Flick 1.1

Let go to switch Improved

In 1.0, typing while you held ⌥ started a search that stayed open after you let go, so switching took a Return or a click as well. In 1.1, letting go switches: hold ⌥, tap Tab, type a few letters and let go. The top result is selected as you type, so a few letters are usually enough.

• No window matches, but an app does: the first app in the Apps section is selected, so letting go opens it.
• Nothing matches: Flick closes without switching, so letting go never takes you somewhere random.
• Made a typo? While you still hold ⌥, Delete removes one character, so you can fix it before you let go. Esc closes Flick and leaves you where you were.
• A search you start with Return, with ⇧⌘Space or with a click still waits for you to press Return, as before.

Rather keep the list open while you type? Set When you let go while searching in Settings › Shortcuts to Keep the list open, which is how 1.0 behaved. The default is Switch to the selected result, for the ⌥Tab and ⌘Tab triggers alike. More in what letting go does while you search.

Letters always type Fixed

In 1.0, four letters were also window actions while you held ⌥: W closed the selected window, M minimized it, H hid its app and Q quit it. So typing “mail” or “whatsapp” with ⌥ held acted on a window instead of searching for it. In 1.1, every letter types while you hold ⌥, and the four actions moved to ⌥⇧.

• With the ⌘Tab trigger nothing changed: ⌘W, ⌘M, ⌘H and ⌘Q work while you hold ⌘, as in 1.0.
• “Once the list stays open” means a search that waits for Return: one you started with Return, ⇧⌘Space or a click, or any search after you let go of ⌥ with Keep the list open on. There, ⌥ and a letter would type a character, so the actions use ⌘.
• A letter typed right after ⌥Tab, before the panel appeared, could reach the app you were in. Flick now catches it, and it starts the search.

Every key for closing, minimizing, hiding and quitting is in close, minimize, hide or quit from Flick.

Number keys New

While you hold ⌥ after ⌥Tab, press 1 to 9 to switch straight to that row, without tapping down to it. Flick listens for the numbers from the moment you press ⌥Tab, so a fast ⌥Tab and a number switches before the panel even appears. While you search, the numbers pick from the results.

• Rows 1 to 9 show their key at the right edge, such as ⌥3. To hide the hints, turn off Show number shortcuts in Settings › Shortcuts; the keys keep working.
• With the ⌘Tab trigger, or once the list stays open after you let go, use ⌘1 to ⌘9.
• The keys go by their place on the top row, not by what they type, so they work on AZERTY too. Where a number key types a letter, such as é on a French keyboard, add ⇧: ⌥⇧2.
• In a detail list, such as a browser window's tabs, the numbers pick from that list. They never pick from the Apps section.

Which row each number picks, and why, is in jump straight to a row with a number.

Browser tabs New

With a license, Flick searches the tabs open in Safari, Google Chrome, Google Chrome Beta, Brave Browser and Microsoft Edge, by title or address, and switches straight to the tab you pick, bringing its window forward on whatever Space it's on.

• Each browser is off until you turn it on in Settings › Browser Tabs. macOS then asks once whether Flick may control it, using the Automation permission. Flick sends a browser nothing before you turn it on, and never opens one that isn't running.
• Tabs show up in search, one row per matching tab. In the list itself, a browser window keeps one row, with its tab count when it has more than one tab: press → or click the count to see its tabs.
• Every word you type must match, so “chrome github” finds the GitHub tabs in Chrome, while “chrome” on its own finds Chrome's windows rather than every Chrome tab.
• Private and incognito windows are left out unless you turn on Include private windows. Safari's tabs are listed only while that's on (why).
• Nothing is saved or sent. Tab titles and addresses are read on your Mac and kept in memory only. Flick keeps just the site and path of an address, and fetches no tab icons, so tabs add no network requests.
• Other browsers aren't supported in 1.1, including Firefox and Arc, and test versions such as Chrome Canary, Edge Beta and Safari Technology Preview; Chrome Beta is the one exception. See which browsers Flick can search.

Without a license, the Browser Tabs page says “Browser tabs come with a license.” and Flick contacts no browser. To turn tabs on step by step, and to fix a browser macOS didn't allow, see search your browser tabs with Flick.

The front app's windows New

A second switcher, for just the app you're in. It lists that app's windows on every Desktop, full-screen and minimized ones included, under a header such as “Safari · 4 windows”. A quick tap flips to the app's previous window; hold the modifier and tap ` to move down, add ⇧ to go back, and let go to switch.

• With the ⌘Tab trigger, it's ⌘`, on by default, in place of the macOS shortcut. ⇧⌘` goes back.
• With the ⌥Tab trigger, turn on ⌥` with Switch between the front app's windows in Settings › Shortcuts › Front App's Windows. It's off by default, because on many keyboard layouts ⌥` types accents, and Settings warns you when yours is one of them.
• Typing searches only that app's windows, and with a license, that browser's tabs. Number keys and window actions work as in the main list.
• An app with one window switches without showing the panel. An app with no windows, or one you've ignored, does nothing.

Setup for both triggers is in switch between one app's windows.

Smarter search Improved

Search now puts the best match first instead of keeping the list's order. An exact match comes first, then names and titles that start with what you type, then word starts and initials (“vsc” finds Visual Studio Code), then text anywhere, then letters in order for words of three or more letters (“sfri” finds Safari). Ties go to the window you used most recently, and the matched letters show in bold.

• Document names count. Search also looks at the file and folder names of the document a window shows, when the app reports one: “invoices” finds a window showing ~/Documents/invoices/q3.pdf. Folders every document shares, such as Documents and Desktop, are skipped, and the names are never shown, saved or sent. More in find a window by the file it shows.
• As in 1.0, every word you type must match, in any order, and capitals and accents don't matter.
• Prefer 1.0's plain matching, in list order? Set Matching to Exact match in Settings › General › Search. It still searches document names, as plain text.

Why a result lands where it does is explained in Smart and Exact matching.

Actions menu New

Press ⌥⇧K for every action on the selected row, each with its own key. With the ⌘Tab trigger it's ⇧⌘K, and once the list stays open after you let go, ⌘K. Right-clicking or Control-clicking a row opens the same menu; in 1.0 it had four items: Activate, Close Window, Quit App and Ignore App.

• With the ⌘Tab trigger, or once the list stays open, the keys for minimize, close, hide and quit are ⌘M, ⌘W, ⌘H and ⌘Q.
• Letting go of the modifier keeps the menu open, so you can read it at your own pace. Esc, or the K chord again, closes just the menu.
• In a menu you opened with a right-click, letters go on to the search, so typing never runs an action by accident.

Each action in detail, including what Force Quit asks: the actions menu.

Rows and displays New

• Row icons. Small icons at the end of a row mark minimized and full-screen windows, hidden apps and windows on another Desktop, and VoiceOver reads the same. An app with no open windows says No windows under its name.
• Show minimized windows, in Settings › General, decides whether windows minimized to the Dock are listed. It's on by default, so minimized windows stay listed, as in 1.0, unless you turn it off.
• Show switcher on, in Settings › Appearance, opens the panel on the display with the pointer, as before, or on the display with the active window. Either way, the list has windows from every display.
• Move pointer to the window after switching, in Settings › General, moves the pointer to the window you switch to when it's on another display. It's off by default.
• Show where the selected window is, in Settings › Appearance, outlines the selected window on screen while the panel is open, and Outline and dim dims everything else too. It's off by default. Flick reads only where windows are, never what they show, so it doesn't need Screen Recording.

See which display Flick opens on and see where the selected window is.

Shortcut warnings New

When another app already has Flick's shortcut, or another window switcher is running on the same keys, Flick says so in its menu bar menu and in a Shortcut Conflicts group at the top of Settings › Shortcuts, such as “⌥Tab is in use by another app”. The same goes for the front app's windows shortcut.

• Each warning says what you can do, with buttons for it: Use ⌘Tab Instead (or ⌥Tab) and, for another switcher, Quit App or Don't Warn About App. Warn Again brings back the warnings you turned off.
• Flick never reads or changes other apps' settings, and quits another app only when you click the button.

What each warning means: Flick says another app uses its shortcut.

Window order Improved

Quit and reopen Flick, and ⌥Tab still knows the order you used your windows in, as long as Flick opens again within 10 minutes and your Mac hasn't restarted. That covers updates from 1.1 on, because Install Update reopens Flick straight away.

• Flick saves the order when it quits, when your Mac goes to sleep and just before an update. The file holds window numbers, each app's process number and launch time, and their order, never titles or app names.
• Flick deletes the file once it has used it, and deletes it unused when it's more than 10 minutes old or from before a restart.
• The update from 1.0 to 1.1 started with a fresh order, because 1.0 didn't save it.

More in your window order after an update.

Free version Improved

• The note at the bottom of the panel counts your windows, such as “Free version · 5 of 23 windows”. Click it to open Settings › License.
• When a search matches only windows beyond your 5 most recent, Flick says how many instead of just No matches. Alongside other results, the note says “Free version · 2 more matches”. Counts only, never titles.
• The front app's windows lists that app's windows among your 5 most recent and says how many more there are, such as “3 more Safari windows beyond your 5 most recent”. In the free version it keeps your list filters, such as Show only the active Space.
• Everything else in 1.1 is in the free version too: let go to switch, number keys, the front app's windows, smarter search, the actions menu and every new setting outside Browser Tabs. A license unlocks every window and browser tabs.

What the free version includes, in full: the free version.

Settings Improved

A new Browser Tabs page makes seven: General, Appearance, Shortcuts, Browser Tabs, Exceptions, License and About. Reset All Settings… in About now resets browser tabs too, and still leaves permissions, launch at login and your license alone. These settings are new in 1.1:

Every page and option is described in Flick's settings, page by page.

Privacy

• Flick asks for Accessibility, as before, plus Automation for each browser you turn on for browser tabs, and only once you've turned it on. It still doesn't need Screen Recording or Input Monitoring.
• Nothing new goes online. Flick still connects only to check for updates, if you allow it, and to check your license, once you have one.
• Tab titles, addresses and document names stay in memory. The only new file is the window order file, which holds no titles.
• The privacy policy now covers browser tabs, document names and the window order file.

How to update

If you allowed automatic checks, Flick looks for a new version about once a day and tells you when one is ready. To check now, click the Flick icon in the menu bar and choose Check for Updates…. Updates are signed, and Flick verifies each one before it installs. How updates work

New to Flick? Download the latest version.