When the Apps section appears
Search lists your windows first. The Apps section, below them, lets you open an app that isn't running yet, as described in Open apps from search. It shows up only when all of these are true:
- You've typed two characters or more. One letter never shows apps.
- Five or fewer results match. With Matching set to Smart, only close matches count toward the five: text that contains what you typed, or matching initials. Looser matches, such as letters in order, don't hide the section. With Exact match, every result counts. With a license and browser tabs turned on, each matching tab counts too, so a word in many tab titles, such as “git”, can hide the section. If many windows match, type more of the app's name.
- The app's name matches. Flick compares what you type with app names only, ranked the way windows are: names that start with your text, then initials, then text anywhere. How search ranks results has the details.
The section lists up to five apps and updates a moment after you stop typing. Press Return, or let go of ⌥ in a search you started by typing, and Flick acts on the letters you've typed, even if you were quicker than the list. When no window matches, the first app is already selected.
Folders Flick looks in
| Folder | What's there |
|---|---|
| /Applications | The apps you install, for everyone on the Mac. |
| ~/Applications | The Applications folder inside your home folder, if you have one. |
| /System/Applications | The apps that come with macOS. |
| /System/Applications/Utilities | macOS's utilities, such as Terminal and Disk Utility. |
| /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications | More apps that come with macOS, such as Archive Utility. |
| Finder | Listed on its own, since it lives outside these folders. |
- Only apps sitting directly in those folders. Flick doesn't look inside subfolders, so an app that installs into a folder of its own inside Applications, or a third-party app kept in /Applications/Utilities, doesn't appear.
- Aliases don't count. An alias made in Finder isn't the app, so Flick skips it. A symbolic link does count; see the questions below.
- The app's own name. Flick reads the name an app gives itself, not its file name. If you renamed an app in Finder, search for its original name. On a Mac set to another language, Finder may show a translated name; if that finds nothing, try the app's English name.
- One copy per app. When two copies of the same app are installed, Flick lists one: macOS's folders come first, then /Applications, then ~/Applications. An older copy in ~/Applications stays hidden behind the one in Applications.
- Other places aren't listed. An app in Downloads, on another disk or still inside its disk image won't show up. Drag it into Applications first.
Just installed?
Flick reads these folders in the background when you open it, at most once a minute, and keeps the list of apps in memory. If you installed the app moments ago, your first search may still use the older list. The section updates by itself when the new read finishes, even while you're searching. If it doesn't, close Flick and search again a minute later.
Already open with a window
- Its windows are listed instead. The Apps section never repeats an app that already has a row in the results. Pick its window to switch to it.
- Running without a window? With Show apps without windows on in Settings › General, a running app with no windows gets its own row, marked “No windows”, among the results. Picking it opens a new window in apps such as Finder and Mail.
- More than five of its windows match. Then the section is hidden, and the windows are your results.
- Ignored apps still show up here. Their windows stay out of the list and search, but you can still open the app by typing its name. See Ignore an app.
Number keys pick windows only⌥1 to ⌥9 pick rows in the results, never an app in the Apps section. To open an app, select it with ↓ and press Return, or click it. In a search you started while holding ⌥, letting go opens it too.
In the front app's windows
When you open the front app's windows with ⌘` (⌘Tab trigger) or ⌥` (⌥Tab trigger), search stays within that one app, so there's no Apps section. Close Flick, then press ⇧⌘Space, or hold ⌥ and tap Tab, and search again. Search your windows covers every way to start a search.
Questions
Can I add another folder?
No, the folders are fixed. If an app has to stay where it is, put a symbolic link to it in the Applications folder of your home folder. In Terminal, with the app's real path in place of the example:
mkdir -p ~/Applications
ln -s "/Applications/Example Folder/Example.app" ~/Applications/Open Flick a minute later and search for the app.
Does the free version have the Apps section?
Yes. Opening apps from search works the same in the free version.
Why is a different app listed first?
The best match comes first: an exact name, then a name that starts with what you typed, then initials and text anywhere. Apps that match equally well are sorted by name. Type a little more and the one you want moves up.
Still stuck?Email [email protected] with your macOS version, your Mac and what you've tried, or visit the Support page.
