AirSpace V2. Tired of Desktop 1? Track and rename your spaces in the menu bar. Now with HUDs, per-space colors, fullscreen support, and more. Written with 0 AI.
Hi r/MacApps, it’s been a month, but I’ve been working hard on my second-ever solo app, AirSpace, and V2 is finally ready! It used to be an app that just let you track which space you’re on in the menu bar, give them custom names (you no longer have to settle for Desktop 1 anymore!), use keyboard shortcuts to jump to them, and customize them with any color, any style (by any style I mean bold and italic text, heh). Now V2 brings a whole host of new features! (Forgive my marketing speak) Heads up! See your custom names up top with the new HUD feature that shows up when you change spaces. Per-space unique colors Need to identify which space you're on quickly? Now you can do so by giving each space a unique color, which will also theme the switcher menu and HUD. Iconic. Custom text not your style? AirSpace can now switch to numbered icons, so you can keep it simple and clean at all times. Multi-monitor support AirSpace now supports multi-monitor setups! Whether it’s a Pro Display XDR or an ultrawide, AirSpace handles them with no trouble. Fullscreen spaces support Want to quickly jump to spaces with full-screen windows? Now with AirSpace v2, it’s as easy as a click. (Coding this was quite difficult lol). Command + Freedom Need to switch spaces on a dime? Jump from desktop 1 through 16 (beyond native macOS 1-9) with customizable keyboard shortcuts, and use the new special keyboard shortcut ‘jump back to last space’ which teleports you back to the last space you were on if another app takes you elsewhere. And more updates are getting cooked up right now with even more incredible space managing features, all included for free on top of the app purchase. These updates come out very frequently, and I’m committed to keeping them going! If you find any bugs or need support, let me know over at https://hazels.garden/support. I actually built AirSpace because of my ADHD and my inability to keep track of which space I was on in my working memory. Overall, it’s a focused utility app meant to boost your productivity! :3 COMPETITORS Unlike other advanced space manager apps like Contexts (which I love) & Spaceman (which is great), AirSpace is made with 0 private APIs and is sandboxed and Mac App Store safe, aka reviewed by an Apple employee, so it relies on a quick onboarding process where you have to cycle through all your spaces on app launch. It’s pretty quick and only when the app launches or restarts! AirSpace also saves your custom names, so you don’t have to rename everything all over again on restart. There are also a few other competitors that let you name spaces in the menu bar, but I believe in AirSpace (completely hand-made, and with love) and hope you can come along with me for the ride, because I have a lot of lovely plans for it! PRIVACY None of your data is tracked. Neither is it stored anywhere except your personal device. NO AI I’m not really a big fan of AI, so AirSpace is made with 0 AI code, 0 AI art, and 0 AI text. All work was done by me or other humans, the code was made in Xcode non-agentic mode with no AI tab auto-complete, the art was made in Affinity and Icon Composer, or purchased legally, and the words were made in my head. You can see the proof in the AI-Info section at https://hazels.garden/airspace. As for why -- It’s mostly a personal philosophy that I believe in because to me, something made completely by a human, i.e., every line of code, every single if statement -- being hand-written by a person (in this case, a silly little girl in her apartment with her pink stuffed bear) means a lot. I think with the recent AI boom, people who deliberate over every single bit of the app from design, to code, to marketing copy, to the art has been lost or in short supply, and hey I just wanted to prove that if you’re out there wanting to pick something up, to make it yourself and do something that’s completely your own with your own two hands, know that I’ll be right here side by side working on something by hand with you, even if we’re continents apart :D. PRICING AirSpace is a one-time purchase of $9.99 on the Mac App Store. AirSpace can also be downloaded with a 3-day free trial on my website down below! After the 3-day free trial, the license key can be purchased on Lemon Squeezy for $9.99. Each license key can be used on up-to 3 devices each. Check out AirSpace on the App Store here! - Apple App Store Join the discord server for AirSpace here! - https://discord.gg/aqrsRGfn2a Get AirSpace on my website here - https://hazels.garden/airspace (Notarized by Apple) My website (anti-AI slop project) - https://hazels.garden
Collected discussion
How it looks! You can customize the colors
How multi-monitor support works!
Looks nice. Especially being able to use keyboard shortcuts to switch between desktops. From what I understand it doesn’t come with window management. Is there some way to send an app / window to another desktop without using a the mouse? (Or is there an app you’d suggest to use with AirSpace?)
Oh that's a great idea! I'll pencil that in for the next version if it's possible Currently you could hold the title bar of your chosen app and press the keyboard shortcut! It sends you and the app to that space. Unfortunately still requires the mouse As for other apps, I'm actually not sure -- If I find anything I'll definitely let you know!
I like the colour coding for each space and the HUD part. Being able to tell which space you're in is very helpful. I've tried a few of these before, but they usually don't work. Will check this out over the week.
The "0 AI" thing is what made me actually read the whole post. I'm actually pro-AI in general, but in the App Store right now you can feel which apps were vibe-coded- they have that uncanny-valley quality where every feature is almost right but the edges don't quite line up. Hand-built apps from solo devs have a coherence to them that's getting rare. Going to grab the trial tonight.
Thank you!! I've spent countless nights over many of the techniques used in AirSpace, working them out on paper with my trusty pen -- and I hope my app feels as good as a hand-built app should be! Thank you for grabbing the trial :)
Do apps that remember where your apps are benefit from this? (Docked vs undocked). Currently, spaces doesn’t allow them access when you go from docked and windows in 3 displays, to undocked with 3 spaces and the apps go to a predetermined space. If this doesn’t make sense, I can rephrase it!
My only win would be(only reason I don’t use multiple desktops): is the animation faster? It’s so incredibly slow by default not even usable by Apple default
Great. There isn't any way to change the "Desktops" names in macOS, without an app, right? Seems like even this option fixes a "problem" :)
Hi there, love the app and.... if I may, here is what I have been always looking for : a space switcher that would display the spaces as the apps are displayed when you do a command + tab. Is there a ay to implement this ? Thanks 😄
This looks really interesting! But even more interesting is your presentation, great video editing skills!
Wow, this is what I've been looking for
Request feature: Allow use of Emojis with or without the words.
Does it make it so there's no animation when switching spaces? I'd definitely pay 10 bucks for that
I totally need to check this out i been thinking about this for a while on labeling the desktops
Thank you so much for this! Amazing!
Love the UIX, big W on this OP
Hey, I run macosWM.com, do you mind if I add your project to the site? :) Good job on launching v2!
There's one feature that would immediately make me purchase this app... Looping effect of spaces: If I'm on the rightmost space and I swipe right again, I should go back to the first(leftmost) space. Similarly for the first space(you get the idea) 😉
Just purchased — happy to support fellow indie devs ✨
Nice tool ! I'll try it
OMG! I was looking for an app like this for years.
Is there an option to make the transition instant or is it always animated?
Hi! Unfortunately removing the space transition animation requires deep tinkering with macOS, and they'd definitely not allow AirSpace on the App Store after that :/