Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.
Spotlight on the Mac has been far from perfect, especially in recent years. If you want a great, drop-in replacement that offers speedy app launches, file searches, a clipboard manager, and much, much more – you should check out Vector.
Top features
Vector puts speed, privacy, and seamless integration first and foremost – ensuring that when you type in an app name and hit enter, you’ll always get exactly what you’re looking for. For whatever reason, Spotlight regularly struggles with this.
Fast (and accurate) app opening aside, Vector offers a number of awesome features that make it even more powerful than Spotlight:
- Semantic search for Messages and Files
- Clipboard manager
- Emoji picker
- Weather and calendar widgets
- Wikipedia search
- Maps integration
Semantic search for Messages and Files uses an on device model optimized for Apple Silicon, utilizing the Neural Engine – and it actually works. Unlike Messages search which is often unreliable, Vector will show you what you’re looking for. You can search for keywords, or you can enter a general phrase or question and it’ll find you the relevant texts. Same goes for files.
Calendar and weather are also integrated, quickly showing you upcoming meetings, or whether or not its going to rain or storm – right when you need to see it.
It also offers calculator and currency conversion features – all in a nice little search bar at the bottom right corner of your Mac (though you do have the option to move it if you’d like to.)
Download Vector
Vector is available on all Apple Silicon Macs running macOS Tahoe. You can purchase it on Gumroad, and it has a pay as you go model – where you can pay more or less depending on how much you’d like to support.
If you have your own grievances with Spotlight and want to try out something new, Vector is an excellent app that’s worth your time. I personally love how fast it is at opening apps, and integrations like weather and calendar are a useful touch that add a lot of value.
My favorite Apple accessory recommendations:
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