I use text-to-speech way more than I expected.

Articles, long docs, random PDFs, drafts I want to hear out loud, sometimes full chapters from books I’m working through. The annoying part was that every decent TTS tool I tried either had a subscription, credits, or sent the text to the cloud.

So I built a Mac app for myself around local TTS models.

It’s called Murmur. Runs on Apple Silicon, works offline after model download, and does the usual stuff like paste text, import files, batch jobs, export MP3/WAV, etc.

The main reason I built it was pretty simple: I didn’t want to think “is this text worth spending credits on?” every time I wanted to generate audio.

Not pretending it replaces professional audiobook narration or voice acting. It’s more for boring useful stuff: listening to articles, reviewing drafts, generating narration, converting long text to audio.

Would love feedback from Mac users. Especially on what would make this feel like a daily utility instead of a niche AI app.

Link: https://murmurtts.com/

Hey r/macapps 👋

I’m the solo developer of Buffer, a free and open-source clipboard manager for macOS focused on speed, privacy, and keyboard-first workflows.

Just released a major update with a few highly requested features:

🏷️ Custom Tags & Smart Filtering

• Add tags with ⌘T
• Autocomplete existing tags
• Filter instantly using #tags

🔖 Bookmarks (⌘B)
Unlike pins, bookmarks stay in chronological order but are protected from auto-deletion.

🔄 Secure Auto Updates
Buffer now supports architecture-aware self-updating with code-signature verification before installation.

⏱️ Smarter Search Persistence
Search/filter state is briefly preserved when reopening the window so context isn’t lost while multitasking.

Also polished a lot of smaller UX details across selection, layouts, and settings.

Current stats:

• 1150+ downloads
• 240+ GitHub stars

Developer disclosure:

• I’m the sole developer
• Personal side project
• Fully local
• No tracking / telemetry
• Completely free & open source

GitHub:
https://github.com/samirpatil2000/Buffer

Website:
https://samirpatil2000.github.io/products/buffer/

Would genuinely love feedback/suggestions from macOS power users here 🙌

Generative visuals, motion graphics, optical art and live visuals built in real time using parametric grids, procedural animation, MIDI and audio-reactive controls. Export in SVG, PDF, PNG or ProRes video directly from the app.
App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/polagone/id6755683557?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Hey!

I built RetroMac, a little macOS app that applies real-time retro shader effects to your entire screen. Think glowing CRT monitors, VHS tape glitches, classic Macintosh aesthetics, Game Boy green... all live, one click.

What it does:

• 30+ shader presets (CRT, VHS, Game Boy, Macintosh, and more)
• Auto-matches looks per app
• Custom dock styles & themed screenshots
• Eco modes to keep your system smooth

Pricing: Completely free (8 shaders included). Unlock additional presets for a one-time €8.88. The rest of the app is free!

 https://myretromac.app

(Disclaimer: I'm the developer)

I made App Trust Preview, a macOS app that helps you understand whether another Mac app looks reasonable to open.

Website: https://apptrustpreview.com
Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6767974737
macOS: 10.13+

Why I made it

I often see people ask whether some downloaded Mac app is safe to open. The usual answers quickly become technical: signatures, sandboxing, entitlements, helper tools, permissions, and other macOS security details.

That information matters, but most people should not need to learn all of that just to decide whether opening an app looks reasonable.

App Trust Preview makes that first check simpler. You can choose an app, drag it into the window, or select it in Finder and press Space. The app then shows a readable report in normal language.

What it tells you

The report starts with a simple verdict, then explains the most important findings.

It can show things like:

• Who signed the app
• Whether the app is properly signed
• Whether the app is sandboxed
• Whether the app can access the internet
• Whether the app may ask for privacy permissions
• Whether the app contains helper programs inside
• Whether those helper programs look more powerful than the main app

Why this matters

Some apps are strongly limited by macOS. For example, a sandboxed app with no internet access is usually running with very narrow permissions. It cannot freely browse your files or talk to the internet unless macOS allows it.

But an app can still ask for sensitive access, such as:

• Camera
• Microphone
• Contacts
• Calendar
• Photos
• Bluetooth
• Local network
• USB devices
• Control of other apps

Those permissions can be normal for some apps and strange for others. A video app asking for microphone access makes sense. A simple text editor asking for microphone access deserves a closer look.

App Trust Preview points out those things so you do not have to search through technical details yourself.

Inside the app

A Mac app can contain helper programs inside its bundle. Sometimes the main app looks limited, but a helper inside it is not.

App Trust Preview checks those internal parts too and brings important findings to the top of the report.

Quick Look preview

The app includes a Quick Look extension.

You can:

• Select a .app file in Finder
• Press Space
• See a compact safety preview before opening it

You can also copy the app's bundle identifier from Quick Look, which makes it easier to search online for more information about an unfamiliar app.

Privacy

Everything happens locally.

• Inspected apps are never uploaded
• Inspected apps are never launched
• Inspected apps are never modified
• Reports are generated on your Mac
• The Mac app makes no network requests of its own

Certificate revocation is checked through macOS's own trust system.

App Trust Preview itself is sandboxed and has no network entitlement. It can inspect only the app bundles you choose.

Export

Reports can be exported as:

• PDF
• PNG image
• JSON
• Plain text

This can be useful if you want to keep a record, ask someone else for advice, or send a report to support or IT.

What it does not do

App Trust Preview is not antivirus.

It does not guarantee that an app is safe or malware-free. It does not run the inspected app and does not watch what the app does after launch.

The goal is simpler: show what macOS can verify from the app bundle before you open it, then explain those signals in plain language.

Price

App Trust Preview is $2.99 on the Mac App Store.

Website: https://apptrustpreview.com
Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6767974737

I would appreciate feedback from r/MacOSApps users, especially on whether the report wording is clear enough for non-technical users. I am also open to feature requests and would be happy to implement useful suggestions.

🚀 Valenta Health Tracker 2.0 is now live on iOS!

Valenta is currently available for free, and community feedback means a lot during this stage.
If you discovered the app through Reddit giveaways or posts, we’d really appreciate an honest rating and your thoughts on the latest Reddit thread.

With Valenta, you can currently track:
• Sleep
• Calories
• Workouts
• Running
• Steps
• Heart Rate

And this is only the beginning — more health features are already in development, including supplement tracking and additional wellness tools.

Every rating and piece of feedback helps us improve and grow the app. Thank you for the support ❤️

https://apps.apple.com/ch/app/valenta-health-tracker/id6760937182

If you haven't saw the recent news around Cotypist, they're charging a subscription for an app that runs entirely on your hardware using free, open-source models.

They're gating which models you can run on your own machine behind pricing tiers, paywalling clipboard awareness and per-app customization, and capping at 100 words a day.

I'm not sure about you, but this sounds insane to me for local inference, on your own Mac.

That's why we've been working on an open-source version called Tabby. It's the same idea but 100% free. A macOS menu bar app that brings inline autocomplete to any text field.

What you get, for free, until we both drop dead:

- Works in any macOS text field (Mail, Notes, Slack, iMessage, Safari, etc.)

- 100% on-device inference, nothing ever leaves your Mac

- Visual context via screenshot OCR + clipboard awareness

- Apple Intelligence or any GGUF model via llama.cpp

- Use ANY model. Drop a .gguf file in and go. No tiers, no paywalls on model size

- Unlimited completions. No daily word caps

- Works on as many Macs as you own

- Every single new update

AGPL licensed, open-source on GitHub. No accounts, no licenses, no kill switches, no hardcoded expiry dates, no forced updates that lock you out. We built this because we want to help people save time, not take advantage of their wallet.

Tabby is in beta, and definitely not as polished yet. Custom writing instructions, per-app rules, tone personalization/learning are on the roadmap. We're just two devs so this is very much a community project. If you want to help out, please feel free to star the repo, report bugs, or open a PR. It all makes a real difference.

GitHub: https://github.com/FuJacob/tabby

Website: https://tabbyapp.dev

Your hardware under control, your pet always with you.

Statix combines real-time system metrics with adorable companions that react to your PC.

More info:
https://statix.mycomuapp.com/

A friend of mine was building a live wallpaper tool for Wayland compositors, and I was missing my old Hyprland configuration, since I'm now using a Mac for work, I thought of adding support for macOS as well.

phonto is a small, cli app for setting live video wallpapers across your desktop and lockscreens, and can be easily added into your tiling WM flow.

We're planning to add multi-monitor in the coming days. PRs and contributions are welcome.

Repo link: https://github.com/museslabs/phonto

I often forgot to cancel trial subscriptions and forgot about yearly ones I no longer used. To avoid losing money, I created this app. It’s available on iPhone, iPad, and macOS.

• Import from App Store, Notion, Google Sheets or any file

• iOS Widgets

• Visual calendar with all upcoming payments

• Supports monthly, yearly, trials, one time and custom periods

• Personal / Work and Customs lists with separate tracking

• Multi currency support with auto conversion

• iCloud sync across devices

Only Lifetime Payment (I hate SUBSCRIPTIONS)

Promo code for 10% discount: WELCOME10

App Store Download 

Would love your feedback 🙌

i already use GhostCue as my “everything” notes app on top of its main use as an invisible teleprompter.

so i’ve been working on adding features that make it a real powerhouse for me.

this past week, i’ve been working to get this feature out to Pro users: a clipboard that stores anything you copy on your Mac.

now i can delete Paste and avoid paying the $90 lifetime fee they charge for this feature :)

btw, you can try it for free at ghostcue.app (pro is $29.99 lifetime license)

https://github.com/BrewDeck/BrewDeck is the link ig

Every Google Meet or Huddle call meant alt-tabbing back to my Lofi Girl Youtube tab to pause the video. So I built the native macOS app I wished existed.

Lofi Space is a native menu-bar lofi player with hand-picked scenes (Zen Café, Night Tokyo, Cozy Room, Forest Dawn, Rainbound), each paired with its own animated video loop. The free tier covers everything most people actually need; Pro is a one-time $4.99 unlock for the extras — no subscription.

Free

• All built-in scenes with looping art
• Menu-bar popover + full-screen launcher
• Volume, shuffle, favorites, Now Playing integration
• All future scenes & updates included

Pro · $4.99 once

• Ambient mixer (multiple layers: rain, fire, birds, waves, river, white noise)
• Auto-pause when calls or other audio start — uses macOS's per-process audio APIs, so no microphone permission needed
• Global hotkeys (play/pause, swap scene, volume)
• Pinned offline downloads

Native specifics (because this sub cares):

• Universal binary (Apple Silicon + Intel)
• MB DMG download

Built with

• SwiftUI, no Electron
• No telemetry, no account, no microphone access

Download: https://lofispace.app (demo video autoplays as you scroll)

First public Mac app launch for me — happy to answer anything, take feedback, or hear what features you wish existed!

Two weeks ago I read a study that said people speak about 3x faster than they type. One of those things you've sort of always known but never actually sat with.

So I started looking at voice-to-text apps. Wispr Flow is the obvious pick and it's genuinely good. But $15/month forever for something I'd mostly use to dictate prompts to an LLM felt like a personal insult. I already pay for too many subscriptions.

So instead of doing the rational thing (paying $15), I spent two weeks of evenings rebuilding it. The math obviously doesn't work. But yeah....

What it is

A menu bar app for macOS. You hold a hotkey, talk, release, and the transcribed + polished text gets pasted wherever your cursor is. Works in any app – Slack, browser, IDE, ChatGPT, whatever.

Two open-source models doing the work:

- Parakeet (NVIDIA) / Whisper for transcription

- Gemma 4 (Google) / Apple Intelligence for polishing the raw transcript into something readable

Everything runs locally. No cloud calls, no API keys, no telemetry, no account. Once it's downloaded it works fully offline.

Caveats, in order of importance

1. macOS only. Apple Silicon required (M Series chip). Sorry to Intel Mac and Windows folks – Windows build is next on the list.
2. It's two weeks old. I'd love to say there are no bugs, but I'm a realist. There are bugs I didn't find yet. There will be more bugs...
3. I'd estimate it's at ~90% of Wispr Flow's quality. Not 100%. For me personally, it's enough to use it every day.

What it's saving me

40–60 minutes a day, mostly because I write a lot of prompts. Talking to an LLM feels more natural than typing to one. If you write a lot of emails/docs, the savings are probably bigger.

Download: vox.rizenhq.com (free for personal use, no signup)

The ask

I'm genuinely trying to figure out who this is for besides me. If you try it:

- Tell me where it breaks. I want bug reports more than compliments.

- Tell me what app/workflow you tried it in. I'm trying to understand the actual use cases.

- If there's a feature that would make you switch from Wispr Flow (or start using voice-to-text at all), let me know.

EDIT:

If you see any bugs or want to suggest features - create an issue here.

EDIT 2 (some technical specs, resource consumption, etc.):

1. No need to download AI models separately. App will ask to click "Download" during the onboarding flow and will do everything for you.
2. Gemma 4 models available - E2B, E4B, and 26B. E2B is very small, it'll run even on mobile phones. 26B is honestly too big and usable only by really high-end devices. I personally always use E4B - It has an amazing quality for the purpose of this app and works really fast.

Regarding resource consumption:

1. RAM - approximately 200mb when app is not in use. When you are speaking - approximately 300mb in total. Transcription and Polishing phase - brief spike to 4-6GB for a couple of seconds and then after it's done back to 200mb
2. CPU - when app is not in use, basically 0. When it's in use the biggest spike I saw in Activity Monitor - 20%

EDIT 3

Is it open source? Not right now. I'm considering making it open source though.

BTW, I develop it during my live streams from 8:30 am to 10:30 am ET everyday here. I show the code and decisions I make live on the stream. If you want to ask questions / push for some features / push to make it open source / etc. - join the stream, push it in the chat and I'll consider it!

EDIT 4

Seeing the number of feedback, and feature requests in the comments I've decided to create a discord server to make sure that nothing will be lost and everything will be addressed. You can join here.

So I needed a timer. Could've downloaded one in 10 seconds. Instead I spent way too long building one because I thought it'd be fun to add my own touch and it was.

It's called Tug. It's a 🐸 in your menu bar. The fun part isn't really the timer, it's the frog:

• It watches your cursor. Move around, it follows you.
• When you pull on it, you can see on its face that it does not like that.
• And you feel a little haptic tap on the trackpad when you do it.

That tug + haptic combo was genuinely the most fun thing to build. It does also, you know, work as a timer.

Tug · Menu Bar Timer

Not really selling anything here, just wanted to share a dumb little thing that made me smile to make

Hey everyone,

We’ve been working on a small macOS utility called AppLockr, and we’re looking for feedback from other Mac users.

The basic idea is simple: it lets you lock selected apps and folders with Touch ID or a password. We built it for situations where you leave your Mac unattended, share it with someone briefly, or just want certain things like Notes, Mail, Photos, work apps, or private folders to be harder to open casually.

Some of the current features:

• Lock macOS apps with Touch ID or password
• Lock and locally encrypt folders
• Auto-lock after inactivity
• Lock apps on launch or startup
• Scheduled locking
• Optional webcam capture after failed unlock attempts
• Local-first design
• No ads or data collection

We’re not trying to present it as a replacement for FileVault, separate user accounts, or proper security practices. It’s more of an extra privacy layer for everyday use that doesn't create a hassle to the user.

The main thing we’re trying to figure out now is what other Mac users would actually want from something like this.

Would this be useful to you?

Are there any edge cases or features you’d expect from an app like this?

Is there anything here that feels unnecessary or overcomplicated?

Here is the link to the website if you'd like to check it out: https://applockr.net/

Thanks for any feedback.

Hey everyone 👋

I built Rook because I couldn't find a place for my code notes. I've been used to Apple Notes, it’s fast and minimal, however it doesn't support code blocks.

Why not use something that exists? I tried:

VS Code. It works for markdown, but I always needed a preview extension to see md files rendered, which felt clunky. And I wanted notes to live outside of any specific codebase, not tied to a repo. Something small, open on the side of my desktop.

Obsidian. Didn't feel right at all. Not designed for the kind of simplicity I was looking for.

Bear, Craft, Notion. Too clunky. Not as minimal or fast as I wanted.

Dedicated snippet apps. Opposite problem. Great for code, no place for the notes around it.

On top of that, coding with AI has multiplied my work and I found myself lacking a dedicated place to capture the ongoing logic.

So I built Rook. It’s a free, local and native Mac app made for code notes:

• markdown support
• syntax highlighted code blocks (17+ languages)
• 5 simple themes
• everything stays on your Mac
• optional MCP support so AI tools can write directly into it

I now just say “save this to Rook” to Claude instead of copy-pasting around.

Rook is live on Product Hunt today 🚀
Would genuinely appreciate any support or feedback: https://www.producthunt.com/products/rook-4

I’m also doing a lifetime discount for the first 100 people who sign up today: https://userook.app