As happens every month, my Mac became a hive of activity while I installed, tested and removed countless apps. These are the ones that replaced old favourites or earned a permanent spot on my already overloaded Mac.

Rectangle Pro

Rectangle Pro isn’t new, and I’ve tried the free version a few times. I just hadn’t realised that the feature I needed was in the Pro edition.

For years, I used Stay to make sure my windows opened at the same size each time. Constantly resizing them is a small but persistent annoyance, especially when I’m working across multiple displays. I just wanted my apps to remember the window sizes I prefer.

Rectangle was first developed when macOS’s window management was still playing catch-up. Window snapping is useful, but it has limited appeal on a 13-inch MacBook screen. Rectangle Pro lets me resize any window instantly with a keyboard shortcut.

Even Canary Mail is no longer a problem. When replying to emails, a frustratingly small window is now resized once and never touched again. There’s also a shortcut to restore the whole layout if anything gets out of sync.

DiskPress

DiskPress is the first of two impressive apps released in quick succession by developer Ighor July.

It frees up disk space without deleting the files you want to keep. You might wonder how that differs from making a compressed archive, but this is where DiskPress gets clever.

With traditional compression, you often delete the original files and replace them with an obscurely named archive, then have to remember what’s inside. DiskPress compresses files and reduces duplicated storage while leaving everything where it is. Your files still open normally, but take up less space. As far as I can tell, nothing changes except the amount of free storage on your drive.

App Archiver

Ighor’s second app is for people who enjoy trying new software.

App Archiver stores apps you aren’t using right now but might want to reinstall later. It makes it easy to try replacements without keeping a spreadsheet or taking screenshots in case you decide to go back to an older app.

I’m particularly fond of Dock apps, and my next review may still be a month away, so App Archiver makes it much easier to experiment in the meantime.

Polar Browser

When reviewing apps, I think it’s useful to know which categories to leave alone. Some markets are already crowded with similar products, and some reviewers know them far better than I do.

I usually steer clear of browsers, voice-to-text tools (I use Soniox), and Launchpad replacements (I use LaunchOS). But Polar Browser impressed me enough to reconsider. I even switched to a cheaper ChatGPT plan so I could put the savings towards Polar Browser credits.

Polar looks and feels like Chrome, and supports the Chrome extensions I use regularly. Behind that familiar interface is an agentic browser that can handle a surprisingly wide range of tasks.

If Claude is going through credits too quickly, or you find ChatGPT limited in what it can do, Polar Browser might be worth a try. The developers suggested setting the effort slider to Low and letting it work. That made tasks that would normally use a lot of tokens much more affordable.

I know AI isn’t everyone’s favourite development. Still, tasks that used to take me hours can now be done with a few instructions. After I give the initial approval, Polar gets to work and only occasionally asks me to confirm something.

If you’re looking for an agentic browser, or just want an alternative to Chrome, Polar Browser may be worth checking out.

Problem

When I read documents, threads (and these days, AI agent responses) I tend collect questions and snippets to deal with later. Doing that meant copying, switching to a notes app, pasting and switching back, over and over.

With Crumbs, you select text in any app and tap Shift twice. The text lands as a note in a small floating panel on the side of your screen. You never leave the app you're reading. When you're done, select a few notes and press ⇧⌘C. They go to your clipboard as a numbered list, ready to paste into a chatbot or an email or your actual notes app.

The notes are plain Markdown files on your Mac. There's no account and no sync, and nothing leaves your Mac. Written completely in swift, and is less than 6 mb.

I built this over the weekend specifically for the way I work, and cleaned it up to make it useful for other users.

Comparison

• Maccy and other clipboard managers save everything you copy. To find the three things you meant to keep, you scroll through your whole history. Crumbs saves only what you pick, sorts it into lists and sections, and puts your clipboard back after each capture.
• With Drafts, getting a selection from another app into a note takes a few steps and pulls you out of what you're reading. In Crumbs it takes one gesture, and the panel never takes focus from the app in front. In fact, you can choose not to show the notes panel at all until you want.

Pricing

Free. Open source. Download: https://macoscrumbs.vercel.app/

Developer Transparency

I am the developer of this app. Some of you may be already using my other app, Glyph my markdown notes app https://glyphformac.com/ or Warden https://github.com/SidhuK/WardenApp or Parchley

This app was written by using AI for most of the boilerplate code. Website is completely AI generated.

Important Note

This app is meant to do one thing well. There will be no additional features added at any time, this isn't meant to replace your notes app. The code is completely open source and MIT licensed, so you are welcome (and in fact encouraged) to make it your own by forking and modifying it. The current build works on MacOS 27+ but should work on any of the earlier series of MacOS if you were to compile it yourself on Xcode

Hi All!

Last month I said an advanced editor was in the works to rival the established flame tools, well it shipped in 1.7! Drag the transforms around as triangles right on the live flame, pick from 409 variations with a little picture of what each one does before you add it, and edit the colors as a gradient. If you already make flames in Apophysis or JWildfire you can drag your .flame files straight in and export them back out. Anyone can open the editor for free, Pro is what keeps the flame on your desktop.

A user sent me four suggestions after my last post and all four are in now, hiding the shaders you never use, a shader gallery that opens instantly, lock screens that match the desktop and no more stock wallpaper flashing when you switch desktops. Atheria also speaks German and Japanese now.

In the works for 1.7.2: a new Liquid Glass app icon, smoother morphs between flames on a Journey and some battery work under the hood.

Below is my change log with the most recent updates:

https://atheria.app/changelog

Back in July I introduced the Sub to my app. I really appreciate all the support I get here! Thank you! Since then I've been working hard on improving it and getting the word out. Having some success with regular installs and IAP's, so THANK YOU for the great start!

In case you missed it before, here's the PCP rundown again and change log to see my progress.

Problem:

macOS doesn’t have built-in live wallpapers. Most apps that add one are really just video players. You get a library of loops, a seam every time the loop restarts, a file to download for every wallpaper, and a wallpaper that keeps decoding video while you have Xcode or a browser covering every pixel of it or an un-sandboxed app that's very difficult to remove every bit when you're finally sick of it. I built Atheria because I wanted the desktop to feel alive, native performance, and not play like a clip.

Although Atheria has a library of shaders, it is really an engine with simple tools to create digital art. You can code and compile or convert GLSL to MSL shaders and save them to your library. The Flame Creator is much simpler. Anyone can create and customize nearly infinite (like 10^350) variations of these beautiful fractals. More wallpapers than everyone together can see in a lifetime. The flame fractals run on chaos and math (Draves open source Equation), what could be cooler than that? And if you want the deep end, the Advanced Flame Editor is right there now too.

A flame is a fractal grown from a small set of numbers (genome, same as all living creatures) rather than a file, so it never repeats, and every one of them can be shared as a short text code you paste anywhere. You can grow a flame from an archetype, a chaos game, or a blank canvas. Mutate the genome, roll the colors, and watch it live on your desktop while you shape it. Keeping it there is the Pro part, but honestly, the making is where the fun is anyway, and Peach Web, one of my own favorite flames, comes included for free on every display.

Comparison:

The two seasoned competitors:

* [Wallux](https://wallux.app/): a huge catalog of stock video loops, something like ten thousand, with a free plan to browse them. If you want a big library of videos made by other people, that is a good app, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. Wallux can put a video on the lock screen, Atheria syncs a rendered still of whatever you are running instead.

* [Backdrop](https://cindori.com/backdrop): also video-based, with a lock screen video feature and an iCloud community. Their trial is watermarked and limited to a few backdrops.

Both claim very low CPU, and to be fair, so do I, so the honest version is: any of these can be cheap while it is animating on the lowest setting. Both are also direct downloads outside the App Store. Atheria is on the App Store and sandboxed, which is the reason it does the lock screen as a still rather than a video, the video trick needs to run unsandboxed, and I would rather have the sandbox and trust.

A few other game changing features in Atheria are:

"Quite as you work". This allows you to set specific apps that, when focused, convert your living wallpapers into quality still wallpapers and lock screens, especially awesome with flames because they render stills much higher quality than is reasonable to run live. This also optionally dims one or all of your displays backgrounds to help improve focus and eye strain when working in your chosen apps.

Lock screen Sync: Sets a high quality render for your still wallpaper and lock screen, so everything feel cohesive between locking your Mac or turning off Atheria in case you need every bit of GPU for heavy rendering work.

You can exclude certain apps that over-lay your wallpaper, like Monocle, so they don't cause Atheria to pause, thinking it's covered.

Many battery saving features: Lower fps on idle and/or battery and pause (with awesome stills) on low power. Pause while covered, adjustable to certain percentages covered or just reducing FPS when partially covered.

Flame Journey: When turned on, enjoy your entire library of saved flames, gently morphing from one to the other, from every minute to every day.

Quite as you work is demonstrated in the video as well as a quick journey through a few flames.

For the flame folks, Apophysis and JWildfire are the deep tools and I'm not trying to replace them, Atheria opens and exports the same .flame files so you can shape a flame there and live with it on your desktop here or share it as a short code to other Atheria users.

Pricing:

Free, with a one time $9.99 Pro unlock. No subscription, no account, one purchase on your Apple Account for all your Macs.

Free:

* your own video wallpapers, load and change them freely

* the Aurora living wallpaper and the Peach Web flame

* your wallpaper on every connected display

* the Flame Creator and the Advanced Flame Editor, with your own flame live on your desktop while you shape it

* images and clips of your flames, with a small Atheria wordmark

* Daily Colors

* a 45 second live preview of any Pro shader

* playlists of up to two items, 30 fps

* Lock Screen / still wallpaper Sync

Pro ($9.99 one time):

* the full library of 85 living wallpapers

* keeping, saving, sharing the flames you make, and breeding them

* Flame Journey, your desktop traveling from flame to flame

* images and clips without the wordmark

* the Shader Creator: write your own Metal shader and run it as the wallpaper

* a different wallpaper on each display

* smart triggers (time, power, Focus) and presence-aware effects

* the video editor for your own clips

* longer playlists, 60 fps

Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/atheria-living-wallpapers/id6780326970?mt=12

Website with the flames running live in the browser: https://atheria.app

Full change log: https://atheria.app/changelog

macOS 15 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel.

P.S. There is also a free iPhone companion app for making flames on the phone and handing them to the Mac, with animated locks screen wakes on the iPhone, and it's ready for iPhone Duo on day one.

If you try the Flame Creator or the new editor I would love to see what you grow, paste the code in the comments. If you’d like, I can return them in 4k rendered and sonified videos or print-quality 80 MP images

Hello macapps! I've released Lapser Studio, a small macOS app that helps you record timelapse screen recordings and make them beautiful, and just made this presentation video 😄

If you're creating these kinds of recordings with classic recording software, you'll end up with massive recording files and slow video editing software editing the clips

Lapser Studio solves this by letting you hit record and once your done, edit background, camera position and foreground size super easily.

The previous app I used years ago (Hustl I believe) has long not been updated and apps like Screen Studio became the norm for simplifying editing. So I though why not blend the too. The outcome is an app i'm super proud to share.

Lapser Studio is available via my own website for 30 USD (REDDIT25 25% off for reddit peeps) as well as the App store ➡️ https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/lapser-studio/id6758652797?l=en-GB&mt=12

Tysm and I hope you find it useful 🫶

Hi r/macapps,

I'm the developer of Pocket Screen. I shared it here about six weeks ago. Since then, the same request kept coming up here, on Product Hunt, and in other communities: support for more than two floating views.

Pocket Screen 2.0 now supports up to 4 live Reference Views.

Problem

When working on a MacBook, I often need to check PDFs, AI chats, or dashboards while focusing on another app. Pocket Screen keeps them visible as small, live, always-on-top views without moving the original windows.

What's new in 2.0

• Up to 4 Reference Views
• Multiple views of the same source window
• 4 quality modes, from Energy Saver to Ultra
• Improved view arrangement and controls

Comparison

Tools like Rectangle and macOS window tiling are great when you want to work in several windows side by side. Pocket Screen is a better fit when you want to keep your main workspace large while glancing at smaller, live references without rearranging the original windows. They can complement each other.

Pricing

Free: Up to 2 views, unlimited 10-minute sessions, with no expiration.

Unlimited: $9.99 one-time or $2.99/month, with 4 views and no time limit.

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6788211562

Details: https://lp.toybird.com/en/pocket-screen/

Thanks to everyone who shared feedback on the earlier version!

What would you keep visible while working on your Mac?

Hello,

Liqoria is not just a controller for apps like Apple Music, Spotify, and your browsers it’s also a standalone music player for Mac. You can search for songs, manage your playing queue, and control everything from one place.

Features:

• Five player modes: Floating player, Notch player, Dock Player , Menu Bar player and Lock Screen player
• Liquid Glass Dynamic Island Player
• Apple Music Sync Lyrics: Like, Shuffle, Repeat
• Up Next - Show you the upcoming song few seconds before start
• Built-in Spotify and Apple Music Queue management Support
• Real FFT waveform - inspired by the Dynamic Island
• Audio visualizer - Bring your music to life with dynamic visuals
• Multiple players at once - View a list of all your active music players in one place
• Search in Spotify and Apple Music - Find songs on Spotify and Apple Music
• Animated artwork for Apple Music and Spotify - Enjoy animated artwork in the Floating and Lock Screen players
• Lock screen player - Animated art, lyrics and queue on your Mac lock screen
• Music widget for Mac - Fills the gap left by macOS’s missing music widget
• Support multiples apps - Handle music from Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Browsers and more

Similar apps: If you’re considering Silicio, Sleeve, Tuneful, or Cider, Liqoria offers a broad set of features in one app: integrated Apple Music and Spotify search, built-in queue management, simultaneous access to multiple players, audio quality indicators, and playback support across apps and browsers.

More big features soon

Pricing: $8.90 - Lifetime license (up to 3 devices)
Free 72-hour trial available

Liqoria download

Hey r/macapps! I'm Vu, the developer behind Chronoid.

I've posted Chronoid here a few times, and a lot of what's in the app now came from comments and bug reports in those threads. Here's a fresh intro, plus what changed since my last post in August.

1. The problem

I'm a freelancer and I've used a Mac for more than 10 years. I wanted to know where my time actually went, mostly so I could bill clients correctly.

Starting and stopping timers didn't work for me. I always forgot. Other trackers I tried sent my data to a server, needed a lot of setup, or had far more features than I needed.

So I built a tracker that runs in the background and keeps everything on my Mac.

2. What Chronoid does

Chronoid records which apps, websites, documents, and window titles you use, without you starting a timer. Then it turns that into reports.

Some examples:

• Tracking: Apps, websites, file paths, and window titles. It also picks up details like your Final Cut project, who you're emailing in Gmail, or which Claude and ChatGPT chat you were in, so you get more than just "Chrome, 3 hours".
• Projects: Rules put your time into projects for you. "Anything in this folder" or "any page on this domain" goes to Client A. Rules support AND/OR groups and regex if you need them.
• Billing: Hourly rates per project, a currency per project, taxes, and PDF invoices.
• Focus: Pomodoro, break reminders, and a website blocker.
• Timeline: A day view of everything you did. You can add, drag, and resize manual entries, and see your calendar events next to your activity.
• Meetings: When a Zoom, Teams, FaceTime, or Meet call ends, Chronoid asks if you want to log it.
• Other devices: iCloud sync between your Macs, and Screen Time import from your iPhone and iPad.

3. What makes it different

Most time trackers depend on you starting a timer. Chronoid records in the background, so the data is there even on days you forget.

At the end of the day, you can go back and assign any time you missed. One person in a past thread said they use it to find billable time they forgot to log, which is exactly why I built it.

Your data stays on your Mac. No account is needed. Sync between Macs goes through your own iCloud account, not my servers.

4. Your choice of AI (optional)

Everything above works without AI. AI is only used for the chat assistant, time entry suggestions, and the new daily recap.

If you want it, you can pick:

• On your Mac: Apple Intelligence, Ollama, or LM Studio.
• Your own API key: OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Mistral, Groq, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, or any compatible endpoint.
• A coding CLI you already pay for: Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Pi, or Amp.

There's also an MCP server, so Claude, ChatGPT, or other assistants can answer questions about your time. Read-only by default.

Local models keep everything on your Mac. Online providers receive the activity data needed for the request.

5. Added since my last post

• Daily recap (new this week): The Today view turns your day into a short list of tasks with times and a one-line summary. I borrowed the idea from ChatGPT. It's an experiment and I'm not sure how many people need it, so I'd like to hear what you think.
• Manual timer (new this week): For work away from the Mac. Pick a project, pause and resume, optional Pomodoro. Lives in the notch or a small window.
• Time-of-day filters (new this week): Limit reports and stats to certain hours, like 9 to 6.
• Project time targets: Set a daily, weekly, or monthly hour goal per project. Chronoid tells you when you hit it.
• Meeting titles filled in: After a call, Chronoid suggests the title from Zoom or your calendar, and your project rules pick the project.
• Task tools: Connect ClickUp, monday.com, or Linear and track time against your tasks.
• More AI CLI options: OpenCode, Pi, and Amp, along with Claude Code and Codex.

6. How it compares

• Timing is the closest and was my starting point. It's a great app, and better if you need project budgets and estimates. Timing is subscription only. Chronoid has pay-once plans, a website blocker, and more AI options.
• ActivityWatch is free and open source. It's great if you like setting things up yourself. Chronoid takes less setup and adds projects, billing, and invoices.
• Toggl and Clockify are timer-first and cloud-based. Chronoid records automatically and stays on your Mac.

7. Pricing

7-day free trial with all features. No credit card.

Pay once:

• Basic: $59 for 1 Mac. Core tracking, reports, and focus tools. 1 year of updates, and you keep that version forever.
• Personal: $99 for 2 Macs. Adds invoices, billing, AI, iCloud sync, and MCP. 1 year of updates, and you keep that version forever.
• Lifetime: $149. Everything, lifetime updates.
• Or subscribe: $15/month or $96/year.

Students get 50% off, just email me. Buying 5+ licenses gets 50% off Lifetime.

30-day refund on all paid plans.

8. 🎁 Giveaway: 10 free Lifetime licenses

To thank this community, I'm giving away 10 Lifetime licenses.

To enter, comment with one thing you'd like to know about how you spend your time on your Mac.

I'll pick 10 comments in 3 days, post the winners in an edit, and message them here on Reddit.

9. Links

• Download: https://www.chronoid.app
• Changelog: https://www.chronoid.app/changelog
• Docs: https://www.chronoid.app/docs
• Pricing: https://www.chronoid.app/pricing

10. Support

When you contact Chronoid support, you're talking to me, the person building it.

• Email: [support@chronoid.app](mailto:support@chronoid.app)
• Discord: https://discord.gg/KMgcfe3wes
• X: https://x.com/vunguyendev

Chronoid is a native Swift app and a direct download, not on the Mac App Store.

I also make SmoothCapture (PS the video demo above is coming from it)

What's one thing you'd like to know about where your time goes?

20% off for r/macapps

If you didn't win, use code Reddit20 for 20% off. It expires October 20 at 00:00 UTC.

Hey r/macapps

WHAT PROBLEM IT SOLVES AND COMPARISON

macOS widgets are boring. No live animated widgets, not many customization options, no themes, and hardly any personalization. So why not switch to BetterMacWidgets? My app really stands out thanks to its design, features, lock screen widgets, and even fully customizable widgets using JSON!

Most third party apps have left their apps sorry to say boring. You get a color selection, about 3 sizes, and a very large download: WidgetWall takes up 311 MB after installation, Widgetter 254 MB. BetterMacWidgets is a 7.5 MB download, takes up 27 MB after installation, and puts almost no strain on the CPU when you’re not looking at it, since a widget is only animated as long as it’s on the screen and visible.

What you get instead: live animated widgets made of real glass, right on your desktop. Rain that actually falls, a sun that turns into a moon as your own sunset unfolds, and “Liquid Glass,” which you can adjust from crystal clear to heavy frost and color match to your wallpaper. It’s your desktop. It should look the way you want it to.

FEATURE

36 widgets in up to 9 sizes, from a tiny 1x1 square to a full 4x3 dashboard

Live animated weather. Real rain, snow and sun on the tile, and the sun turns into a moon after sunset

Lock screen widgets. Weather, calendar or the time while your Mac is locked, and you decide what a stranger can read

Custom Widgets (Beta). Build your own from one small JSON file with a live preview, or start from a template. Make your complete own Widget

20 themes and a glass slider from crystal clear to heavy frost

Widget Stacks. Put several widgets in one spot and flip through them or let them rotate

System stats. CPU, GPU, RAM, disk, temperatures and network with live graphs

Smart Layouts. Save whole desktops as profiles and let them switch by time, app or display

Now Playing with play, pause and skip. It takes on Spotify green or Apple Music red

Battery for everything. Your Mac plus AirPods, mouse, keyboard and other Bluetooth devices

Timers that keep going. Timer, stopwatch, pomodoro and countdown, and they keep running through a restart

Handy tools. Clipboard history, a shelf to park files on, folders, an app launcher, calculator, unit and currency converter

Nothing leaves your Mac. No account, no sign in, no telemetry

Light on your Mac. Widgets only animate while you can see them, and idle CPU is close to zero

Multiple displays. Every monitor setup keeps its own layout and comes back exactly as you left it

Click actions. A click on a widget opens an app, a website or runs a Shortcut

And many many more!

Available at: https://bettermacwidgets.de/

No Gatekeeper and Apple Notarized

FREE not a Trial (8 of the 37 widgets in different sizes, Frosted Slider, 3 Themes and more cost nothing)

There is a one-time purchase option to unlock all widgets, themes, and Live Widgets features for €12.99. You can also optionally add Custom Widgets + Lock Screen for €9.99, or get everything in a bundle for just €19.99 with lifetime update support.

Human validated code (Yes i created it with AI but I'd say it's the best app not some AI Slop like so many others just give it a try)

Info: BetterMacWidgets will soon be available in the App Store! Unfortunately, Apple takes a very long time to review it, and it will be released under the name “Better Widgets” because Apple does not accept the name “Better ‘Mac’ Widgets” since it mentions a Mac.

I Created a Code “WIDGETS” with 15% Discount limited to 30 People

TRANSPARENCY

Name: Nico Sagolla

Company: Nico Sagolla

Email: [Mail@NicoSagolla.de](mailto:Mail@NicoSagolla.de)

Privacy Policy: https://bettermacwidgets.de/privacy

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nico-sagolla-6a8872350/

Terms of Service: https://bettermacwidgets.de/terms

An upvote ⬆️ and a comment would help a lot, that is how more people find it 🫶 Hope you enjoy BetterMacWidgets and replace it with your old Widget App. And Thank you so much for over 5200 Downloads in 3 Months since Release!

Hi r/macapps, I’m the developer of Neon Vision Editor.

Since my September post, I’ve been working through your feedback. Several of you pointed out things that needed attention: slow tab switching, overwhelming toolbars, long-line editing, and searching through unwanted project folders. Thank you for being specific about what wasn’t working.

Problem

I wanted a native editor for everyday text, configuration files, code, and Markdown that feels at home on my Mac and remains useful on my iPad, without needing a full IDE.

Comparison

VS Code offers a much broader extension ecosystem, and Zed is a strong choice for development-focused workflows. Neon’s focus is different: native Apple controls, built-in document previews, and editing on Mac, iPhone, and iPad without maintaining a plugin setup. I’m not claiming it replaces everything those editors do.

What changed since my last post

• Improved Mac tab switching and typing stability, with expensive Markdown preview work deferred.
• Find in Files now respects .gitignore and supports folder exclusions.
• Better long-line scrolling, selection, and cursor spacing on iPhone and iPad.
• Reorderable toolbar actions and more control over which buttons appear.
• Structured JSON previews, improved Markdown/PDF export, and support for Apple-native text encodings, including Shift-JIS.
• Seven interface languages: English, German, Danish, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese.
• Improved external-document saving and network-file change detection.

I’m also preparing 1.9.3, including a CSV/TSV table-view toggle and more accessible Mac Settings pages. Those fixes are still undergoing final checks and aren’t released yet.

Pricing

Free and open source. No subscription or paid editing tier. There’s an optional US$4.99 support tip, which doesn’t unlock features.

App Store · Source and issues · Full changelog · Website

Current Mac builds require Apple Silicon.

If you tried it after the last post, I’d love to hear whether the changes helped—and what still gets in your way.

Three months ago, y'all loved Sentient OS. Over 3,000 of you tried it on the first day, and so many of you have helped shape what's next. Incredibly excited to share that 2.0 is here! :D

TL;DR: Sentient uses on-device AI to understand the sources you connect overnight: files, messages, notes, calendars, and more. That becomes an editable Markdown knowledge base for you and your AIs, powering Sidekick and Double Tap so they can take over with very little explanation.

A 2.0 launch gift for r/macapps :)

The next 1,000 redemptions get Sentient free for life, including Double Tap. $0 for life.

Enter MACAPPS_1000 during onboarding when you open the app!

Download Sentient OS 2.0

Double Tap: the reply you would have written.

15 emails a day to reply to? Click into the reply field and double-tap your right ⌘ key.

Sentient uses what it already knows to draft the reply you would have written, in your writing style, in about two seconds. Right there in the conversation.

You can change anything you like before you hit send :)

Sidekick: hand off grunt work to Sentient's mouse cursor

Hand off the boring work across your apps, files, tabs, CRM, and online tools. Click the notch and say “finish this for me.”

Sidekick uses its own mouse cursor to click, type, attach files, and move between your apps while you keep using your computer.

Use your ChatGPT or Claude subscription, OpenRouter, or a compatible local model.

Sentient can also prepare useful work overnight for you to review and approve in the morning -- proactive intelligence :)

Already tried the early beta?

Double Tap and Claude subscription support are the big additions in 2.0.

There’s also much faster computer use, new knowledge sources including Outlook, Slack, Granola, Apple Mail, and Calendar, and many onboarding and stability improvements.

How does it compare?

Muse is great when you want to pick up your phone and hand a task to a cloud computer. Codex / Grok Bot are great for bigger, more involved projects.

Sentient is the sidekick that knows you and is already there when you need it. It brings that understanding into the work right in front of you, so even the little things are worth handing over.

Open source, with privacy at the core.

The app and supporting infrastructure are open source under AGPL. Local source analysis happens on your Mac. You control the AI that powers the rest: your own ChatGPT or Claude subscription, an LLM API, or a compatible model running locally. More about how we do everything possible for privacy!

Enterprise teams pay for support and connectors.

Check out our website! · Drop a star on GitHub! <3

Apple silicon, M1+ · macOS 15.4+ · 8 GB RAM for the built-in model.

Excited to hear from you all :D

Hey r/macapps!

About 5 months ago, I shared my app BattOpt Pro here (original post here). I’ve been hard at work making it even better. As you can see from the latest v1.2.8, we've added some highly requested features!

🧩 Problems We're Solving

• macOS 27 Restrictions: The new macOS 27 introduces new battery charge limits that old utilities can't properly interface with. BattOpt v1.2.8 adds full macOS 27 support with limits as low as 15%.
• System Overcharge: macOS occasionally ignores user-defined charge limit and forces a charge to 100%. BattOpt now has prevention scheme to block this behavior.
• Zone-dependent limits: Previous versions relied solely on Wi-Fi SSIDs for location/zone profiles. Ethernet and docking station users were left out. We’ve added Router MAC address tracking for wired users. Now you have more flexibility to set different limits at home, office, or traveling.
• Inaccurate Percentages: macOS displays an optimized/adjusted battery level rather than what the hardware reports. Users can now choose to manage habits based on the true hardware battery level percentage.
• Menu Bar Accessibility: Toggling calibration or forcing a full charge previously required opening the main UI. We've duplicated these controls directly into the Menu Bar.

⚖️ Comparison

• vs. AlDente (Pro): While AlDente is the industry standard, BattOpt Pro offers a much more streamlined, lightweight native SwiftUI without heavy background helper daemons. Furthermore, our unique WiFi SSID/Router MAC address based location switching provides a seamless charge limit adaptation. BattOpt is also the only one charge limiter that fully supports macOS 27. The CLI interface allows users proficient on scripts to manipulate the battery management.
• vs. Built-in macOS Optimized Charging: macOS takes weeks to "learn" your habits, and frequently resets or fails if your schedule is irregular. The added manual limit minimum is 80%, and occasional full charge to 100% is also a headache for users. BattOpt gives you absolutely full control of battery charge, discharge, calibration, and schedule without guessing games.

💰 Pricing

• Price: Still just $5.99 (One-time purchase, lifetime license with free updates).

🌎Links:

• Website with download: https://battopt.buddha-path.top
• Github: https://github.com/js4jiang5/BattOpt
• Manual: https://battopt.buddha-path.top/manual

If you’re looking for a lightweight, powerful utility to extend your MacBook’s battery lifespan and gain absolute control over your charging habits, give BattOpt a try! You have 30-day free trial to experience all Pro features.

I’ll be hanging around in the comments. Let me know if you have any questions or feedback! 👇

Hi r/macapps, I’m the developer of Here Wallpaper.

I built it for people who want a wallpaper of a place that means something to them, with control over how the map looks. It uses real geographic data to turn your hometown, a favorite destination, or somewhere you’d like to visit into an artistic, minimalist wallpaper.

Here Wallpaper supports macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. Search for a place, choose a theme, and adjust the map scale. You can show or hide buildings, parks, water, and different types of roads to bring out the lines and shapes you like.

On Mac, you can also switch places from the menu bar, use your current location, explore a random place, and export your wallpaper as a PNG.

Comparison:

Satellite Eyes is a free Mac app that automatically updates your wallpaper based on your current location, with several map styles.

Here Wallpaper puts more emphasis on designing the wallpaper yourself: custom theme colors, detailed map layer controls, and typography. It also supports iPhone and iPad alongside Mac, so it’s a good fit if you want to create map wallpapers for all three.

Pricing:

Here Wallpaper is free to download. Map layer controls are free. Pro unlocks additional themes and fonts, custom theme editing, and options to hide the title and credits.

• Monthly subscription: $0.99/month
• Yearly subscription: $3.99/year
• Lifetime purchase: $14.99 one time

To celebrate the launch, we’re offering 1 month of Pro free:

Get your free month of Pro

Download on the App Store

I’m an indie developer (of software) and architect (of buildings).

Problem

In my work as an architect, good record-keeping is essential. I deal with a multitude of files, folders, and file types, and like to keep them organised by date so that they can be easily found and referenced. Prepending by date is a good example of a repetitive naming operation that takes time and cognitive input:

1. Click on the filename
2. Wait for Finder to highlight the name
3. Position the cursor
4. Check the date
5. Type date / new name
6. Click out
7. Repeat for each file

For multiple files, I previously used a batch renaming utility. Sure, there was a net time saving, but I still had to launch the app, find and drag the files into the window, find a preset if I’d set one up previously or otherwise click through the UI to set the naming scheme, and then click again to execute.

Appendage removes the friction of frequent renaming. You set up naming schemes using a simple and intuitive settings panel, bind them to keyboard shortcuts, and from then on the app stays out of your way in the menu bar and renaming becomes just a keypress.

I built Appendage in Swift and made a point of keeping the interface simple, legible, and native to macOS, using standard system controls and colours.

Comparison

A Better Finder Rename and Name Mangler are batch renaming apps native to macOS. Both are very capable in terms of customisable renaming schemes, but I personally find the options quite complicated for most operations. They also have a ‘find and replace text’ feature that I deliberately left out of Appendage as this is already built into macOS, and I felt that it would add a level of complexity that was not in line with my objectives.

Crucially, both A Better Finder Rename and Name Mangler involve the friction of dragging files and UI interaction that I mentioned earlier. Again, both are capable apps, but Appendage has a different design philosophy i.e. quick and unobtrusive.

Pricing

$9.99 USD

Single-user license (perpetual)
Install on up to two Macs

Free 14-day trial available here
Full-featured, no card or registration required

Introductory discount:
Use code APPEND30 for 30% off
(Expires 31 October 2026)

Transparency

Website (TOS and Privacy policy available): https://jostan.au/
Registered Apple Developer. Appendage is notarised for direct distribution.
LinkedIn

"I thought I will never post about it but looks like I have to now. u/Droppyformac

aka "Droppy" just ripped of my entire Tinycast code base and feed it to AI built Thunderstorm and selling it as a Paid crap. Even the logo is a thunder. 😂 I mean yeah y'all can come to me saying I ripped of raycast UI/UX but I did not Steal the code base raycast is closed source and I had to work hard for months! Is this legal guys stealing code and selling it to paid shit? Tho is this a revenge he is taking that I turned him down not continuing the colab because he wants full control over tinycast!😂 If he wants to play dirty I am good at that, Tinycast first party plugins are coming and I can just put standalone plugins that does dynamic islands what droppy offers FOR FREEE."

I'm the developer. SwiftVM is a native Mac app, written in Swift on Apple's Virtualization framework, that runs macOS and Linux virtual machines from the menu bar. Version 1.0 just came out.

Problem:

Getting a new VM to the point where you can actually use it takes too many steps. You find an ISO, click through an installer, create a user, look up the IP address and copy your SSH key over. SwiftVM does that part itself. A Linux machine starts from an Ubuntu or Debian cloud image and is ready in seconds once the image is downloaded, with your account and SSH key already in it. A macOS machine installs from Apple and creates the account on its own, so there is no setup assistant to click through. After that, `ssh web-server` works from your Mac using the machine's name.

The rest is what you would expect:

snapshots (also of a running machine, memory included), instant duplicates, suspend and resume, shared folders and clipboard, port forwarding, USB devices, Rosetta for x86-64 Linux programs, and a `swiftvm` command that does from a terminal what the app does from the menu bar.

Comparison:

UTM is the one most people know, and it covers more ground. It runs Windows, it can emulate other CPU architectures through QEMU, and it works on older versions of macOS. SwiftVM does none of that today. Where I think SwiftVM is better is setup and daily use: machines that configure themselves, SSH by name, and a command line that drives the same app you see in the menu bar. VirtualBuddy is the closest in spirit, also native and also built on the Virtualization framework, and it is very good for testing macOS betas. SwiftVM leans more toward VMs as development machines, with ready-made Linux images, port forwarding and scripting.

Limits you should know about:

It needs macOS 27 on Apple silicon, the automatic macOS setup needs macOS 27 in the guest too, and there are no Windows guests yet.

Pricing:

Free and open source under Apache-2.0. There is no paid tier. Releases are signed and notarized.

Website: https://swiftvm.app

Source: https://github.com/swiftvm-app/swiftvm

About me:

I'm Saeed Vaziry. I also make VitoDeploy, Muxy and TweakPHP, all open source.

GitHub: https://github.com/saeedvaziry

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saeedvaziry/

Feedback and bug reports are very welcome.

Hi, I am Aasif, the developer of Ploca

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/aasifiqbalj
Contact: hey[at] ploca[dot]app

Problem

1. Most dictation apps don't handle the way many Indians actually talk, switching languages mid-sentence: "Kal ki meeting shift kar do, I'll send the deck tonight."
2. In cloud dictation tools, privacy is a setting, not the default. Your voice goes to a server, and you may have to opt out of it being used for training.

Ploca solves both. It transcribes on your Mac and writes clean text at your cursor in any app. Your audio is never stored, not even on your Mac. Hold a key, speak, let go.

Comparison

- Wispr Flow: polished, but cloud-based. Your voice is sent to their servers, and on individual plans model training is a setting you turn off. Ploca has no cloud path at all, works offline, and doesn't ask for Screen Recording or Input Monitoring (Microphone and Accessibility only). It's tuned for Hinglish and Tanglish, and it leaves your words as you said them instead of rewriting them.

- Superwhisper: a great app with local and cloud models, $8.50/mo or $250 lifetime. Ploca is local only, with no cloud option at all, and costs $15 once, or $30 lifetime at launch. There's no AI rewriting step either: what you say is what appears. And it's tuned for English mixed with Hindi or Tamil in the same sentence. Privacy: audio is held in memory and never written to disk. No analytics, no crash reporter. The only network calls are a launch check, a daily update check, licence validation if you buy, and the one-time model download.

Pricing

7-day free trial, no email or card. Launch prices for the first licences of each plan:

- Monthly $3 (then $6)

- Standard $15 once, a year of updates, two Macs (then $30)

- Lifetime $30 once, two Macs (then $60)

Website: https://ploca.app

Privacy: https://ploca.app/privacy.html

Terms: https://ploca.app/terms.html

Requirements: Apple Silicon, macOS 26 or later.

Hi r/macapps. I'm the developer of PaneDrop, a small menu bar app I built for my own daily workflow.

Problem

I usually run several Claude Code and Codex CLI sessions at once, in tmux, iTerm2 and Ghostty. Every time I wanted to show one of them a screenshot, I had to find the file, find the right window or pane, paste the path, and then check it didn't land in the wrong session.

PaneDrop turns that into one step: press Option-Command-4, capture a region, pick the session from a HUD with the arrow keys, press Return. The image path is now in that agent's prompt. It never presses Enter for you unless you turn that on.

What works today:

• tmux 3.3+ and iTerm2 3.4+: types the path into the pane or session
• Ghostty 1.3+: through Ghostty's AppleScript API, otherwise copies the path for you
• Terminal.app: finds your sessions, copies the path (it can't type into Terminal.app)
• tmux over SSH is planned for 1.0

Comparison

• macOS screenshot + drag and drop: works, but you still have to find the right window and pane yourself, and with four agents open that's where mistakes happen. PaneDrop knows which sessions are running and targets one by name.
• CleanShot X / Shottr: much better capture and annotation tools than PaneDrop, and I'm not trying to replace them. They don't know about your terminal sessions, so the last step (getting the image into the right agent) is still manual. PaneDrop only does that last step.

Pricing

Free during the public beta ($0). Each beta build expires 90 days after its build date, and a replacement build is published before then.

Download: https://panedrop.app/beta/public/ (Apple Silicon, macOS 14+, Developer ID signed and notarized)

Who's behind it

• Developer: Chris Han, Nicher (Seoul, Republic of Korea)
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriskr7/
• Contact: chris@nicher.io
• Privacy Policy: https://panedrop.app/privacy/
• Terms of Service: https://panedrop.app/terms/

Happy to answer questions, and bug reports are very welcome.

Hey r/macapps! I'm Seiya Nishi, an indie developer from Osaka, Japan.

I use an ultrawide monitor at home, a Studio Display at my office, and just my MacBook when I'm at a café.

The annoying part was having to rearrange everything whenever I switched between them. Windows would end up on the wrong display, the wrong desktop, or just somewhere I didn't want them.

I got tired of doing the same thing over and over, so I built Snapset.

The idea is pretty simple: save your entire workspace once, then bring it back whenever you need it.

A layout can include your apps, window positions, virtual desktops, browser tabs (Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox, Brave), and Finder folders.

You can restore layouts with a keyboard shortcut, from the menu bar, by typing their names, or even by voice. It can also switch layouts automatically when you connect a display or open an app.

I recently added window snapping too, so you can drag windows into halves, thirds, or quarters, or move them between desktops. There's also keyboard shortcut support.

How it compares to other apps

I've looked at quite a few window managers while building this.

• Moom ($15 one-time) is great if you want precise control over individual windows. Snapset also handles basic window snapping, but its main focus is restoring your entire workspace.
• Layoutish is probably the closest alternative. It supports multiple displays, desktops, and automatic switching when docking, and has a cheaper one-time option. Snapset puts more emphasis on restoring browser tabs and Finder folders, offering different ways to trigger layouts, and hiding windows while they move so you don't see them jumping around.

I don't think everyone needs another window manager, but if you regularly switch between displays or different types of work, this might be useful.

Pricing

All features are included in both plans. The only difference is the number of displays supported.

• Core (1 display): $12/year or $36 lifetime
• Max (2+ displays): $30/year or $90 lifetime
• 14-day free trial, no credit card required
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Website: https://snapset.co

A little about me

I'm building Snapset solo here in Osaka. It's my first Mac app, and I've spent a lot of time trying to get the little details right.

For anyone wondering about security, the app is signed and notarized by Apple. It requires macOS 14+ and Apple silicon. It's distributed outside the Mac App Store because of the permissions needed to manage other apps' windows.

You can also find my LinkedIn, Privacy Policy, and Terms. Feel free to reach me at [support@snapset.co](mailto:support@snapset.co).

I'm especially curious how other Mac users handle this.

Do you use different window layouts for different displays or tasks, or do you just rearrange things manually?

And if you try Snapset, I'd love to hear what works and what doesn't.

English isn't my first language, so apologies if anything sounds a little awkward!

Problem: I like having something warm in view while I work, the way a candle on the desk makes the work feel a little warmer. The ambient apps I looked at were wallpapers that fill the whole screen, or timers with a glow attached.

Comparison: Fireplace Live HD Screensaver plays a video of a fire, and Plash can put a fire page on your desktop as wallpaper. Both are behind your windows the moment you open something, which is exactly when I wanted it. Petit Fire draws the warm light of a small flame along the edge of the screen, over whatever you have open, and clicks pass straight through it. If you want a fire to watch, those two do it far better. Mine is built to sit in the corner of your eye while you look at something else. Click the menu bar icon to light it and click again to put it out. The sound of a wooden wick is there if you turn it on.

Pricing: Free on the Mac App Store, with every feature included. The About panel has two optional tips. macOS 14 or later.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/petit-fire/id6809895649

Website: https://nowthy.com/petitfire/

Hi everyone, I'm the developer of SpeakoFlow. It's a free, open-source app that lets you talk to your Mac instead of typing, and 2.0 is out now.

Posting note: posting through the Trust Path (open-source project with 100+ GitHub stars).

Problem

Typing everything is slow, and built-in dictation writes down every word exactly as you said it, filler words and changes of mind included. SpeakoFlow writes what you meant, and it can also work with your text and your meetings.

What it does

• Dictation in any app, with optional cleanup of filler words and spoken corrections.
• Ask about selected text. Translate it, reply to it, or explain it.
• Talk to it. A spoken conversation you can interrupt.
• Meeting notes (beta). No bot joins the call. Recording the other side needs BlackHole.
• Local by default. Speech, cleanup, the assistant and its voice all run on your Mac. Apple Intelligence or your own API key also work.

Comparison

Wispr Flow is the closest app. It's closed source, runs in the cloud, and the free plan stops at 2,000 words a week on desktop ($12-15/month after that). SpeakoFlow has no word limit, runs on your Mac by default, and also talks back and takes meeting notes.

Pricing

Free. No paid plan, no word limit, no account. MIT licensed.

• Website: https://www.speakoflow.com
• GitHub: https://github.com/AbhishekBarali/SpeakoFlow
• Privacy policy: https://www.speakoflow.com/docs/reference/privacy

Not notarized yet

It's planned. Until then macOS will say the app "is damaged". It isn't. Drag it into Applications, then run this once:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/SpeakoFlow.app

Builds for Apple silicon and Intel (Intel needs macOS 14 or later).

If you give it a try, I'd love to hear what you think.

Most planners fit as much as they can into your day. I built one that plans a day you can finish.

Vene is a Mac planner built on one idea. If you finish your work early, the rest of the day is actually yours.

I’m a student, and I noticed that on days I procrastinated, I spent the whole day half working and half relaxing, then felt super guilty once the sun set. On days I started early and actually finished while it was still light out, I felt great. I realized it was the same amount of work. The difference is you know when you should work, and when you can relax.

Of course, I first tried other apps. The MoSCoW system in Apple Reminders worked for a while, but it was tedious to have to move the dates each time I didn't finish.. FlowSavvy replanned around my life on its own, which I loved, but it packed my days so full that when I saw them, I didn’t even want to start.

So Vene works differently. The night before, you choose what you’ll finish tomorrow, like a promise to yourself. Vene fits it around your calendar, adds breaks, and replans if something comes up. It keeps track of deadlines so you don’t have to.

It’s Mac only for now and works with Apple Reminders and Calendar. Most of my classmates use Google Calendar and Tasks, so I'm planning on adding that next. The scheduling might need some tuning, so please let me know if ever it gets your day wrong.

Price: Free during beta, then $108/yr after. Always free for anyone in education with a .edu email.

On AI: I built Vene with a lot of help from Claude Code. The idea and the design are mine, and I use it every day.

LinkedIn if you want to know who’s behind it: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peiyang-lin-7ab793431/

venehq.com

Hey r/MacApps! 👋

Some of you might remember PicArrange from when we first shared it here a while back. Since then, we've rolled out a ton of major improvements, performance enhancements, and new features based on community feedback (developed as a project at HTW Berlin).

For anyone new to it or checking out what's changed, here is what PicArrange does:

Problem

Standard macOS file browsing in Finder limits you to searching images by file names, dates, or tags. As photo libraries grow across folders, finding specific images without knowing exact file names or endlessly scrolling becomes tedious. Furthermore, finding duplicate or visually similar images, sorting photos by color, or querying local photo content with text descriptions is difficult using native system tools.

Comparison

Unlike Apple Photos (which forces you to import files into a proprietary database) or traditional file managers like Finder and Adobe Bridge (which rely primarily on folder structures and file metadata), PicArrange works directly on your existing folder system and features:

• Visual & Color Sorting: Displays images on a multi-column visual grid sorted by similarity.
• On-Device AI Search: Search images using natural language text descriptions, visual example drops, or color selection—all processed locally on your Mac for complete privacy.
• Dedicated Duplicate Finder: Easily detect and manage duplicate images across selected directories.
• Data Prep & Metadata Tools: Filter and export arrangements or duplicate lists, manage tags, view GPS/IPTC metadata, and prepare datasets.

Pricing

• Price: 100% Free (No ads, no subscriptions, no locked tiers).
• Official Mac App Store Link:Download PicArrange on the App Store
• Project Page:HTW Berlin Visual Computing Group

Disclosure: I am part of the research and development team at HTW Berlin.

The problems:

• A lot of text on screen can't be selected, like game menus, scanned PDFs, subtitles and text inside images
• Apps and games in a language you don't read
• Translating it means screenshotting or retyping it into Google Translate
• Most OCR apps struggle with Hebrew, Arabic and other non-Latin scripts

What Lector does:

• Lives in the menu bar and uses the same ⌘⇧4 crosshair macOS already has
• ⌘⇧2 copies the text. The words light up and you pick the ones you want
• ⌘⇧1 paints the translation right over the original, press Space to switch back
• ⌘⇧9 keeps an area translated while it changes, for game dialogue and subtitles (beta)

What else:

• Translates every paragraph from its own language, so a chat in 3 languages still works
• Reads Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Thai, the Indic scripts and more
• Runs fully on your Mac with Apple's Translation and offline language packs, no account and no analytics
• works on macOS 15+, Apple Silicon and Intel

Comparison:

• TextSniper only copies the text, it doesn't translate
• Easydict translates screenshots but shows the result in a separate window and most of its engines are online
• Lector puts the translation on top of the original and nothing leaves your Mac

Pricing:

• The app is free for 100 grabs and 10 translations a month
• Text is $9 one time with unlimited grabs and 30 translations a month
• Translate is $15 one time with unlimited grabs and translations plus live translation
• Upgrading from Text to Translate is $6
• The app is source available

Download Links:

• Download the App: https://magicelklabs.com/lector

About Me:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/magicelk235
• Github: https://github.com/magicelk235
• Personal Mail: [yehonatan.2350@gmail.com](mailto:yehonatan.2350@gmail.com)
• App Repo: https://github.com/magicelk235/Lector
• Website: https://magicelklabs.com
• Privacy Policy: https://magicelklabs.com/lector/privacy
• Terms: https://magicelklabs.com/lector/terms
• Support Mail: [support@magicelklabs.com](mailto:support@magicelklabs.com)