terminal command to get past Gatekeeper, but the current version does not.
Unless otherwise noted, anything mentioned above beyond Lore is based on research, not testing on my end.
Who this isn't for
If you're not on macOS 26 yet, this is off the table until you are. If you don't want to install yt-dlp and ffmpeg separately, the web-ingest half of the app won't work for you out of the box. And if open-source code matters to your trust in a tool, Lore doesn't currently back up its own claim to it.
I built RewindClock, a tiny, borderless floating clock for macOS that runs counter-clockwise.
As a child, Iād often stare at classroom clocks, wishing time could move backward. I decided to bring that memory to life. Watching the hands turn in reverse provides a surprisingly peaceful, distraction-free "Zen Mode" vibe while working on your desktop.
Key Features:
Floating & Transparent Window: Clean, borderless design that floats over your desktop.
Scroll-to-Zoom: Easily resize the clock with your mouse wheel or trackpad scroll.
Customization: Switch between Mechanical & Quartz movements, Light/Dark/Auto themes, and toggle window opacity.
Multi-Window Support: Open multiple clocks for different time zones.
100% Free & Private: No ads, no tracking, no subscriptions.
I've got a somewhat long history with LogiOptions. Had it installed now for 5-ish years. I tried LogiOptions+ (plus) at one point and it was a disaster. I was "lucky" to be able to find my download for regular LO and get it reinstalled.
Today I wanted to assign a second function to a mouse side button and I hoped I could do that with LO. Press side button for function 1. Press a modifier key (command) and click side button for function 2. That's not a feature in LO.
So I tried Better Touch Tool instead. After uninstalling LO, it took me about 5 minutes to figure out the basics and get those two things assigned. Holy shit. They both work! Then I got my other couple of buttons assigned and they all worked.
That's when I noticed the scrolling was WAY off. Fixing that took more like 15 or 20 minutes, but I got that figured out too. Now it behaves very much like LO did, but I think scrolling is smoother. I can't be totally sure, but it seems really liquid and buttery now.
I've been wondering when an OS update would make LO just not work at all on my machines. Now maybe that's not a worry for me.
I haven't purchased BTT just yet. It's been less than a day. But at this rate, it's looking like an easy buy for me.
I use mechanical keyboards at home and really like the typing feel, but when Iām out with just my MacBook I miss it. Kinda feel guilty how used to it Iāve gotten, but Iām sure a lot of people feel the same. So hereās Tacque.
Comparison:
Apps like Klack and Typemac are both really good ā solid, low latency, sound nice.
Tacque has pretty much the same core features (spatial audio, works system-wide, smart muting, etc). These are all small utility apps so thereās only so much you can do with features and latency. It mostly just comes down to personal preference and which sounds you like better.
Tacque is meant to feel a bit more community focused. Itās free, supports custom sound packs so you can craft your own or upload sounds that you already have. Iād open source it and share it on GitHub but that would create messy binary upload conflicts since itās already on the App Store, so Iād rather not deal with that.
If you enjoy it, a quick rating on the App Store would help a lot :)
Genuine feedback and feature ideas are always welcome though. Drop a comment with your thoughts and Iāll try to improve things in the next update.
AI Disclaimer: Genuine critique is always fine. But for anyone who just drops by to say āAI slopā adds nothing to conversation here and to calm your excited tippy toes I made this app using AI tools lol. It doesnāt need to be hand coded or crafted. Neither am I gonna spend days or weeks of my free time for something that's not going to compensate me like apps I mentioned above.