Raycast Is the Launcher App Apple Wishes It Made

Raycast can also move and resize the currently open windows—for example, you could move one window to take up the left half of the screen and another to take up the right half. There’s a built-in tool for searching your contacts that you can use to quickly find and copy someone’s email address or phone number. There are even commands for quick system changes, like toggling between dark and light modes or putting your computer to sleep. You can even type the word “schedule” to see all your calendar appointments; If the meeting is online, press Enter to open the meeting.

I could go on, but the best way to use Raycast is to just open it up and start typing what you want to do. Chances are the app can record you, and if not, there’s an extension that can.

Plug-ins can do even more

Raycast can add even more functionality with extensions that allow the application to look up information from other applications. For example, I use Google Drive to collaborate with editors. The Google Workspace extension means I can open any document in my Drive with a few keystrokes. There is a similar extension for Spotify that allows you to quickly find and listen to any album or playlist. There is an extension for the password managers 1Password and Bitwarden so that you can quickly find and copy passwords outside of your browser. There is an extension to quickly find animated GIFs.

And it gets even nerdier – you can do things like install software with Homebrew or even run terminal commands. Don’t worry if you don’t know what those things are: the point is, you can set up just about anything you can think of.

Installing this couldn’t be easier – just type the word “Store” into Raycast, press Enter, and then search for the extension you want. If you wish, you can also browse the shop online.

Create keyboard shortcuts for everything

You can set up a universal keyboard shortcut for anything Raycast can do, which is possibly my favorite feature. You can create keyboard shortcuts, for example to launch a specific app or open any file. It also means you can create custom keyboard shortcuts to quickly launch different types of searches.

Open Raycast, type “General” and press Enter to open Settings. Go to the Extensions tab and find the specific application or action you want to create a shortcut for. Click the Record Hotkey option for this item and remember a shortcut that doesn’t conflict with others.

There are very few applications that have actually changed the way I use my computer. Raycast is one of them. Everything I can think of is just a few keystrokes away, which means my only excuse for not getting more done is the sheer amount of distractions the internet has to offer. That should be easy to overcome, right?