These 13 free Mac apps take my workflow to the following degree

Apple continues to remain on the high of the market by constantly plugging new options into macOS. Nonetheless, when you’re actually critical about maximizing your productivity greater than the typical Mac consumer, it is best to search instruments with a bit extra energy or performance. That is the place utilities come into play — a utility on macOS is a light-weight app that runs within the background to supply or enhance the native consumer expertise. Utilities aren’t like most apps, the place they’re used to finish work. As an alternative, utilities are leveraged to make workflows smoother and extra streamlined.

Happily, you need not lay our a fortune to get a few of these nice instruments — in truth, you do not have to spend something in any respect. Listed here are 13 of my favourite Mac utilities to dramatically enhance your Mac expertise with out spending a dime.

1 Ice

Ice

A strong, free menu bar supervisor for macOS.

This text covers loads of menu bar apps. For those who’re like me, you may in all probability set up greater than you will have area for. Due to this fact, a menu bar supervisor is important. Whereas I used to make use of Bartender, I ended after reporting a couple of concerning acquisition. After some analysis, I selected the free menu bar supervisor, Ice.

Ice lets you disguise menu bar icons underneath two tiers. You may reveal the primary tier by choosing the Ice icon. I selected to customise mine and put my Memoji. The second tier is underneath ‘Present the At all times-Hidden Part’ for these icons which are extra hardly ever used. Ice remains to be underneath lively improvement, and the developer continues engaged on new options.

Associated

The MacBook Pro is powerful, well-designed, and in a rut

Apple efficiently turned its Professional laptops into crowd pleasers, and made them much less attention-grabbing within the course of.

2 Rocket

Emoji enter made a lot simpler

Rocket

Immediately entry and insert emojis and symbols utilizing a fast shortcut.

Rocket is the most effective app you could possibly ever ask for when you’re a frequent emoji consumer. This utility has you set a customized set off; for me, it is a double colon (::), and when getting into it, you may proceed typing the identify of an emoji. Hit return, and you’ve got added it. Rocket makes including emoji to textual content much more environment friendly than utilizing the native emoji picker.

Associated

Thinking of sticking with the M3 MacBook Pro? These 5 M4 MacBook Pro upgrades might change your mind

Apple’s MacBook Professional with its next-generation M4 chip has lastly arrived. This is what it affords over final yr’s M3.

3 Hand Mirror

Test your look earlier than any name

Hand Mirror

Shortly entry your webcam from the menu bar for checking your look earlier than video calls.

Hand Mirror supplies fast entry to your Mac’s webcam with a single click on from the menu bar. Whether or not you are about to affix a video name or simply want a fast look at your look, Hand Mirror makes it simple and handy to examine the way you look.

For $6, you may improve to Hand Mirror Plus to regulate window placement, acquire a notch set off, and way more.

Associated

How to make a voice or video call on WhatsApp Desktop

WhatsApp is not simply nice for chatting in your cellphone, however also can allow you to make voice and video calls on desktop.

4 Battery Monitor

Time estimates to your Mac’s battery

Battery Monitor

 Monitor your Mac’s battery well being and cost time from the menu bar. 

Battery Monitor affords glanceable insights into your Mac’s battery well being and utilization out of your menu bar. It tracks battery cycles and capability and alerts when the battery is working low, serving to you be extra conscious of your utilization. My favourite Battery Monitor characteristic is its time estimates for a way a lot cost I’ve left and the way a lot it’s going to be till I am totally charged once more.

Associated

The M4 Mac mini is one of the best devices Apple has released in years

Due to its new modern, small design and the M4 chip, the Mac mini is almost good.

5 AnySwitch

Effortlessly toggle system settings

AnySwitch

A flexible software for managing and toggling system settings straight from the menu bar.

AnySwitch is a flexible menu bar app that simply allows you to toggle numerous system settings in your Mac. A number of obtainable settings embrace activating your Lock Display screen, hiding desktop apps, locking your keyboard for display screen cleansing, and stopping your Mac from sleeping. After all, there are numerous extra, too, all of which you’ll customise their place on the record or present altogether.

Associated

We’ve got bad news about the next MacBook Pro redesign

Apple’s subsequent MacBook Professional redesign is reportedly two years away in 2026.

6 HiDock

Customise dock placement throughout a number of shows

HiDock

Customise your macOS dock look and habits based mostly in your related shows.

HiDock is a utility that enhances your Mac’s Dock by permitting you to customise its habits throughout a number of displays. It allows you to set completely different Dock positions and sizes for every show, making certain a constant and customized workspace structure. Personally, I exploit HiDock to cover my dock when utilizing my MacBook with no show however present it when related to my Apple Studio Show.

Associated

Here’s how iPhone mirroring works in macOS Sequoia

With its newest macOS replace, Apple goals to extra tightly combine the Mac and the iPhone with new Continuity options.

7 Hookmark

Create hyperlinks for information in Finder

Hookmark

Hyperlink and entry associated data throughout completely different apps and information with ease.

Hookmark is a strong productiveness software that connects your information, emails, internet pages, and extra by means of context-aware hyperlinks. The free model of Hookmark lets you simply create URLs for information in your Mac, which you’ll shortly discover. Personally, I exploit Hookmark loads so as to add a file URL to Reminders. Customers can improve to the usual tier for $30 and the Professional tier for $70 to unlock extra options.

Associated

Yes, the M4 Mac mini’s power button is on the bottom

Why is the brand new Mac mini’s energy button on its base? Your guess is pretty much as good as mine.

8 Amphetamine

By no means let your Mac go to sleep

Amphetamine

Maintain your Mac awake and forestall it from sleeping with one click on out of your menu bar.

Amphetamine is a straightforward app that forestalls your Mac from sleeping or activating the screensaver. Maintaining your display screen lively could be useful for a distant pc, lengthy processes, and displays. Amphetamine offers you simple management over your Mac’s display screen saver with a single click on from the menu bar.

Associated

You can now use iPhone Mirroring to rearrange your Home Screen in macOS Sequoia and iOS 18

It is potential to activate jiggle mode within the newest Mac and iPhone betas.

9 On-line Test

Simply examine your community connection standing

On-line Test

Monitor your web connection standing and obtain alerts when it drops.

When the web stops working in your Mac, the primary examine is to make sure it is nonetheless related to Wi-Fi. What’s irritating is once we present related, however there is no such thing as a web connection. On-line Test is a light-weight software that displays your web connection, not your Wi-Fi, and notifies you of any outages.

Associated

Should modern tech products start embracing the iMac G3’s fun translucent design language?

As soon as upon a time in shopper tech, roughly across the flip of the millennium, enjoyable translucent colours had been the bee’s knees. Whether or not you had been buying a brand new online game console, a desktop PC, a pc mouse, and even your favourite pop star’s new album on compact cassette, see-through digital devices had been ubiquitous within the 90s and within the early 00s.For higher or worse, this specific design pattern light into the rear view mirror as shortly because it arrived. Whereas we have fortunately moved on from the period of drab beige PC towers, most trendy tech merchandise now ship in relatively uninspired black, white, and grey colorways.Each every so often, we’re handled to a gorgeously coloured product — my private all-time favourite occurs to be the burgundy crimson Microsoft Floor Laptop computer 2. Sadly, the corporate ripped this SKU off the market, and we have not seen it return on a Floor product since. See-through electronics are arguably even cooler, permitting us to look into the internal workings of ou

10 YellowDot

Make Apple’s privateness indicators mix in

YellowDot

A utility that blends Apple’s privateness indicators into your menu bar.

YellowDot is an ecstatic-focused utility that blends Apple’s yellow recording, blue location, and purple display screen seize dots black or white into your utility bar. The display screen seize and microphone icons also can dimmed. Privateness is essential, however Apple’s fixed addition of recent icons can limit the restricted area within the menu bar. YellowDot addresses a few of the visible frustrations of these privateness indicators.

Associated

Apple’s MacBook Air quietly gets a long overdue update

In an surprising transfer, Apple has lastly admitted that 8GB of RAM simply is not sufficient.

11 Dropover

Shortly create a brief file shelf

Dropover

Simplify file dragging and dropping by briefly holding information in a customizable, floating shelf.

Dropover is a useful drag-and-drop utility that creates a brief digital shelf the place information are copied, making it simple to maneuver information between apps or folders. Dropover lets you gather and arrange them earlier than dropping them to their last vacation spot, simplifying file administration. You may activate a Dropover shelf through a keyboard shortcut or by shortly shaking your curser.

Associated

Apple’s colorful new iMac features its M4 chip and Apple Intelligence support

The primary of Apple’s a number of anticipated M4 Mac bulletins has arrived.

12 One Factor

Reminder your self of that essential phrase

One Factor

A easy menu bar app for displaying a single quote or sentence whereas working. 

One Factor is about as minimal as a Mac utility can get. With One Factor, you may add a line of textual content that lives in your menu bar. Whether or not you wish to keep motivated or be reminded, One Factor is a straightforward but efficient approach to bear in mind one thing by glancing at your menu bar.

Associated

MacBook Air not working right? My go-to troubleshooting tricks to try

This is find out how to repair frequent MacBook Air points like gradual startup, unhealthy Wi-Fi connectivity, and lacklustre efficiency.

Disable the keyboard for hassle-free cleansing

KeyboardCleanTool

Lock your keyboard for simple cleansing with out triggering undesirable keystrokes.

KeyboardCleanTool is designed to briefly disable your keyboard, permitting you to wash it with out unintentionally typing or triggering shortcuts. Whereas butterfly keyboards of outdated are now not normal, cleansing your keyboard commonly remains to be a superb upkeep activity, notably for pet house owners and snackers who eat close to their computer systems.

Associated

MacBook owners with faulty butterfly keyboards will finally get paid soon

The payout is 2 years within the making.