Press ⌥Tab and let go straight away. Flick takes you back to the window you were in before, whatever app it belongs to and whatever Space it's on, without showing its panel. Tap again to flip back.
See it
Each quick tap of ⌥Tab swaps your two most recent windows. The panel never appears, because each tap is over before it would.
Flick shows its panel only if you're still holding ⌥ a moment after the press, about 70 milliseconds. Let go sooner and it switches without the panel. Hold on and you get the full list of every open window.
Hold ⌥ and tap Tab once. Flick starts on the second row of its list, which with the default settings is your previous window: the one you used before the window you're in now, in any app.
Release ⌥ and that window comes to the front, on whatever Space or display it's on, a full-screen app's Space included. If it was minimized, Flick restores it from the Dock.
The window you just left is now the previous one, so the next quick tap takes you back. Keep tapping to go back and forth between the two.
The same quick tap works in reverse, with the ⌘Tab trigger, and inside a single app.
A quick tap of ⌥⇧Tab starts at the other end of the list, so letting go takes you to the last row: with the default order, whatever you used longest ago. Keep holding ⌥ instead and the panel opens there, ready to move up.
Choose Command ⌘ + Tab in Settings › Shortcuts and the quick tap moves to ⌘Tab, which then takes you to your previous window rather than your previous app. macOS gets its own ⌘Tab back when Flick quits. See choosing a trigger.
To flip between two windows of the same app, use the front app's windows shortcut: a quick tap goes to that app's previous window, even on another Space. It's ⌘` with the ⌘Tab trigger, on by default. With ⌥Tab, turn on Switch between the front app's windows in Settings › Shortcuts to use ⌥`; it's off by default because ⌥` types accents on many keyboard layouts.
Flick orders windows by when you last used them, however you got there: a click, ⌘Tab, the Dock or Mission Control. So the quick tap goes back to the window you were really in before.
With the default ⌥Tab trigger; with ⌘Tab, use ⌘ in place of ⌥. The full shortcut list covers both.
| Keys | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tap ⌥Tab | Switches to your previous window, with no panel. |
| Tap ⌥⇧Tab | Switches to the last row of the list, with no panel. |
| Hold ⌥, tap Tab | Opens the panel with your previous window selected. Tap again to move down, then let go to switch. |
| ⌘` | With the ⌘Tab trigger: flips to the front app's previous window. |
| ⌥` | With the ⌥Tab trigger, once you turn it on: flips to the front app's previous window. |
In the free versionQuick switching works the same: a quick tap uses the top of the list, which the free version always includes, and a quick ⌥⇧Tab goes to the bottom of its list of up to 5.
It appears whenever you're still holding ⌥ when it's due. That changes nothing: the same window is selected either way, so letting go switches to it just the same.
The second row of the list. With the default settings, that's the window you used before this one. With List order set to Name A-Z, it's the second row in alphabetical order. With Group by app, it's the most recent window of the app you used before the current one. And with Show only the active Space on, windows on other Spaces aren't in the list, so the tap skips them.
Hold ⌥, tap Tab twice and let go. Or hold ⌥, tap Tab and press 3: with the default order, row 1 is the window you're in and row 3 the one before your previous window. Number keys switch even before the panel appears.
A quick ⌘Tab flips between your last two apps, which works until the two windows you're using belong to the same app. Flick's quick tap goes by window, so it doesn't matter which apps they're in. For more on the built-in options, see switching between windows of the same app.
Try it with the two windows you use most.
The free version never expires and switches between your 5 most recent windows. A one-time license, from $9.49, unlocks every window and browser tabs.