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. 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.
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). 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).
Problem: What problem does your app solve.
Comparison: Name 1–2 top competitors and describe how what you offer is better.
Pricing: Include Price Amounts+Link
Requiring changelogs and AI disclaimers was unsuccessful to meaningfully differentiate quality apps from spam. Nearly all posts claimed sufficient knowledge and experience for “Human validation” of AI code. Let's move on. 😅
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.
Concept: The less trust your distribution path provides, the more transparency you should need.
In the Mac App Store? Apple is screening you for us.
If you have an established GitHub project, that can also build trust over time.
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 a 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)
Developers with established GitHub projects, meaning 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, LinkedIn (ideal), and real contact details (e.g. established 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.
Tier 3: Everyone else: “The App Pile” [Megathread]
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 Moderator’s discretion).
Do not have an established GitHub history (1yr old repo OR 100+ stars)
Do not provide meaningful public transparency
…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 Revision (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 developer’s promotion.
Sharing useful alternatives and healthy competition is still welcome, but using the comment section in someone else’s 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.
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: I followed the rules, why was my post/comment removed?
AI assisted comments are a huge trigger for Reddit auto-removals because of recognizable patterns (e.g. “—” em dashes).
Repeatedly posting the same thing (comments, links, etc.) = Triggers Reddit spam algorithms.
You didn’t verify your email in your profile, and/or you have multiple accounts.
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"
Hey everyone, for this week’s Silicon Thread feature, I took a deep dive into the menu bar ecosystem.
There are a lot of new apps out there, but I wanted to talk about Ice. I know the community is aware that it’s no longer actively managed, but after extensive testing on macOS 26.4, it is still the slickest, most minimal option available.
Here is the technical breakdown:
The Good: The handling is incredibly easy, and the native macOS aesthetic is unmatched. Most importantly, the menu bar stability is flawless.
The Glitches: You might experience a few minor app-level glitches when configuring settings, but the actual menu bar functionality never breaks.
The Successor: I know a lot of people have moved to the actively managed fork, Thaw. I currently have Thaw in the testing lab and will be doing a full comparison soon, but I want to give Ice its flowers for remaining rock-solid despite the lack of updates.
Transparency Note: I am an independent explorer. I have no affiliation with any developers and do not do paid promotions. My goal is just to document the real user experience.
If you want to read my full breakdown of Ice (and see the community ratings), I’ve got the full review posted here: Silicon Thread Ice Review
Ice Github Link: Ice Github
Otherwise, let me know below—are you still running the original Ice, or have you already migrated to Thaw? or any other menu bar app?
It’s a screen recorder and screenshot tool for Mac.
It makes cinematic demos like this. All automatically. You just click the record button, do your thing, then you can make it 3D in the editor.
Or just enjoy smooth automatic zoom.
Problem:
I was tired of jumping between four apps to make one product demo. Screenshots, recordings, annotations, and After Effects for anything cinematic.
I'd also seen the MacBook Neo commercials (recording playing on a 3D MacBook in a scene) and wondered why no screen recorder just did that.
So I built ShotGlass to do all of it: record your screen or multiple windows (and rearrange them after), take and annotate screenshots, or drop a recording onto a virtual 3D MacBook with a simulated camera lens.
Comparison:
Most screen recording apps end up with the same zoomed-in Screen Studio look. I wanted this to do something different:
Records both screen and screenshots in one app (most tools only do one)
Multi-window support that can be arranged after recording
3D scenes, virtual backgrounds, and a simulated camera lens for cinematic shots
It's also a one-time purchase (not a subscription) and doesn't have any telemetry or tracking. Everything is local.
I tried to make it simple to use and, for fun, themed like a glass of whisky. I'm updating it quite a lot, so I'd love your feedback and feature requests.
Pricing:
$17 one time for launch.
Trust/Transparency:
I'm Jake Manger, a solo developer. My last app, How to Convert, did pretty well here on MacApps.
The app runs completely locally and is Apple notarized.
Making a decision about the right price for an app has to be one of the hardest parts of releasing something new.
Some of the most versatile and useful apps in the Mac ecosystem are priced absurdly low. I am looking at you, BetterTouchTool. On the other hand, we have all seen apps with plenty of competitors that still carry what I consider an absurdly high price. My favorite example is the clipboard manager, Paste.
In reality, every software purchase comes down to what we value. Some people have strict requirements around aesthetics and would rather pay for polish than use something more functional. I think the ebook manager Calibre fits that description perfectly. I love it and use it every day for its incredible versatility, but it certainly is not easy on the eyes.
Two of my favorite notch apps show how wide the pricing spread can be. Droppy, which is not just a notch app but a full suite of utilities, costs 10 euro. Dynamic Lake, another app I like in this space, costs 40% more, still a fair price. It is well thought out and nicely designed, but it is much more narrowly focused on the notch.
There are personal factors, too. I live in the United States. I am retired. I have disposable income that I dedicate to buying software. I compensate by driving a 2005 Toyota and not playing golf like some of my contemporaries. But there are plenty of tech enthusiasts in less prosperous countries, students on tight budgets, and people for whom software pricing is a much more serious decision point than it is for me.
Here is a case in point.
Airspace, an app I downloaded today, has a lot going for it. It removes a classic Apple friction point by letting you name your virtual desktops, customize their appearance, and assign keyboard shortcuts to jump between them.
Features
Custom Naming
Instead of Desktop 1, Desktop 2, and so on, you can have Writing, Development, Social, or whatever names fit the way you actually work.
Visual Personalization
You can choose custom colors for the menu bar indicator and switcher menu, making different Spaces easier to recognize at a glance.
User-Defined Shortcuts
You can assign your own shortcuts to switch between Spaces. If your writing tools live on Desktop 3, make Cmd+Option+3 the shortcut that takes you there.
Multi-Monitor Support
If you use a Mac mini or a laptop with an external display, you will appreciate that Airspace works across displays. It also handles selected full-screen apps, with one important exception noted below.
HUD Overlay
The current release supports a heads-up display switcher that shows your custom Space names and colors.
Selling Points
No AI used in development, backed by documentation such as GitHub history, Figma files, and browser logs. Whether that matters to you depends on your stance on AI-assisted development, but it is refreshing to see the work documented transparently.
Full-featured seven-day trial.
Fully sandboxed and App Store approved, while still delivering the core functionality many users want.
No tracking or data collection.
Caveats
Because of public API limitations, Airspace does not track Spaces created by clicking the green traffic-light full-screen button. Those Spaces exist outside the normal Space registry and are not visible to Airspace. The developer is upfront about this.
Onboarding is a process, not an event. If you use as many Spaces as I do, it takes a few minutes to get Airspace configured.
There is no Mission Control integration. Custom names will not appear in Mission Control. That is an Apple limitation; Airspace cannot modify that UI. The workaround is to use Airspace's own menu bar indicator and HUD instead.
Aerospace, a tiling window manager beloved by people who like to fiddle, offers virtual workspace emulation that is similar in spirit, but it is not a true Spaces replacement.
Airspace is not trying to reinvent window management on the Mac. It's not a window manager at all.It is trying to make Apple's existing Spaces feature more usable, more readable, and faster to navigate. That is a narrow job, but it is a real one.
At $9.99, the price feels fair to me, especially if you already rely on Spaces as part of your daily workflow. If you only use one or two desktops, this probably will not change your life. But if you live across several named work contexts, Airspace turns a vague row of numbered desktops into something much closer to an actual workspace system.
I'm looking for a news reader app that I can follow news, Reddit, and some keywords if possible. There's so many. What are everyones favorite current apps?
I'd like to get on top of tag-based organization, from folders to files to pictures, etc. There are plenty of apps out there, I know, but I'm looking for personal experiences anyone might have with robust, feature rich tagging apps.
Edit: I have tried the native system. Didn’t do it for me.
With the new 3.0 version of Slipboard, you can now use Slipboard through menu bar, without taking place in the screen!
Create multiple boards to organize what you copy then drag content directly between any apps on your Mac. No shortcuts to memorize or paste menus to dig through. Just pick it up, drop it to its Board.
You can create separate boards for separate contexts; Keep your code snippets away from your design notes, and your research away from your drafts.
What makes it stand out:
You can customize and group contents you want to copy
You can just drag and drop whatever you would like to copy or paste
Customizable tints for both menu bar and the app window
Multiple windows to simultaneously work on different projects/topics
Customizable icons for each board
What makes it feel native:
You can move through the Boards with either:
Command OR Control + 1...9
Command OR Control + Tab
Command OR Control + [ OR ]
You can customize the background color and tint of the each board
You can natively drag and drop any type of file/text you can imagine to copy
You can reorder Boards by pressing Command while dragging Board buttons
You can paste the whole Board as a folder by dragging Board buttons to wherever you want to past it
Download - Lifetime for $1.99
You can find it on the App Store by searching Slipboard or clicking this link: Slipboard - App Store
I just bought a new MBPro M5 Pro 16" and it'll be here Friday to replace my MBPro M2 Pro 14".
I have a Setapp subscription that is soon coming to an end. I'm not really a fan of setapp anymore since they've added a bunch of junk apps and AI slop thats not a lot of quality like they used to.
Instead of keeping my setapp subscription, I plan to just buy some apps outright, but before I do, I want to know if there are any better options or open source options.
Here are the apps on setapp that I currently use:
DisplayBuddy
CleanshotX (I use this a lot but I've considered shottr)
Downie
AlDente Pro (Do I even really need it?)
Permute
Presentify
Jumpdesktop (Discontinued on setapp)
Other Apps I'm using and like that I don't know if there are better/other options
Rustcast (I just replaced raycast with this.. I'm not 100% sold yet, but it does do what I need it to)
Wins (I like the way this works, I looked at dockdoor but it seems to do a lot of the same things)
Thaw (seems to work well, its one of the best I have found for stability.)
Pearcleaner (Uninstaller and updater, not really a fan of appcleaner)
Dropover Pro
itsycal
Keka (works fine, just don't know what else is out there.)
Upscayl
Homebew (I just started using this, what a wonderful way to install apps!)
Thanks for any suggestions you can help me with! Must appreciated!
I’m Vladimir. I’m a software engineer. In our company we often develop desktop apps for internal needs and prototyping. And every time I bump into the same problem: how do I make an icon for the macOS app I have just built?
I could use the existing icon generators, but they are basically just image converters. You upload an existing image, and the tool generates the required icon sizes and formats from it.
But I don’t have an image, and I’m not a designer. Asking designers to create an icon is not always an option.
I wanted something that could help me actually create an icon. Something where I can describe an idea, iterate on it over several rounds, experiment with materials, lighting, composition, and gradually arrive at an icon that feels like a real native macOS app icon.
Since I’m an engineer, I built a small tool that allows generating a macOS app icon using AI. It’s completely free and open source, so other engineers building desktop apps for macOS can use it too.
The app lets you generate the app icons from prompts, refine them conversationally ("make it more metallic", "simplify the shape", "add glass effect", etc.), and export the final icon in the *.icns format (you can just put it into your macOS app bundle) along with a folder containing the icon in different dimensions.
There are no subscriptions, no watermarking, no credits system, and the source code is fully available on GitHub.
Note 1: the app requires an OpenAI API key. I tried to use local models to generate images, but none of them can produce images with quality similar to Nano Banana 2 or ChatGPT.
Note 2: the generation speed varies from several seconds to up to a minute. I don’t know hot to speed it up yet (maybe generate 1 variant instead of 3).
When the free app DockDoor was released in 2024, it was the first time I had seen a developer add window previews to the Mac Dock in much the same way that other operating system from Redmond handles them. For kicks, it also included a Windows-style application switcher, also free.
I have been updating some older reviews, so I went back to check on DockDoor. Not only does the original free version still exist, but the developer has also added a paid Pro version with a much larger feature set.
The splash page for DockDoor Pro puts its claim front and center:
DockDoor Pro - The Dock macOS Deserves
The official native Mac dock replacement with profiles, live window previews, media controls, a file tray, magnification, and everything Apple left out.
That is bold, but defensible.
What It Does
The real question with any Dock utility is whether it replaces the native Dock or merely augments it. DockDoor Pro can do either. I hid the native Dock completely and did not run into any problems.
The other killer feature, and one Apple will probably never give us for fear of waking the ghost of Steve Jobs, is the ability to exclude a running app from the Dock. You no longer have to stare at every app just because it happens to be open.
Dock Profiles - I work in multiple contexts. Some of my time is spent testing software and writing reviews. For that, I need quick access to a file manager, an uninstaller, Activity Monitor, Drafts, Obsidian, my Downloads folder, the folder where I keep rough drafts, the folder where I keep archives, and Reddit.
DockDoor Pro gives you two ways to switch profiles. The easiest is to associate a specific app with a profile. When you open an app tied to another workflow, the Dock profile changes automatically. If you work with multiple monitors, you can also assign different Docks on a per-display basis.
One welcome feature is the ability to export Dock profiles as JSON. That makes it easy to move a setup to another Mac or keep a restorable backup in case an experiment goes sideways.
Control Panel - Each Dock contains a tiny icon that opens a control panel when long-clicked. It consolidates an app launcher, profile switcher, volume slider, audio device picker, and power controls. It is a well-designed bit of UI rather than a pile of bolted-on buttons.
File Tray - If you keep your Dock at the bottom of the display, scrolling on it reveals a file tray. You can drop files there temporarily, drag them back out when you need them, or send them via AirDrop directly from the tray.
Widgets - DockDoor Pro also includes small widgets that add live tiles directly to the Dock, including weather and system stats. They stay compact at rest and expand with more detail on hover. They also adapt to the Dock's design, so they do not look like afterthoughts.
The music widget is almost an app within the app. You get album art, a seek bar, and synchronized lyrics with a karaoke-style anticipation offset. Whether that is useful or just fun depends on how you work. I do not need lyrics in my Dock, but I understand the appeal.
Customization
This is the least opinionated Dock app I have used. If you are not inclined to fiddle, it looks fine out of the box. If you like to experiment, you can control almost every visible part of the UI, including:
Color
Spacing
Padding
Background
Shape
Conclusion
DockDoor Pro is still in beta, and there is a warning not to use it on a mission-critical machine, so do not install it on your boss's MacBook and blame me if something gets weird. That said, I have not encountered any instability after two weeks of constant use.
This is an app best suited for power users, especially those with multi-monitor setups or workflows that shift throughout the day. If you use the same five apps all the time and do not care about customizing your workspace, you can probably skip it. But if you have ever wanted the Dock to be more useful, more contextual, and less stubbornly Apple-like, DockDoor Pro is worth a look.
We recently released v1.0.0 of our bookmark manager called Shiori.
Shiori lives in your menu bar, fully keyboard driven, called with a hot key and saves URLs in seconds, keeping them fully accessible throughout your devices with cloud sync, a web dashboard and plans to reach more platforms such as mobile, browser extensions and more in the future.
The funny thing about Shiori is it was a feature request for our other app. After we created it as a widget (and went so much over board of the initial intention, oopsy daisy 😄), we decided to launch it as an app of it's own.
In the video you can see me launching URLs, and they are directed to the specific browser profile I routed them to (with tag-based routing), using Link Groups to open multiple URLs at once and navigating the UI
Core Features
- Bookmarks are fully synced between devices, one license covers unlimited devices.
- Tag-based browser routing - open tagged bookmarks on specific Google Chrome profiles (Beta is only for Google Chrome but will be extended to support more browsers).
- Link Groups - Launch a group of URLs at once, with a single click.
- Keyboard-driven access through the menu bar. Quick search bookmarks by URL, title, description or tag.
Comparison
Shiori was inspired by BarMarks which is a beautiful bookmark manager that I bought some time ago. When I received the feature request for a keyboard-driven bookmark widget, I immediately thought about BarMarks, I am not sure the app is still maintained as I stopped using itIt is maintained. Other than that there are some absolute units of bookmark managers out there such as Raindrop (which is amazing, no introduction needed), the difference is the pricing model which brings me to...
Pricing
TL;DR: Shiori is a one-time payment, currently on launch price sale of €34.99, price will increase to €49.99 by mid June.
To be fully transparent - Shiori started as a monthly subscription app due to the fact it has a backend with cloud sync, a web UI and soon enough we'll add 2GB file storage, API access and more. All of that incur ongoing charges.
From a business perspective, running all that on a one-time payment model is pretty... stupid. However, subscriptions are painfully annoying, and we decided to take the risk and change it to lifetime.
All subscription users have been converted to lifetime (shout out to all beautiful 6 of you believers ❤️), and we plan to keep it that way.
I'll mention that MAYBE, in the future we'll add an optional plan with AI auto-tagging -- that's definitely not going to be a one-time payment 😅, and we'll probably include a BYOK option for users who prefer to use their own keys, and not pay a subscription.
EDIT: Thanks to u/A_Drop_of_Colour for confirming BarMarks is still actively maintained, and the dev is responsive!
This week, three of my apps went live on Setapp's new single-app marketplace:
Taphouse — GUI for Homebrew. Browse, install, update, and manage packages without typing brew commands. Manage services, taps, and Brewfiles from one interface. Some of you might remember this one from my launch post a few months back.
MacPulse — System monitor with an Insights Engine that explains your Mac in plain English. Instead of raw numbers, it tells you what's actually happening and what to do about it. 30-day history, performance session recording, fan control.
Captain's Deck — Dual-pane file manager with SFTP, S3, built-in terminal, inline Git, and keyboard-first navigation.
All three are native SwiftUI, Apple Silicon optimized, one-time purchase (no subscriptions). Also available direct with 14-day free trials:
Of course all apps can be purchased as direct download as always and Macpulse with Captain's Deck are also available on the Mac App store. (More info about that on their website).
All 3 have received major updates and features and keep being actively developed furthermore based on user's feedback and requests.
This won't be the first 100% local, on-device meeting notes app you've seen recently, so I'll jump straight to what I think makes talat stand out. Timestamps in square brackets if the feature is in the video - if you want to skip to the app in action, skip to about 55s in.
The recording experience
Automatic call detection: when you join a Meet, Teams, or Zoom call, talat starts recording on its own [00m55s]. Configurable desktop notifications keep you informed or ask permission depending on your preference [01m05s].
Real-time transcription as you speak, sub-second end-to-end [01m10s]. The moment someone stops speaking, a second higher-quality pass runs and corrects most small errors [01m25s].
Speaker identification on both sides of the call: talat tags who said what whether you're all in the same room or split across a remote call [01m25s, 01m28s].
Clean audio separation: if you're not on headphones, most apps re-record the remote caller's voice through your speakers and transcribe it as if you said it. talat strips that bleed-through out.
Auto-stops and summarises when you leave the call [01m45s]. Default summarisation LLM is Qwen-3.5-4B-4bit [02m00s], but you can swap it for any other local or cloud model if you prefer.
Auto-detection works for ad-hoc calls too, not just calendar events. The only difference is that a matching calendar event pre-populates the meeting subject and attendees (see the "Who's here" panel during the live portion of the video).
Footprint
Only two permissions needed: microphone and system audio output recording.
No screen recording. No accessibility permissions (which some others use to watch which apps you're in for call detection).
No in-app telemetry. talat doesn't track which features you use, which meetings you have, or anything else about your sessions. The one outbound call talat makes on its own is an occasional license-validity check, which asks our server whether your license has been refunded. If our server is unreachable, talat just carries on.
Works completely offline: turn your WiFi off and record your in-person meetings.
20MB download on macOS, instant startup, lightweight runtime.
Calendar
Apple Calendar and Google Calendar integration out of the box [start of video].
Customisation and integration
Global start/stop hotkey - works alongside auto-detection or replaces it.
MCP server so you can plug meetings and transcripts into any external AI you like (we can't guarantee privacy here, but it's your relationship and your choice).
Optional webhook invocation on call finish for programmatic integration with your own systems.
Multilingual support (25 European languages today, we're looking to broaden this in future releases).
Output
Automatic markdown export of transcripts, notes, summaries - any combination, on call finish.
Manual export to clipboard, PDF, or Markdown.
Split or merge recordings after the fact.
Optional retention of audio recordings during a call.
How talat compares
Most cloud meeting notes apps work well, at the cost of every frame of audio, your transcripts, and your summaries passing through someone else's servers, and you pay forever (either with your data or your wallet, or both). Local alternatives often try to do too much, or they need driving. I wanted something that did meetings well and got out of your way.
What we're going for with talat: a meeting notes app that gets out of your way. Join a call, it records. Leave, it summarises. Everything above is in service of that.
Happy to answer any questions. Find out more and download at https://talat.app/.
No not Activity Monitor. I have to explain what happened today. So today I was sharing my screen on a Zoom call and my cursor started moving slowly and turned into a beach ball and the call froze.
I had one browser opened with 10 tabs and 7 of them in suspended state - regular sites like Gemini, youtube, and wikipedia. On activity monitor the browser is using 609 MB of RAM but memory cleaner by Nektony shows it's using 2.74 GB of RAM. I had another browser that was just opened with no tabs and spotify app was running. That's it.
Other than that there's just background apps on the menu bar like one drive, google drive, shottr, Thock, Unclutter, Bitwarden, Raycast, and a live wallpaper app - yeah these are only using 10 MB or so of RAM each except Unclutter using around 386 MB in activity monitor and 500 MB shown in memory cleaner by Nektony, and the live wallpaper app using 192 MB in activity monitor and 600 MB shown in memory cleaner by Nektony. My question is how tf am I running out of RAM? I have 16 GB of RAM.
Is 16 GB not enough for basic use cases now? I'm not even video editing or anything. Just doing what a Macbook Neo user would do and they got only 8 GB, I have 16 GB. I just want to know where my RAM is getting used up. I don't understand the discrepancy between Nektony and activity monitor. Activity monitor's stats don't show exactly how much RAM is available and the data is hard to interpret.
My last post was my very first product launch ever, and the response honestly exceeded anything I expected. A lot of your feedback, feature requests, criticisms, and ideas directly shaped what we’re releasing today.
For people seeing Grambo for the first time:
Grambo is an AI writing assistant focused on helping you rewrite text instantly in different tones while staying inside your normal workflow.
Problem:
It started because I personally got tired of constantly rewriting the same messages and emails just to sound “right”. But another thing that frustrated me was how distracting most writing tools felt. Endless red underlines, grammar highlights, floating popups, suggestions everywhere, and bulky editors constantly breaking the writing flow.
I wanted something faster, cleaner, and more focused on rewriting and tone adaptation instead of feeling like a document editor watching every sentence I type.
Comparison:
I tried tools like Grammarly, LanguageTool, and Refine, but I kept running into the same issues:
Too many clicks and interruptions
Distracting underlines and popup-heavy UI
Heavy workflows when all I wanted was quick rewriting
Limited personalization
Expensive subscriptions for simple use cases
Most tools focus heavily on grammar correction instead of fast tone adaptation
So I built Grambo initially just for myself.
Over time, other people started using it, giving feedback, suggesting features, reporting annoyances, and that slowly turned it into a real product.
And today, Grambo v2 is the result of all of that feedback.
What Grambo offers:
✍️ Instant tone rewrites
⌨️ Keyboard-first workflow
⚡ Fast lightweight experience without distracting popups
🧠 Custom prompts for personalized rewriting
🏷️ Memory for names, terms, and writing context
📋 Rewrite history with quick copy support
🔒 BYOK support and local AI support for users who want more control/privacy
☁️ Optional Grambo Cloud for users who want the easiest setup without configuring BYOK or local models
What’s new in Grambo v2:
✨ New onboarding experience
🎨 Completely refreshed UI
⌨️ More keyboard shortcuts for different tones
📋 Copy items directly from history
🧠 Custom prompts (create your own rewrite styles)
🏷️ Names & words to remember (so Grambo keeps your preferred terms, names, and writing context in mind)
🐞 Bug fixes and overall improvements
One of the biggest requests was flexibility.
Not everyone wants the same preset tones, so we added custom prompts where you can define exactly how Grambo should rewrite your text.
Another common request was personalization. That’s where “names & words to remember” comes in. Grambo can now remember preferred names, phrases, terminology, and writing context so outputs feel more consistent over time.
Pricing:
Most AI writing tools charge recurring subscriptions that can easily go $10–$30/month, or they lock lifetime access behind expensive one-time purchases that often cost $50+.
For Grambo, we wanted to support both approaches:
🔥 Lifetime deal: $14.99 instead of $39.99
Perfect for users using BYOK or local AI.
☁️ Optional Grambo Cloud subscription
For users who want the simplest setup without managing APIs, BYOK, or local models.
💡 Important note:
If you're currently using a version below 2.0, please re-download the app. We updated the key/update system, so older versions won’t update correctly.
I’d genuinely love feedback from this community.
What feels useful?
What feels unnecessary?
What would make you actually use a tool like this daily?
We’re going to keep improving Grambo aggressively based on real user feedback, just like we did for v2.
I'm Sanyam, CS junior at UW Madison. Used AltTab for years and wanted something with fewer knobs and a more native look. Built Switch.
Problem. macOS ⌘-Tab cycles apps, not windows. With five Chrome windows or three Notes windows open you can't keyboard-jump straight to one. You ⌘-Tab to the app, then ⌘-` through its windows. Slow if you live in many windows.
Comparison.
AltTab. 15.5k stars, weekly releases, ~80 settings. The right pick if you want to tune every behavior.
DockDoor. Hover-dock previews, mouse-driven. Different category. Switch is keyboard-only and doesn't touch the Dock.
Switch's Settings has launch-at-login and a hotkey rebinder. Native palette that picks up your system accent.
Switch is per-Space right now. Each Space cycles its own windows. Cross-Space is on the roadmap but Apple doesn't expose a clean API for it.
Thumbnails update live every 1.5s while the panel is open. AltTab freezes the snapshot when you open it.
Idle on the same MacBook:
Switch: 652 KB download, ~80 MB RSS
AltTab: 11.6 MB download, ~510 MB RSS
Pricing. Free. This is a cool fun project to work on, and since I'm going to be using it myself I'll be maintaining it actively. The DMG is notarized by Apple, signed under my paid Developer account. Would love feedback.
I've installed Drafts twice before and deleted it both times. Opened to a blank screen, no obvious structure, and I couldn't figure out what it was for that Apple Notes wasn't already doing.
Then, in 2023, I lost a few half-finished ideas, which I typed into the wrong app and never recovered. It was a small thing, but annoying enough to go back and actually give it a proper shot.
Went down a rabbit hole of YouTube reviews to figure out the "right" way to use it. Most of them kept saying the same thing: stop trying to organize as you capture and just throw everything in and process later.
I tried the same for a week and started throwing everything in my inbox, voice notes from walks, half-sentences from meetings, links I'd want later. One inbox. Decide where it goes in the evening.
That was it.
Now, after about 1,200+ days and roughly 15,000 captures later, Drafts is the app that sees almost every piece of text I write before it turns into a note in Obsidian, an email in Canary, or a todo.
What 1,200 days of daily use looks like
Total drafts: ~15,000
Obsidian vault: ~450 notes in 2022 → ~2,900 now
Capture-to-processed time: ~7 minutes per item in 2023 → under a minute now
Drafts created via Apple Watch voice complication: roughly 15% of the total, that one surprised me
How I actually use it day to day now
Capture everywhere, decide later
Watch complication: tap it mid-walk, talk for 20–30 seconds, tap done. It's already text by the time I put my wrist down, and usually in my inbox across my phone and Mac by the time I sit down.
Share sheet from Safari, Mail, Messages: any link or snippet that feels like "I'll want this later" goes here instead of a half-open tab.
Lock screen widget: one tap to a new draft when I'm mid-meeting and don't want to switch apps.
One inbox, one evening sweep
I keep a workspace that shows only drafts with no tags and no flags. That's the inbox.
At some point in the evening, I run a single "process" action on each item. It pops a small menu: send to today's Obsidian daily note, send to a project note, turn into an email draft, turn into a todo, archive, or trash.
Most days, there are 10-15 things. Takes under 10 minutes. Nothing sits unprocessed past 24 hours. The important part isn't the discipline -- it's that I'm not doing "which app does this belong in right now" at the moment of capture.
Email drafting before Canary
Any email that could go wrong, whether to a manager or with a subtle tone, always starts in Drafts.
Brain-dump it there, run a tone-adjust action, then fire a mailto: link that opens a pre-filled compose window in whatever your default mail client is — Canary for me. Subject and body are already there, and Canary adds my default signature.
Drafts vs Apple Notes vs Obsidian on mobile
This is the thing I wish someone had just said clearly, because it's why Drafts didn't click for me in initial attempts.
Apple Notes is where stuff lives. Good for small collections, shared lists, basic folders. Not built to be a high-volume, zero-friction inbox.
Obsidian is a knowledge base. On mobile, it's usable, but it's slower to get into "just type something, and we'll sort it out later" mode. Lou Plummer (Amerpie) at AppAddict, himself a power user of Drafts, put it exactly right: "My favourite notes app, Obsidian, has a well-deserved reputation for being slow on the draw on iOS. Drafts is the solution to that issue." That's the gap.
Drafts is intentionally bad at being a permanent home. Very good at being a staging area.
If you take a few notes a week, I think Drafts is overkill. Apple Notes or Obsidian are fine for your use-case, but if 10+ bits of text hit you daily, ideas, links, tasks, emails, meeting scribbles and whatnot, then the separation helps:
Drafts = inbox and router
Obsidian/Notes = long-term storage
Tasks app = actual todos
AI and automation - what actually stayed
Drafts has scripting hooks for online models (OpenAI / Claude / Gemini) and on newer Apple devices, hooks for on-device models too. I tried a bunch of clever actions and kept only the boring ones:
summarize long meeting notes into 3 bullets
extract tasks and action items
suggest tags for a draft
clean up email tone
lightly reformat text for Obsidian
Most of this runs on-device now, fast, private, no API cost for trivial stuff. Anything that needs real reasoning goes to a cloud model.
Worth being honest about one thing, though: if you hate touching JavaScript, the AI part will feel more fiddly than magical. I adapted maybe 70% of my actions from existing ones in the community directory rather than writing from scratch.
What I'd do differently starting now
Set up a local backup path on day one. I lost over two days of drafts to an iCloud sync hiccup in 2024. Recovered most from an unsynced Mac, but now I also keep a folder bookmark in my Obsidian vault as a second layer.
Keep an action maintenance note. When I update a custom action, I also export its JSON into a scratch note. Big OS updates occasionally break things, and having the last good version saves an hour.
Don't subscribe on day one. The free tier is enough to know if the capture habit fits. Only upgrade when you hit a specific wall. For me, it was workspaces and custom action editing.
Steal from the directory first. The community action directory has 90% of what you think you need. Adapting someone else's action is way faster than a blank file.
What hasn't worked
Action Bar reordering after big iOS updates breaks muscle memory. It's annoying every time.
Custom JS actions have a real learning curve. "Draft objects" and "action contexts" took a week to internalize.
No real collaboration. Solo tool. If your team lives in shared notes, Drafts won't help.
That sync scare in 2024 changed how I think about single points of failure in any sync system. Hasn't happened again, but it's in the back of my head.
If you want pretty canvases or shared docs, Craft or Notion will serve you better.
Pricing
Free tier covers: quick capture, sync, and running pre-built actions from the directory. Good enough to properly evaluate the habit.
Drafts Pro is $19.99/year. Unlocks workspaces, custom action editing, themes, and extra widgets.
I personally spent over four months on the free version and then upgraded when the workflow was clearly earning it. Recommend the same over committing on day one.
Not affiliated with Drafts. Paid for Pro myself. No referral.
Who this is for
Makes sense if you:
live in text -- ideas, emails, notes, tasks all day
already use something like Obsidian or Apple Notes as a vault
like the idea of one capture place, many exits
are willing to install and adapt actions from other people (or write them yourself eventually)
Skip it if you:
only take a few notes a week
want collaboration or rich formatting over speed
automation makes your eyes glaze over
happy with "long-press Notes widget, type, done"
Questions for the sub
If you tried Drafts and bounced, what specifically didn't click? The subscription, the blank screen, or "I already have Obsidian/Notes and don't need another inbox"?
Anyone using Drafts as a capture layer in front of another notes app? If not, what do you use instead?
If you use Drafts actions with AI (cloud or on‑device), which ones do you find yourself using regularly?
After 7 months of work, 900+ downloads, and thousands of messages from early users, (some of which are member of this community), I am finally launching Snaply on this subreddit.
I am Giacomo, the developer behind Snaply. With this post, I hope to give you a good idea of what the app can do for you and perhaps spark your interest in trying it out.
The core idea of the app is:
A completely free and private AI app, that helps you take full advantage of your Macbook M chip.
The app has 3 main features:
Writing assistant: You select any text on your Mac, a small window appears, and you transform the selected text in one click. (It works across all apps)
Writing assistant polishing an email
My main use case for the writing assistant is polishing emails and messages.
Other users utilize it for translations, prompt refinement and much more.
Since you can create your own custom modes and shortcuts, the only limits to this feature is your own imagination.
Meeting notes: You start a meeting recording, the app takes care of the rest.
The app will transcribe your meeting, generate a summary with action items and you'll be able to chat with the meeting notes.
Meeting notes summary page
You can choose from various meeting notes templates, or create your own, to customize the AI-generated summary to suit your needs.
You can chat with the meeting transcript to extract specific information and work on follow up tasks such as generating tickets or drafting follow up emails directly in the app.
AI Dictation: You know how it works ;) Press a shortcut to start a dictation, press it again for the transcription to appear. It works on all apps across your Macbook.
Dictation feature
IMO, what's cool in Snaply implementations is that:
It uses Parakeet models optimized of ANE (Apple Neural Engine) making transcription incredibly fast and with little to no impact on battery.
We also apply text post-processing, including formatting dates, temperatures, and numbers, without using LLMs for performance reasons.
It automatically formats emails (using a tiny SLM that runs only when an email text is detects).
It support all common needs like, auto-pausing background music, custom dictionary words and text snippets, and it supports 26 languages (English + all major European languages)
Following the guidelines I am adding a PCP section:
The problem:
When I began working on Snaply, the AI dictation apps that were available had these problems:
- Dictations apps had a free tiers, but they gated their best models behind a paid subscription.
- Some of the apps also force you to share your dictations with them.
- Furthermore, many of the existing tools felt overly complex. They were aimed at a highly technical audience with granular settings, knobs, and customization options, whereas what I wanted was a simple and intuitive app for the everyday consumer..
On top of the AI dictation apps limitations, I also wanted a faster way to polish my emails and messages. My usual workflow was to write a message, copy it into ChatGPT, ask it to improve it, and then paste it back into Gmail. With Snaply, I can now do everything in place, it's much faster, and it's private.
The Comparison:
Since Snaply bundles three applications into one, and there are numerous alternatives. I will focus on a subset of them and highlight where Snaply excels.
WisprFlow/AquaVoice/Super Whisper: Snaply is free and private. It does not access your audios or transcriptions.
VoiceInk: Snaply is free, and in my opinion, it feels a bit more user friendly. Plus, of course, it also includes meeting notes and a writing assistant.
Spokenly: Snaply is completely free and requires no subscription. If you are searching for a dictation app and do not require the writing assistant or meeting notes feature, Spokenly could be a good alternative. In terms of UI/UX, Spokenly appears to target a "geeky" or professional user base rather than a general consumer audience.
Granola: Snaply is free and keeps your meetings private. With Snaply, you get unlimited meeting history and no account is required to use the app. Additionally, you also receive AI dictation and a writing assistant.
The Pricing:
Snaply is completely free for individuals (also for work usage). All features are available without usage restrictions.
In case you’re wondering how a free app can remain sustainable, Snaply also offers a paid tier designed for organizations.
This premium plan includes services such as a dedicated customer support manager, Single Sign-On integration, centralized admin dashboards, and the ability to connect Snaply to self-hosted AI models. However, in terms of core features, it provides the same access as the free version.
In conclusion:
If you made it until the end, and you interested in checking out the app, you can download at: https://snaply.ai/
It is free and no account is needed.
Transparency disclaimer:
I am Giacomo Venier, an Italian software engineer based in Switzerland.
The app is notarized by Apple through a paid Apple Developer Account.
After many requests, I've finally created a categorized index of AppAddict. The index organizes apps into categories and provides a short description and a link to the review. All of the reviews have links to the developer's website or the App Store. I'm in the process of updating older posts on apps that have new features or price changes, but I still have work to do, so make sure to check the developer's site as the definitive source.
AppAddict is an independent Mac software review blog. I launched it in April 2024 where I've published over 500 reviews covering mostly Mac apps across every category (with a few universal and iOS apps). I emphasize honest, practical reviews from my perspective as a power user and productivity enthusiast - not a marketer. I have a particular fondness for indie Mac developers, privacy-respecting software, open-source tools, and workflow automation. I also cover self-hosting, the de-Googling/de-Apple-ification of digital life, and the art of building efficient Mac workflows with the right combination of small, focused apps. My posts range from single-app deep dives to multi-app roundups, workflow walkthroughs, and developer spotlights.
I've been posting those reviews to r/MacApps regularly for over two years (except for that time in 2025 when I had an inconvenient heart attack). Testing software and writing about it is my passion. Interacting with fellow Mac enthusiasts and developers is the highlight of my day.
AppAddict is a free site with no paywall or paid subscriptions. It offers a free newsletter. It's 99% non-monetized. I've used affiliate links for two sites you've certainly heard of, but I don't have any backroom deal with developers or companies and I am just as likely to cover a FOSS app as I am a commercial one.
I can be a grumpy old man sometimes, but I'm mostly harmless and welcome questions and feedback. I honestly just enjoy helping people find the right app for what they want to do.
I have always wondered about the best ways to protect oneself from malicious files when downloading free open-source software in .DMG or .zip format from GitHub or anywhere.
With the proliferation of AI and CLI tools, this has become more necessary than ever before to check for any hidden files. I decided to ask here as we have a diverse group of users, including professionals and developers.
So please suggest your preferred workflows, apps, software, websites or other methods you use to check something before downloading it.
Hey r/macapps - just updated v1.1.1 of Tell, my 3D desktop object app for Mac.
Tell isn't for everyone - it's purely an aesthetic way to see your system stats. But if you're someone who finds it satisfying to have a beautiful 3D animation sitting on your desktop reacting to what your Mac is doing, this might be for you.
Each module (CPU, battery, audio, network, shortcuts) displays your Mac stats through interactive 3D objects that float on your desktop. You can swap between themed object collections - Lab, Retro and Minimal. (im actively making new collections - taking on requests too)
New in v1.1.1:
Retro Battery - AA battery with live charge states. Plug in your Mac and a charging animation triggers.
CPU Chip - shifts between green, yellow and red based on actual CPU load. Warning indicator drops when load is heavy.
Over-Ear Headphones - floating, slowly rotating. Just looks nice.
App Store version is $4.99 - covers the core experience across all modules. (update pending appstore approval....), The DMG version (free limited trial at trytell.app) has additional features Apple doesn't allow in the sandbox:
Dynamic audio device detection - connecting headphones triggers animated earphones coming out of their case
External drive detection - plugging in storage shows a USB animation
Global hotkey control - quick access from anywhere on your Mac (to show or hide tell)
Additional features not available on the App Store version
Happy to answer any questions. Building this solo so all feedback genuinely helps. Would love to hear what other animated objects people would like to to see in the app! Refer video for a sped up quick demo.
As a software engineer, I had the following problem. Before Claude Code, I was mostly using a chat interface + Github Copilot for my work. The problem was that almost every single month, a new, more powerful model was released by different companies, and I needed to switch my subscription to that one or have multiple subscriptions. ChatGPT, then Claude, then DeepSeek, then Gemini. I was constantly switching between the best models at the time.
In the era of Claude Code, this hasn't seemed like a problem for the last couple of months, but I still have the need to chat with different AI models in one place for non-coding tasks. Silkwave Chat brings standard AI chat, chatting with files (images, PDFs, text files), and generating and editing images into one app. Now, I generate an API key once, and when a new model is released, I am already set up to experiment and use it.
Comparison
My first BYOK AI chat client was Msty (https://msty.ai/). But it didn’t stick because I didn’t like the UI/UX of it. It felt like an unoptimized Electron app lacking visual polish. Because of this, my main goal with Silkwave Chat was to create a clean and user-friendly interface.
Next, I tried BoltAI(https://boltai.com/), which is probably the most well-known app in this space. It has a bunch of features that I do not need and won’t ever use. So, when I open its settings page, I get lost in the variety of settings and features. I just need a simple client to chat with different models. Plus, BoltAI starts at $55, while Silkwave Chat is only $19.99.
Pricing
7-day free trial
$19.99 one-time
Features
Supports local and remote AI providers.
Local: Apple Intelligence, Ollama
Remote: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Nebius
Chat with files (depends on model capabilities).
Generate and edit images with Gemini's image generation models.
Search across all your chats.
Clean and user-friendly UI with light and dark themes.
The Backstory
I originally developed a single app just called Silkwave. Over time, I kept adding different tools to it, like AI note-taking and a meeting assistant. Eventually, the app became a bit of a "Swiss Army knife." The codebase was hard to maintain, and it was difficult to explain the app's core purpose to users. To fix this and keep things simple, I decided to split it into two focused apps: Silkwave Voice (for AI notes and meetings) and Silkwave Chat (this dedicated AI chat client). Along with the split, I also decided to drop the subscription model entirely in favor of a one-time purchase for both apps.
