Readit NewsI'm working on Macscope (https://macscope.app), a better Cmd+Tab for macOS. I built it because macOS window management feels slow compared to the keyboard-driven speed of a terminal or code editor.
It augments your existing muscle memory: a quick tap of a shortcut switches apps like normal, but holding it opens a powerful interface with features like:
Unified Search: Instantly find any window, app, or browser tab.
Scopes: Save and restore entire window layouts for different projects (perfect for after you unplug a monitor).
Placement Modes: Snap windows to screen halves as you switch to them.
The goal is to make the OS feel as fast as my other tools. I'm always looking for feedback on how to make window management less frustrating!
gprok commented on Show HN: Macscope – I decide to built a better Cmd-Tab replacement for macOS macscope.app... · Posted by u/gprok
I don’t see anything indicating whether I can resize the grid overlay to show more or fewer icons. Is it resizable beyond the example of full screen with the default number of icons? Can I see five columns of eight icons per row, for example? I have way too many open apps for such a small grid layout to be efficient managing my apps.
Looks pretty clean. Nice job with that aspect.
Hey!
Following up on our conversation from a few days ago. You asked about resizing the grid to show more or fewer items, and I'm happy to announce that this feature is now live in the latest version (v1.35)!
While Macscope is open, you can now use
Command + Plus (⌘+) and Command + Minus (⌘-) to dynamically increase or decrease the size of the previews. This allows you to shrink them down to see many more windows at once—which should be a big help for managing the large number of apps you mentioned—or make them larger for a more detailed view.
Thanks again for the excellent feedback; it directly helped shape this update.
Hope you get a chance to try it out!
gprok commented on Show HN: Macscope – I decide to built a better Cmd-Tab replacement for macOS macscope.app... · Posted by u/gprok
So, I saw this when I was browsing HN from my phone and made a note to come back and check it out on my Mac when I was home. I started playing around with the settings and customizing the behaviors, and within about five minutes, I thought: "I really like this."
It's not perfect, but it's off to a great start. I can't really provide useful feedback until I've spent more time integrating it into my workflow. But I can tell you that I test-drive a lot of apps that look interesting and this is one of the rare gems that I knew right away is a good fit for me.
But the best part: Apple broke the workflow for cycling open windows via hotkey more than a decade ago and they haven't fixed it. Closing or interacting with a window in the middle of cycling through them causes the order to reverse. Interacting with another window causes it to reverse again. It's madness. I used to hope to see it fixed with each major releases. I've long since given up on that. Apparently, no one in the c-suite at Apple manages dozens of open windows on a daily basis.
Your app solves this problem, one that has been tripping me up for sixteen years. Thank you. For that alone, I'd have kept it installed. The rest is just gravy on top.
Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to come back and try it out, and for writing such a thoughtful comment. This really made my day. Comments like this are incredibly motivating :)
gprok commented on Show HN: Macscope – I decide to built a better Cmd-Tab replacement for macOS macscope.app... · Posted by u/gprok
I don’t see anything indicating whether I can resize the grid overlay to show more or fewer icons. Is it resizable beyond the example of full screen with the default number of icons? Can I see five columns of eight icons per row, for example? I have way too many open apps for such a small grid layout to be efficient managing my apps.
Looks pretty clean. Nice job with that aspect.
Hey there!
Thanks for the kind words on the design!
Right now, the grid layout and preview size is kind of fixed. But you're right that there isn't an option to manually configure it to a specific layout like "five columns of eight icons."
Making the preview size or the grid customisable is definitely on the roadmap. I've already been playing around with options during development, and it will likely come in a future version :)
gprok commented on Show HN: Macscope – I decide to built a better Cmd-Tab replacement for macOS macscope.app... · Posted by u/gprok
does it display minimized apps as default macos switcher? that bothers me to degree i would pay for substitute.
Yes, it absolutely can!
There's an option in
Settings > General > Window Filtering called "Show minimized windows" that you can enable. It's turned off by default, but if you flip that on, all your minimized apps and their windows will show up in the list.
The only heads-up is that live previews aren't available for minimized windows due to a system limitation, so they'll show the app icon instead.
Hope that helps!
gprok commented on Show HN: Macscope – I decide to built a better Cmd-Tab replacement for macOS macscope.app... · Posted by u/gprok
Can it help with the annoying macos bug that about half the time disconnecting and reconnecting external screen to my MacBook does not move windows back to external screen?
That's a super annoying macOS bug; I've definitely felt that pain.
While Macscope can't fix the underlying issue in macOS, this is a perfect use case for its "Scopes" feature. It's designed to solve exactly this kind of layout restoration problem.
Here’s how you can solve it with Macscope:
When you have all your windows arranged perfectly on your external monitor, open Macscope.
Multi-select all of those windows and save them as a new "Scope". You could name it something like "Work Setup".
The next time you reconnect your monitor and macOS scatters your windows, just open Macscope and activate your "Work Setup" Scope. It will move and arrange all of those windows back to their saved positions on your external monitor in one go.
So, it essentially gives you a one-click way to restore your entire workspace after that bug hits. Hope that helps!
gprok commented on Show HN: Macscope – I decide to built a better Cmd-Tab replacement for macOS macscope.app... · Posted by u/gprok
Is there a way to disable the advanced window management and scope features? I'm tempted to try out your utility because of the Search & Switch feature. However, I'm already using a window manager (aerospace) that I'm not ready to replace. Given how aerospace works, I suspect the window management/scope features would clash.
That's a really great question, and you're right, not everyone will need the Scopes or arrangement features, especially if they already have a window manager like aerospace that they love.
Right now, there isn't a single toggle to disable them, but they are designed to be completely opt-in. The arrangement features only activate if you explicitly multi-select windows and choose a layout, so they shouldn't interfere with your setup if you're just using Macscope for searching and switching.
That said, I completely agree that a dedicated 'switcher-only' mode is a fantastic idea. I'll add an option to disable the advanced management features in an upcoming version. Thanks for the great suggestion!
In the meantime, the free trial should be safe to use alongside aerospace if you stick to the search/switch functionality.
gprok commented on Show HN: Macscope – I decide to built a better Cmd-Tab replacement for macOS macscope.app... · Posted by u/gprok
That's a great link, Alt-Tab is a fantastic utility! I've tried all the popular tools in this space, including Raycast's switcher, and they are all excellent at what they do.
My goal with Macscope was to address a slightly different problem. Most switchers answer the question "what app/window do I want to open?". I found my workflow often involved a second step: "...and now I need to use another tool to position it."
Macscope tries to be a combination of a switcher and an arranger, answering the question "open and where?" in a single action.
A feature I'm really happy with that illustrates this is the new "Placement Mode". You can use a dedicated hotkey (e.g., Ctrl+Opt+L) that tells Macscope "I'm about to switch to a window, and I want it to snap to the right half of the screen." When you select the window, it both switches and arranges in one fluid motion.
Here’s a quick video showing how it works in practice: https://screen.studio/share/pg4H5i4c
It's a different approach, but hopefully a useful one for certain workflows. Thanks for sharing the link for others' reference!
Coming from tools like the terminal and code editors where you can jump between anything instantly with a few keystrokes, the OS layer felt slow and inefficient by comparison.
That's really where the ideas for Macscope came from. The "tap vs. hold" mechanic was born from wanting to keep my Cmd+Tab muscle memory but add more power on top. The "Scopes" feature came directly from my frustration of manually rearranging the same 5-6 windows every single time I started working on a specific project.
It started as a tool just for me, but I'm hoping it resonates with others who feel the same way about their workflow. I'm really curious to hear if others share these frustrations and what your own workarounds have been.
Thanks again for all the feedback so far!