Spotlight is your MacOS search tool, and it’s pretty useful. However, there are better tools for the job that offer more features and better workflows. Until Tahoe.
Apple is planning to roll out the biggest update ever to Spotlight, and it looks like it’ll be a real winner for those who find the current iteration to be lacking. Thanks to that, I might be able to remove the other apps I’ve used in place of Spotlight.
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But what will Spotlight be getting with the Tahoe upgrade? Plenty.
Easier to filter
Some of the features make it easier to filter results to help you narrow searches to exactly what you’re looking for. Spotlight will also be able to search and show results for documents stored on third-party cloud drives. And if you’re not sure what you’re looking for, the new browse views will help you scan through apps, files, clipboard, history, and more to find what you need.
Taking action
Better filters are great and all, but the real upgrade is all about taking action with Spotlight. This is the feature that will elevate Spotlight into a more productive and efficient tool. With the newest updates, Spotlight allows you to take hundreds of actions, like sending an email, creating a note, playing a song… all without having to jump from app to app.
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You’ll also be able to run shortcuts and perform actions from the menu bar, in the app you’re currently using, without lifting your hands from the keyboard (a feature that reminds me of the old Ubuntu Unity HUD — which was a masterclass in efficiency). The new Spotlight also learns from your routines across the system and surfaces personalized actions based on things like contacts you regularly talk to.
For example, you might have a shopping list, called SHOPPING, and you want to add cat food to it. You can open Spotlight, type Add cat food to SHOPPING, and the entry will be added to the proper list.
Quick keys
The new Spotlight upgrade also introduces quick keys, which are short strings of characters that help get you right to what you’re looking for. Think of these as hotkeys for specific actions.
I recently wrote about a MacOS app called Alfred, which allowed me to ditch Spotlight for a more powerful tool. Well, when MacOS Tahoe finally arrives on my MacBook and iMac, I can give Alfred the boot, in favor of the supercharged Spotlight.
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These updates are a welcome addition and will help make Spotlight the powerhouse search tool it should have been long ago.
MacOS Tahoe isn’t slated for release until the fall of 2025. For those wanting to get an early peek into what’s coming, the public betas will be rolled out in July (which is when Apple usually releases public betas). You can sign up for the public beta program here and even learn more about the upcoming releases.
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