Looking for an app switcher that values being fast
I’ve tried many app switchers and launchers over the years and found that they exhibit some combination of the following issues: You’re expected to fuzzy search the app by name, which is problematic when you don’t remember it or has a common string (Activity…
I’ve tried many app switchers and launchers over the years and found that they exhibit some combination of the following issues: You’re expected to fuzzy search the app by name, which is problematic when you don’t remember it or has a common string (Activity Monitor, Monocle, etc.). You can bind apps to keys, but not multiple to the same key, which is problematic when you have many apps. You must activate the switcher before searching, optionally with a delay (e.g., Tuna’s hotkey/double press trigger). You can bind multiple apps to the same key, but doing so prompts you to select which one you meant, trapping you until you make a choice. There are almost certainly other issues I’m overlooking, but in general, such switchers assume that you’re comfortable using them in a UI, when all I care about is finding the app I’m looking for. The closest app which I think resolves most issues is rcmd, but I recall having issues with it in the past and would like to know what else is available. For the past 1-2 years, I’ve been using a Hammerspoon script I wrote to cycle between apps with the same key (e.g., Fn-Command-S to cycle between Safari, System Settings, and Shortcuts), and it’s served me well. Unfortunately, I’d rather not share it here since my Reddit account is private, but the source code is publicly linked to me. While it works, I’d like to know if there are apps which solve the same problem, since they may offer features that I’m not aware of. Thanks!
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RCMD is about as fast as it gets, and u/alin23 just released v3 this week, combining speed with semantic triggers if you need to launch more than one app that starts with, say, D.
Ooh heard of TinyStart when it came out, what makes you use it over the billions of other launcher apps?
Me too, it is super nice. But I would not think of it as a fast app switcher.
I agree spotlight got better but not definitely faster than anything. Not, at least to my experience 😅
Alfred has an app switcher function? :o
Well… I guess it depends on what you mean by fast. Faster to launch? Faster to index? Faster to activate? Faster to use? Faster to hand resources back to pool? I’m sure it’s not the fastest in every one of those definitions, but it’s absolutely faster across all of them, in aggregate. Undeniably faster to install and keep updated… literally comes baked into the OS. 🤣
I actually tried it at u/Ok-Rest-5321's recommendation a day or so ago. I really like the app, but couldn't get around the UI on activation since I find it distracting. If it wasn't for that (e.g., I could disable it or it activates on a delay), I could see myself using it.
Hmm.. i could explore the disabling one.. but how would you pick the apps if you couldn’t see the options?
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I've switched from Contexts this week and just got the pro version. It's now good enough to replace Contexts for me. There are still some glitches here and there (like ghost windows) but I have hope that they will be fixed.
Hi! I think you might want to try Sxitch? A few people here have mentioned sxitch.app and i'm the dev behind it. Sxitch takes a 0 cycling approach so rather than cycling through the apps by making you type the name (so usually 2 - 3 presses is plenty) and there's overrides which are slightly different from mappings since they also work in filtering out e.g. firefox vs finder, with "a" mapped to "fi" will select finder vs firefox so n / r will let you pick either finder or firefox respectively. This might not be what you are looking for since it doesn't use cycling and still requires a UI but people have said that it gets ingrained into ur muscle memory in about 30min of usage. and "I dig this app so much"
Sxitch, Rcmd Space launcher, Switch, Applight , context, Witch, Tons of great options, my preferences are rcmd and sxitch
My favorite 2 apps for this: Charmstone and TinyStart.
Rcmd. It has changed app switching for me on the Mac forever
I use Alfred and I'm happy with it
https://github.com/Sanyam-G/switch is one that's progressing quite fast and I really like.
Original and best: Launchbar. First thing I install on a new Mac.
rcmd might actually fit what you want here according to my own experience
Spotlight... nothing is faster or less resource intensive or reaches across the OS and default Mac apps better.
Witch is worth trying if you haven't. it's less about launching and more about switching between windows of the same app, but the keyboard-driven approach is very fast. for your specific use case of cycling through apps bound to the same key, rcmd v3 actually handles that now with the window fuzzy search. might be worth giving it another shot since it's changed a lot.
Context + Raycast and you are ready to go..
Hmm I just use Raycast to switch apps.
am I the only person enjoying AltTab?
Hammerspoon seems solid underrated one, even with ai.
have you tried Tuna?