u/rokarthur

👋 Hello! I got tired of the stock ⌘Tab, icons only, no windows, no search, no control. I'd tried the usual alternatives (AltTab or Contexts), but wanted something free to use. So I built BetterCmdTab: a drop-in replacement for the native switcher and a lighter, native alternative to the popular window switchers.

What it does:

• Three layouts: classic list, grid of icons, or live window previews. Pick per shortcut.
• Search & launch — hit / to fuzzy-find, or launch any installed app right from the switcher.
• Tab drill-in — press \ on a window to jump to a specific browser or Finder/Terminal tab (Safari, Chrome, Arc, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Opera, Dia, iTerm…). Or surface every tab as its own row.
• Window switching — ⌘+\ cycles windows of the front app; send a window to the next display.
• Scoped shortcuts — as many global hotkeys as you want, each pre-filtered (all windows / current Space / visible Spaces / current app / minimized) with its own layout, sort, and colors.
• Quick actions — quit, close, minimize, maximize, hide, force-quit inline or on hover.
• Trackpad gestures — three-finger swipe to open the switcher or switch Spaces, with haptics (experimental).
• Multi-monitor aware — opens on the display you're actually working on.
• Letter-prefix jump — type a name to jump straight to it.
• Tap or hold — tap ⌘Tab to switch instantly, hold to open the switcher.
• Sort your way — order by recents (MRU), alphabetical, launch order, or most-recent windows.
• App hotkeys & recently closed — bind a shortcut to focus/launch any app (9 slots), or reopen an app you just quit.
• Force quit — ⌘⌥Q SIGKILLs a hung app when graceful Quit stalls.
• Stay-open mode — keep the switcher open after you release ⌘ and browse at your pace.
• Appearance: Custom accent color, panel opacity, corner radius, grid columns — all configurable.

Privacy: No telemetry, no analytics, no background network. The only network call is an opt-in GitHub release update check. Settings export/import as a portable .cmdtab file.

Requirements: macOS 13+, Accessibility permission (needed for the global event tap + reading window lists).

Install:

• Homebrew: brew install --cask bettercmdtab
• Website: https://bettercmdtab.app
• GitHub: https://github.com/rokartur/BetterCmdTab/releases/latest

I'm the developer — feedback welcome, happy to answer anything in the comments 🫡

👋 Hello! I got tired of the stock ⌘Tab, icons only, no windows, no search, no control. I'd tried the usual alternatives (AltTab or Contexts), but wanted something free to use. So I built BetterCmdTab: a drop-in replacement for the native switcher and a lighter, native alternative to the popular window switchers.

What it does:

• Three layouts: classic list, grid of icons, or live window previews. Pick per shortcut.
• Search & launch — hit / to fuzzy-find, or launch any installed app right from the switcher.
• Tab drill-in — press \ on a window to jump to a specific browser or Finder/Terminal tab (Safari, Chrome, Arc, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Opera, Dia, iTerm…). Or surface every tab as its own row.
• Window switching — ⌘+\ cycles windows of the front app; send a window to the next display.
• Scoped shortcuts — as many global hotkeys as you want, each pre-filtered (all windows / current Space / visible Spaces / current app / minimized) with its own layout, sort, and colors.
• Quick actions — quit, close, minimize, maximize, hide, force-quit inline or on hover.
• Trackpad gestures — three-finger swipe to open the switcher or switch Spaces, with haptics (experimental).
• Multi-monitor aware — opens on the display you're actually working on.
• Letter-prefix jump — type a name to jump straight to it.
• Tap or hold — tap ⌘Tab to switch instantly, hold to open the switcher.
• Sort your way — order by recents (MRU), alphabetical, launch order, or most-recent windows.
• App hotkeys & recently closed — bind a shortcut to focus/launch any app (9 slots), or reopen an app you just quit.
• Force quit — ⌘⌥Q SIGKILLs a hung app when graceful Quit stalls.
• Stay-open mode — keep the switcher open after you release ⌘ and browse at your pace.
• Appearance: Custom accent color, panel opacity, corner radius, grid columns — all configurable.

Privacy: No telemetry, no analytics, no background network. The only network call is an opt-in GitHub release update check. Settings export/import as a portable .cmdtab file.

Requirements: macOS 13+, Accessibility permission (needed for the global event tap + reading window lists).

Install:

• Homebrew: brew install --cask bettercmdtab
• Website: https://bettercmdtab.app
• GitHub: https://github.com/rokartur/BetterCmdTab/releases/latest

I'm the developer — feedback welcome, happy to answer anything in the comments 🫡

macOS's built-in Cmd+Tab has been stuck in 2007. The third-party scene is split between paid apps (Witch $14, Contexts $10) and AltTab... eh

So I built BetterCmdTab. Free, open-source, native AppKit, no Electron, no background CPU when idle.

What it does differently:

• Two layouts: a classic list, or a grid of app icons with spatial navigation (arrow keys move you around the grid).
• Letter-prefix jump: start typing the first letters of an app name to jump straight to it.
• Quick actions on the highlighted row: ⌘+Q quit, ⌘+W close window, ⌘+M minimize, ⌘+H hide.
• Liquid Glass backdrop on macOS 26 with graceful fallback on older systems.
• Shift+tap to step backward without holding Tab.
• and it's fast af, and it uses very few resources.

What it doesn't do:

• No telemetry. No analytics. No cloud.
• No subscription. No license key. No "pro lifetime tier for 25€".

Built and signed for macOS 13+.

GitHub: https://github.com/rokartur/BetterCmdTab
Feedback / bug reports / feature requests are welcome!

Hi, r/macapps. My name is Artur, and I’m the developer of BetterAudio, an app I’d like to introduce to you.

Problem

macOS audio is split across System Settings, the Sound menu bar, AirPods quirks, and a stack of single-purpose utilities. Out of the box you cannot:

• set a different volume for Spotify and a Zoom call
• apply EQ per app
• switch between AirPods, headphones and speakers in one click
• pin a specific app to a specific output device
• control any of the above from your iPhone

I wanted one native menu bar app that does all of it, with a real free tier, and no subscription on essentials.

Comparison

• vs SoundSource by Rogue Amoeba ($59 one-time): same per-app volume / EQ idea, but BetterAudio is $9.99 one-time, has a fully usable free tier, and adds on-device AI dictation (Whisper), an iPhone remote, a betteraudio CLI, 37 Apple Shortcuts actions and audio profiles.
• vs eqMac (free + subscription): eqMac is mostly EQ. BetterAudio covers the whole audio stack (per-app volume / EQ / routing, smart device priority, dictation, remote, CLI) and never moves features behind a subscription.
• vs Background Music (free, OSS): BetterAudio adds full device management, EQ, profiles, dictation, a native UI and active development (just shipped 26.6.1 today).

Pricing

• Free, forever: per-app volume / EQ / routing, AI Dictation with Whisper, iPhone Remote, 37 Shortcuts actions, priority device auto-switch, force media keys + volume routing, Bluetooth battery levels, CLI tool, audio profiles.
• Support License: $9.99 USD / €7.99 EUR / 29.99 PLN. One-time payment, lifetime updates, 14-day free trial, transferable license. Adds Multi-Output (play through every speaker at once), Audio Statistics, Unlimited Dictation Recordings, Compact Now Playing, Custom HUD Position, Extended HUD Time, Device Sorting, per-shortcut exclusions, and the option to disable media keys per app.

Links

• Site and download: https://betteraudio.pro
• BetterAudio Remote on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/betteraudio-remote/id6758966704

Requires macOS 14.6 (Sonoma) or later. Apple Silicon and Intel.

Honest feedback welcome.

For those of you who’ve made it this far and read the post all the way through, here’s a 15% discount code: >!EQ15!< (valid until May 31, 11:59 PM, GMT+2).