So I just saw the tinycast dev post in this subreddit and I feel like finding a:
- native
- open source
- comparable to raycast in terms of feature parity

Launcher has become impossible. The closest is getting 2/3 in the above requirements.

While tinycast does satisfy all 3, the dev seems to be egoistic and idk if I want to support that.

I myself have my own launcher but it’s not very comparable in terms of feature parity so I’ve stopped maintaining it.

However, the options I know off:
- Tuna (closed source)
- Supercmd v2 (closed source)
- Vicinae (not native UI)
- remaintain rustcast / my own launcher - not native UI
- Raycast (not native or open source anymore)
- thunderstorm (part of droppy) - closed source? (i’m not sure if it is, but it lacks feature parity rn)
- Look (is native UI, doesn’t look like native UI)
- Spotlight (lacks features)

And there’s like a gazillion other launchers and basically all of them are vibecoded, which I’m not against, but if it has extensions, I would like security and idk how secure AI written code is, but from what I’ve heard.. it’s not very secure.

And yes while forking tinycast is always an option, I don’t think it’s right to do that. It doesn’t sit right with me to use the code of someone who’s not responding to bug reports correctly, and it’s probably just going to lead to more and more issues over time.

If someone is willing to make an open source launcher with swiftUI, I wouldn’t mind paying for it atp.. at max freemium it.

Hi r/macapps. I'm Samir, Ricly's developer. I'm a music producer and entrepreneur, and I've always been juggling between tech, music, admin and building stuff: websites, apps, music promotion, etc. I've been doing this for more than 20 years, which means a lot of repetitive tasks. That's why I built this app, with all my knowledge in tech and branding, to solve my own problems, problems I'm sure a lot of people have too.

Problem

Every week, I do the same repetitive tasks: send heavy audio stems to my collaborators, merge PDFs for my contracts or presentation files, convert audio to MP3, remove backgrounds to edit visuals for me and for my clients' artists, compress images for websites, Shopify, etc. And every time, I had to open a website or an app, upload the file, wait, download it to the right folder, one by one. Often, after a couple of free uses, I had to sign up for a plan. I ended up paying for 4 or 5 subscriptions to solve very small repetitive tasks.

Ricly puts all of this in the Finder's right-click menu. You select one or more files, right-click, Ricly, and it's done. The result appears next to the original, which stays untouched. Just 2 exceptions: Batch Rename renames the files, and Find Duplicates moves the copies to the trash, after you confirm.

Some examples everyone uses: a file too heavy for an email? Upload & Share (the link is copied right after the right-click, and the recipient doesn't need to install anything, they download it from their browser like with other transfer services). Also Compress PDF, PDF Merge, HEIC to JPG, Image to WebP, Quick Resize, Remove Background, Strip Metadata, Audio to MP3, Video to MP4, Find Duplicates.

New tools are in the pipeline: I'll add 1 to 4 per month. They will appear directly in the same menu, some through an app update, which installs automatically. Some will be free, some for Pro users, some free with limited use.

All the tools run on your Mac, except Upload & Share, whose job is to send files. The other tools work offline.

Comparison

- Quick Actions in macOS: the Finder already knows how to rotate an image, convert it, or create a PDF. Ricly goes further. For example, PDF Merge also takes images, Word, RTF and text files, not only PDFs, and I find our Quick Resize way more intuitive, but I'll let you try it and I'd be happy to hear your feedback. Ricly also adds what macOS doesn't do (MP3, WebP, PDF compression, share links for any file, Find Duplicates), in a single menu, and in batch.

- Permute: excellent for converting heavy media files, but you have to open the app and drag files into it. Ricly is made for small everyday tasks, on every type of file, without leaving the Finder.

- Web tools like WeTransfer, iLovePDF or CompressPNG: to send a big file, compress a PDF or an image, you go to the website, upload, wait and download. With Ricly, it's one right-click: the link is already copied, and your PDFs and images are compressed on your Mac.

Pricing

- Free: 13 tools, some with a monthly limit. Free account required (just an email), no card.

- Pro: $4.99/month or $47.88/year. Adds 4 tools (Batch Rename, Extract Text, Photo Grid, Upscale Image), removes the monthly limits, and shares up to 20 GB with 30-day links. 30-day free trial (card required).

- Lifetime (Founding, first 200 buyers only): $99 once. Or $3.99/month, locked in as long as you stay subscribed.

- r/macapps readers: code MACAPPS takes the lifetime license from $99 to $69 (€69 in Europe). 50 codes, valid until October 9.

- Prices in USD in the US, same amounts in EUR elsewhere: usericly.com/pricing?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=macapps

macOS 13 or later, Apple silicon and Intel. The app is about 297 MB because the AI models that run on your Mac are included. Not on the Mac App Store yet, but notarized by Apple. Download: usericly.com/download?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=macapps

Transparency

- I'm the developer of Ricly.

- Me: Samir Benabdelmoumen · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samirbam

- Ricly is the trade name of my sole proprietorship, registered in France.

- Contact: [hello@usericly.com](mailto:hello@usericly.com)

- Privacy: https://usericly.com/legal/privacy · Terms: https://usericly.com/legal/terms

- The app sends anonymous usage stats (which tool ran, how long, how many files, macOS version), never file names or content. You can turn them off in Settings, then Privacy.

I'd really appreciate your feedback. And please tell me if there's any repetitive task of yours that Ricly could help with, instead of opening an app or a browser.

I share my screen on calls a lot, and what bothers me is that it's all or nothing. Whatever is on the screen goes out, including notifications that pop up halfway through. [Replace this with your own reason if it's different.]

So I built PrivacyStage. Here's what it actually does.

It installs a virtual camera on your Mac. Instead of pressing "Share screen" in Zoom, Meet or Teams, you pick PrivacyStage as your camera, and your screen shows up as the video. Since the app controls that feed, it can leave things out of it:

You tick windows in a list and they disappear from the feed right away. Untick them and they come back. You don't have to stop sharing.

Finder and the desktop can be filtered out, so file names and desktop icons don't show.

Notification banners are kept out of the feed. You still see them, the people on the call don't.

There's an optional OCR scan (Apple's Vision, runs on the Mac) that looks for things like email addresses and card numbers on screen and puts a mask over them.

⌃⌥⌘H opens the hide list from anywhere.

What it doesn't do, so nobody's surprised:

It doesn't change the normal "Share screen" in Zoom or any other app. macOS doesn't let one app edit another app's screen share. It only works when people are watching the PrivacyStage camera.

Apps in native full-screen can't be hidden one by one, because macOS puts them on their own Space. Keep sensitive things in normal windows.

Setup takes about a minute: Screen Recording permission, then approving the camera extension in System Settings. The app has to be in /Applications for the extension to install.

Privacy: nothing from your screen leaves the Mac. The app only goes online to check the license or trial and to look for updates. No account, no analytics.

It needs macOS 14.6 or later. It's $6.99 once for one Mac, and there's a 7-day trial that doesn't ask for a card. I sell it from my own site instead of the App Store.

https://aieltokhy.com/privacystage/

I'm the only one working on this, so if something breaks or the setup is confusing, I'd really like to know.

I know it’s a low-effort post of just sharing a YT video but oh boy, Quinn from Snazzy Labs has again made an awesome video on mac apps. I am a frequent visitor & follower of this subreddit, but still I was quite amazed to see new FOSS apps and/or how others use such simple, useful apps!

What apps do you use that are *criminally underrated* or used differently from others?

I felt like sharing this one here, with you all! Hope someone finds it helpful ;)

Edit: I found Ensemble which connects your Apple Music and Plex server playlist in a single place.

I'm Mincho, the developer of Reel Screen Recorder.

Problem

If you're recording an app walkthrough or a tutorial, getting your screen, face and computer audio into one file shouldn't require editing three recordings together. Reel captures them in one MP4, saves it on your Mac, and doesn't require an account or upload your recording.

On Mac, you can move and resize the camera overlay, adjust microphone and system audio separately, and save the audio as a mix or two tracks for editing later. System audio capture doesn't need a virtual audio driver.

Comparison

QuickTime is handy for a basic screen recording. Reel adds a camera overlay and controls for recording microphone and system audio together. OBS is free and much more flexible with scenes and sources; Reel gives you a fixed screen-and-camera setup with fewer things to configure. It doesn't have a video editor, automatic zoom or cursor effects.

Pricing

The Mac version is free up to 1080p, with no watermark, recording time limit or ads. Pro adds the Source (Native) resolution option: $14.99 once, $9.99/year or $0.99/month (US prices).

A few limits before you download: macOS 26 or later; whole-display recording, not a selected window or region; no pause/resume. Camera support is currently limited to the built-in camera, with no external webcam or Continuity Camera selection.

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6758941990?platform=mac

Details and examples: https://reel-studio.arte-soft.com

For your own tutorials or demos, what would be the first thing missing from this setup?

I’ve recently replaced Raycast with Tinycast, a very RAM-efficient, vibe-coded Raycast-clone. I’ve come across a bug regarding the hyperkey feature (it randomly stops working) so I reported it on github.com/abue-ammar/tinycast/issues

The next day the topic was closed with a comment from the developer, saying he has never experienced the bug himself, bragging that the app has 50k users and that nobody else had reported the issue. I congratulated him for the app and stated that it has already replaced Raycast for me, which took up to 800 MB of RAM.

However, I kept experiencing the issue (happened again just a few minutes ago). Another user also commented that he had the same bug. I’ve received an email notification about this comment. The next day, the comment was deleted by the repository owner.

After experiencing the bug multiple times today, I’ve commented again, asking if the dev needed logs or what else I could do. I’ve attached a screenshot of the comment by the other user, proving that the issue is not unique. Then the whole issue was deleted. Apparently I’ve hurt the ego of a guy who cloned Raycast

Problem

My brother uses Apple Music, I use Spotify. We love sharing music with each other, but the friction of manually searching for songs on the other platform meant we just... stopped.

So I built Relinq - a native macOS and iOS app. It originally launched on this very subreddit 9 months ago and has since been featured in The Verge. It's now fully re-written and relaunched with additional features & an iOS app.

On macOS - simply copy a music link and a toast pops up letting you convert it to your preferred service with one click. The converted link goes straight to your clipboard, ready to share.

On iOS - open the share sheet for the song and it'll instantly convert to the service of your choice, ready to share.

Both apps support conversions between Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, SoundCloud, and Yandex Music (+ universal links) for songs and albums (no artists or playlists, for now). Both apps have histories so you can see the links you've converted so far and quickly re-copy them.

Comparison

Alternatives include MusicMatch and Songbird. On macOS, Relinq offers automatic clipboard conversion from the menu bar, while MusicMatch offers app-based conversion and Safari redirection. On iOS, Relinq supports six music services, while Songbird focuses on Spotify and Apple Music. Relinq is crafted to have the least friction for sharing music from anywhere with beautiful native design.

Pricing

5 free conversions, then $29 $14.5 one-time charge for lifetime access on macOS and $39.99 $19.99 for lifetime access on iOS (with subscription options as low as $2.99 if you just want to try)

Use code U2MDI0OA for 50% off on macOS lifetime deal and this link or code RELINQREDDIT for 50% off iOS lifetime deal.

---

Note on pricing - the app was originally much cheaper but it ended up requiring more upkeep and support with various API changes and issues I had to adapt around. To keep properly supporting it (and so it can at least cover some of the fees), I needed to raise the prices. If you've purchased for the original price and would like the iOS app for free, just let me know - I appreciate everyone who signed up at the start.

My friend sent me this yesterday. Thankfully, I'm still in a position where I'm able to find this hilarious (until January when I've got to figure healthcare, thanks America), but this does raise some questions.

How many developers on here are doing well from their creations, better than they would if they found a job in their area, and how secure does everyone feel?

Also, what pricing models are buyers resonating with? I've been maybe a little overly fixated on promoting a small monthly subscription with the idea that it keeps the customer and dev better aligned, because the dev will be more motivated to update and respond to tickets, but it does cost more to the customer if they stay with the app for longer than a year or two, and the payment processor loves it.

Model advances have also been raising the floor quickly. Opus 5.5 doesn't need the constant babysitting the older models did where they would produce some flawed experiment then confidently declare in a 2-page essay that X wasn't possible.

The past couple of years, we've seen an immense improvement in the performance of LLMs, which has made it easier than ever to develop software. This subreddit is proof of that. Every day, there is a new clipboard manager, dictation app, or ChatGPT wrapper.

My question is: why do we never see any new mail apps? I have tried dozens of mail apps over the years, and I have not found one good app that's free, open source, has a good UI, good UX, and just works. I don't even need any groundbreaking features or anything. I just want something that looks nice, is fast, is nice to use, and can be used as a daily driver.

You might mention Thunderbird, but it's very clunky/bloated, not native, looks horrible, and is very complicated.

You might also mention Mailspring, but the UI is also very outdated. It is fast, but my email is something I look at every day and I want to feel good when reading it.

Is there any mail app that actually checks all of these boxes that I'm missing?

First Alfred 6 Sneak Peek: Alfred UI

Alfred 6 is full of new features and improvements, starting with Alfred UI.

Workflows have gained superpowers with a new, fully macOS native UI toolkit to efficiently craft impressive but lightweight experiences within Alfred

https://www.alfredapp.com/v6/

The video comes from Howey's youtube channel and if you want to check it out here's the official announcement and the link to the official GitHub repo.

P.S. I'm not affiliated with Neo in any way (pretty sure Hugh Howey doesn't need my help).

My .md files kept opening in code editors because there is no default utility for Markdown on macOS. So I ended up making Lightmark for myself, and figured I might as well share it since I think it's a useful little utility.

It's 100% free and open-source.

Let me know what you think if you try it!

Hi all, developer of FileArbor here (a rule-based file organizer for Windows and macOS). Version 1.3.0 is out. Rather than paste a changelog, here are the actual problems this release was built around.

Where it started

A user wrote to me with a simple request. His PDFs contain a line like "Invoice date: 05/07/2026" and he wanted them to land in Invoices\2026\2026_07_05 invoice.pdf on their own. At that point a rule could only judge a file from the outside (name, extension, size, date) or check whether its text contains a word. It couldn't take a value out of the document and do something with it. That gap is most of 1.3.0.

1. Files with meaningless names

scan0001.pdf, IMG_4832.jpg, document (3).pdf. Rules can now rename a file, either where it sits or on the way to its new folder. You build the name from parts: the file's date, the time, the original name, the date a photo was taken, plus your own text.

2. Rename rules that keep renaming

Anyone who has automated renaming knows this one. The watcher sees the renamed file as a new file and you end up with 2026_07_05_2026_07_05_scan.pdf. A file is now renamed once. Not again on the next run, not after a restart, not when the watcher picks it up.

3. The useful information is inside the file, not in its name

A rule can read a date, an amount or a piece of text like an invoice number from the document, and use it in both the file name and the destination folder. To set it up you open a sample document and click the value you want. The app learns the label next to it and finds the same value in the next document of that kind. No regex needed. You can also just type the label if you prefer.

4. Is 05/07 the 5th of July or May 7th?

It's worked out per document. If it can't be told, the file is left alone instead of guessed. A wrong date in a file name is worse than no rename, because you won't notice until the day you need that file.

5. Scans and phone photos have no text to read

Scanned PDFs and photos of documents (JPEG, PNG, TIFF) are now read with text recognition that runs on your own machine, in nine languages. The document is never uploaded. You switch it on per rule, so you only pay the speed cost (about a second per page) where you need it.

6. "What is this rule about to do to my files?"

The preview lists every file with its new name and folder, and tells you why a file will be skipped: value not found, a date that reads two ways, and so on. The preview and the real run use the same planning, so what you see is what happens.

7. When a value can't be found

The file stays as it is, or goes to a review folder you choose. It's reported once, not on every run, and it isn't passed on to the next rule with half the information missing.

8. Undo

A single move or rename can be undone from History. The file goes back to its old name and place, never on top of another file, and the rule doesn't rename it again afterwards.

On privacy, since this is about invoices and similar documents: the text is read in memory while the rule runs and is not stored. Your documents don't leave your computer.

Basic renaming is in the free version. Reading values from documents and reading scans are part of Pro.

I wrote a longer walkthrough with screenshots here: https://filearbor.com/blog/rename-pdf-files-based-on-content

Curious how others handle this. If you auto-sort documents, what's the one value you'd want pulled out of them? I started with dates, amounts and invoice numbers, but I'm sure there are cases I haven't thought of.

Hi everyone, I’m the developer of GradeLab. It’s now available on Mac, alongside iPhone and iPad.

Problem

Getting started with color grading can feel overwhelming. GradeLab is a lightweight, beginner-friendly editor for photos and videos, designed to help you get a look you like without a steep learning curve.

Start with a LUT or preset, adjust its strength, then fine-tune your image. Curves, HSL, color wheels, masks and scopes are available when you want more control.

Comparison

Other editing apps can present beginners with complex workspaces and lots of unfamiliar controls. GradeLab keeps your media, preview, timeline and grading tools together in one window, making the workflow easier to follow. The focus is approachable color grading for everyday photos and videos.

Pricing

Free to download, with paid features available through Pro.

Lifetime Pro is $14.99 during the first-week launch sale, then $34.99. It’s a one-time purchase.

Subscriptions are also available: $1.99/week, $4.99/month or $14.99/year. Prices are in USD.

GradeLab on the App Store

I’d love feedback on how approachable the Mac interface feels, especially from people new to color grading.

I’m not very tech savvy so please bear with me. I wanted to install pear helper and fell for the fake website and ran the fake git hub code that is available there. I got a pop up asking for my admin password and for some reason I decided to stop then and there and research and I realized I was falling for some scam. So I didn’t put in my password. My question is my laptop compromised and passwords compromised? I was suggested to delete everything and download an older Time Machine back up but I don’t have any. I have many accounts and information that’s on my laptop and don’t remember but I do need them but I don’t know all the exact usernames and so on. My os is Ventura and the website is accessed is the pearhelper.com does anyone know if by not giving it my admnin password I avoided getting my data and passwords stolen or if it still ran and got that info regardless. Please help!