ShakeToFocus - when you need to dim the background apps and you like the traditional settings window, not a sidebar
I've been learning Korean for a while now. Daily Anki sessions, trying to stay consistent.
The problem: I'd open Anki, see a browser tab in the background, and that was it. Not even a notification: just the visual presence of something else being there. Five minutes of Korean turned into thirty minutes of whatever that tab was.
I like Anki small and tight in the corner. Full screen is not an option.
I built ShakeToFocus. Shake your mouse → dark overlay covers everything except the window you're in. Switch apps → it follows. Shake again to turn it off.
So
https://reddit.com/link/1tje8c6/video/6fgstp76bg2h1/player
Now I open Anki, shake, and there's literally nothing else on screen to look at.
Comparison with other apps: (Updated)
- Monocle: ShakeToFocus has plain dim overlay, no blur rendering, so near-zero CPU, zero GPU overhead at idle. Price the same.
- HazeOver: HazeOver doesn't have shake trigger
- blurred (free OSS): effectively abandoned.
No Screen Recording, no Accessibility permissions — nothing. Built in Swift.
Who am I:
I'm a solo dev, trying my best to finally pass Korean exam and playing with stuff around. Wanted to try to write something on MacOS for a long time already, so here it is.