10 macOS Apps You Never Heard of But Will Use Regularly

Install these apps right away to make the most use of your Mac

You have probably already come across many posts like this, and chances are you have even read a few of them. I have as well.

But, this post is different in the way that I have handpicked all the ten macOS apps I have listed in this post and have made sure that

1. The apps are not widely known or popular.

2. The apps can be used by most people regularly.

You will be spending at least the next few minutes skimming through this post, and I want to ensure that you will get some value from it.

Ok, let’s dive right in now.

Abnormal Mouse

If you don’t own a Magic Mouse or use a normal external mouse with your Mac and miss the functionalities of the trackpad, then the Abnormal mouse app will make your workflow normal again. (It’s a bad pun, I know.)

The app attempts to replace your normal mouse with a trackpad or a magic mouse-like usage experience, and it succeeds at it.

You could use several options, like dragging your mouse like a trackpad to scroll through pages, using trackpad gestures like swiping to go back, and even gestures to zoom and rotate on images and pages.

You can also set up your own custom gestures to switch between workspaces, manage app windows, browser tabs, etc.

Use the Abnormal mouse app for better productivity when working with photo and video editing apps and for an overall nicer usage experience with a mouse.

Abnormal Mouse for macOS Abnormal Mouse Fix normal mice for macOS. Perfect for mice with a lot of buttons. Why is magic mouse so expensive…abnormalmouse.intii.com

Audio Hijack

Audio Hijack might just seem like yet another audio recording app on the surface, but it is so much more powerful than that.

For instance, you can simultaneously record all the audio playing on your Mac, record calls from Skype, Zoom, etc., use the magic boost option to get the loudest possible audio output from your Mac’s speakers, and more.

Audio Hijack is a great way to record live web streams, podcasts, etc., for offline listening. You can also use built-in tools like Mixer and compressor to combine audio from multiple sources and remove interference.

The latest version of the app is also updated to introduce support for the Shortcuts app in macOS Monterey, allowing you to use your custom automation workflows.

Install Audio Hijack to record your meetings when you can’t be bothered to listen to them live or for Podcasting or even to just record a bunch of audio on your Mac.

Audio Hijack - Record any audio on Mac Rogue Amoeba is home to fantastic MacOS audio products for consumers and professionals alike. Rogue Amoeba - Strange…rogueamoeba.com

AirBuddy 2

If you own a ton of Apple devices and are constantly forgetting to charge them or are wondering about their battery levels, then you can definitely justify spending a little of your hard-earned money on the AirBuddy 2 app.

AirBuddy 2 is a simple utility app that is present on the menu bar of your Mac and can be accessed any time by clicking on the app icon to instantly get the current battery levels of any of your connected Apple devices.

The app supports displaying battery level info for your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, MacBook, and even your Magic keyboard and mouse. You can also configure the app to receive alerts whenever any of your device’s batteries are running low or is fully charged.

The cool things the app can do does not stop there; you can also use the Magic handoff feature to move your magic keyboard and mouse seamlessly across your other Mac devices and set up keyboard shortcuts to quickly check the status of a device switch between AirPods listening modes and more.

Install AirBuddy 2 to never worry if your Apple devices will die on you. It also shows pop-up animations when you open AirPods near your Mac which is cool.

AirBuddy 2 Own a previous version of AirBuddy? See upgrade options. Already have an AirBuddy 2 license? Download the app. Also…v2.airbuddy.app

Airgram

A lot of people are being asked to come back to the office recently, but if you are still lucky enough to have work-from-home privileges, then you would certainly benefit from the Airgram app.

Airgram is an app aimed at WFH Mac users who have constant Google Meet, Teams, or Zoom meetings scheduled throughout their day. The app automatically records and transcribes your meetings with speaker detection to help you easily take notes and refer to the highlights of the meetings.

✍︎Source: Airgram

The app also uses AI to timestamp the notes with the video recording of the meetings, making it much easier to skim through the contents quickly. There are also features to automatically skip silent parts in the video and highlight important info like dates, events, etc.

Install the Airgram app if you hate taking manual notes and want to manage your time more efficiently.

Airgram | AI Assistant for Zoom, GMeet, and MS Teams Meetings Record, live transcribe, document Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams calls. Airgram is where augmented meeting…www.airgram.io

Camera Controller

As the name suggests, Camera Controller is a straightforward app that lets you control any external webcam you connect to your Mac.

If you are like me and thousands of other people who use an external monitor and a webcam set up with your Mac and suffer from low light and poor quality video, then this app is tailor-made for you.

All you need to do is connect a webcam to your Mac and open the Camera Controller app, and the app will show you a bunch of options using which you can get the desired video output from the webcam.

Some of the things you can control about your webcam output are its brightness, sharpness, saturation, zoom or tilt levels, and more.

Time to install the Camera Controller app and look your best possible self in those boring and unnecessarily long online meetings.

GitHub - Itaybre/CameraController: 📷 Control USB Cameras from an app Control your cameras settings without using the software provided (or not) by the company. Download the latest .zip…github.com

Lunar

Lunar is an app that I never imagined I would use so much on a daily basis, even though it only serves one simple function, to help you control the brightness of the external monitors connected to your Mac.

The app has a simple and intuitive interface that can be used either from the menu bar icon or a simple keyboard shortcut. Apart from manual brightness control, the app also offers location-based brightness, time-based brightness, and even an ambient sensor mode.

If you are a night owl like me, you would definitely love the sub-zero dimming mode in the Lunar app, which reduces the brightness levels below the lowest possible value.

Install the Lunar app If you are tired of manually adjusting the external display’s brightness or if you are a night owl who hates the light.

Lunar - The defacto app for controlling monitor brightness The defacto app for controlling monitors Keep the colors vivid The same familiar keys can now control your external…lunar.fyi

Mirror Magnet

If you are someone who does a lot of online presentations, live streaming, or screen sharing, or if you just like to check yourself out occasionally to look your best for the meetings or just because, then the Mirror Magnet is for you.

The Mirror Magnet might look simple at first, but it is highly customizable, with options to customize the size, shape, aspect ratio, and opacity of the floating mirror, aka output from your webcam on your Mac’s screen.

✍︎Source: Mirror Magnet

The app also provides you with options to improve the video output quality by modifying the values of brightness, contrast, saturation, etc. You can also simply hover on top of the floating window to quickly blur the image when you don’t want it to be displayed on your screen.

Install Mirror Magnet to add a personal touch when presenting or screen-sharing. Being able to constantly check yourself out is an added bonus.

‎Mirror Magnet ‎Mirror Magnet puts a live camera image on your desktop that stays on top of everything else. The app lives in your…apps.apple.com

Pure Paste

Count the number of times you were frustrated when pasting some stuff you copied from a website to a document or an email only to realize that it messed up all of your formatting. Now you have to change everything to match the rest of the document manually. Is it more than 10?

Then, you should definitely install the Pure Paste app. Pure Paste is a macOS app with a simple premise, paste whatever you have copied as plain text by default. That’s it. It removes font, color, size, or any other formatting options from the text you copied and just pastes it as plain old boring text.

The best part about the Pure Paste app is that it doesn’t affect any of the other stuff you are copying, like your files or images, etc., nor any of your passwords copied from password managers. Also, it is completely free and has no ads.

Install the Pure Paste app if you want to save a ton of time every week spent formatting text you copied from somewhere online.

‎Pure Paste ‎How many times have you pasted some text into an email and ended up with a mess of different font sizes? Pure Paste…apps.apple.com

Quiet Reader

If you love to read but are constantly bombarded by distractions like ads, unnecessary images, videos, notifications, or desktop applications, please go ahead and install the Quiet Reader app and thank me later.

While the app is still in the early stages of its development, it seems to work without any issues, and it does what it claims rather perfectly. All you need to do to use the Quiet Reader app is install the app, give accessibility permissions, and install the Chrome extension. That’s it.

From now on, whenever you are about to read something, just use the shortcut cmd+shift+E, and Quiet Reader will instantly open the content in the app interface with all the distractions removed. You can simply use the Esc key to exit the app interface once you are done reading.

Install the Quiet Reader app on your Mac if you want to spend some quality time reading and devouring content.

Quiet Reader — Mac App To Read Without Distractions A Mac reader app that takes away all the ads, notifications, and other distractions to let you just focus on readingquietreader.app

Shottr

Shottr is one of the most powerful Screenshot apps for macOS I have come across. I was a long-term user of CleanShotX, and I will be switching to Shottr.

The app has a ton of features, most of which you never even would have realized would make your life easier after taking a screenshot, be it for work, study, personal projects, or anything in between.

Shottr can take scrolling screenshots on your Mac, completely remove any unwanted objects or text from your screenshots, or just pixelate any sensitive information. Zoom up to 2200% to get a closer look.

You can even use it as a digital ruler and a text recognition tool to copy texts from your screenshots directly. There is also a smart selection tool that lets you quickly select and copy any images, logos, icons, or texts from your screenshots and paste them anywhere you want.

Install the Shottr app if you want to completely transform the way you have been taking and editing screenshots on your Mac.

Shottr — screenshot app for pixel professionals Preview thumbnail for Area Capture, a setting to auto-save or auto-copy the screenshot. See full changelog Colors and…shottr.cc

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