The shift to macOS Tahoe introduced a whole bunch of upgrades to core Mac systems. Spotlight, in particular, got some noteworthy tweaks such as support for custom shortcuts and an improved AI-powered search system. The disappearance of LaunchPad, however, proved to be a controversial change.
Apple also didn’t pay attention to deeper cross-app integrations that have made apps such as RayCast a hot favorite in the user community. The new Spotlight wants to be the hub of your core Mac activities, but not without its fair share of clutter and a few big omissions.
And let’s not forget the Dock has remained virtually unchanged over the past few generations. This is where apps such as Loopty come into the picture. And after using it, I am left wondering why Apple hasn’t made a utility like this in the first place.
What is Loopty?
At the most fundamental level, Loopty is an app switcher, or to put it more accurately, an app launcher. But it can do a lot more than your average Mac app switcher app.
At the heart of Loopty is, well, loops, or rings, similar to the activity rings you see on the Apple Watch. So, what sets this app apart, especially when you already have options such as Dory?
Well, Loopty is not just a hub of apps. On the contrary, you can use its launcher interface for folders, one-tap website shortcuts, and even custom menus.
Talking about clutter, well, there is none. It can operate exclusively as a menu bar utility, and you can pull up the switcher rings using a custom keyboard or mouse shortcut.
The best part? It’s completely free. There are no subscription caveats, or a one-time fee involved. You don’t see any ads, either, and it runs fully offline, as well.
How it worked for me?
My workflow is scattered across a half a dozen apps, and an equal number of websites that I need to keep running in the background at all times. As a result, my dock is always chock full of icons and utilities.
But it’s not just the chaotic dock that’s a nuisance. Some productivity services — I am looking at you, Trello — simply offer a poor experience with a native app. As a result, I have to run them as an app instance.
Of course, running them as a native app is yet another load on the system resources, so I keep them limited to the same browser where the rest of my web-based work is anchored.
Irrespective of how you handle these services, they will take up precious dock space, and it’s not possible for me to fit them all. But I don’t want to see the dock at all because it simply takes up precious screen real estate.
Yes, I can hide it, but it still pops up in response to the edge cursor activity. And you can’t just summon it anywhere on the screen. With Loopty’s app wheels, I don’t even have to move the cursor.
With a keyboard or mouse trigger, it pops up with all my frequently-used apps and utilities right where the cursor is sitting at the moment. But if that sounds a bit off, you can anchor the wheel to either edge of the screen, or make it open right at the center.
I also like to keep my things in an orderly fashion so that they are easy to find and take the necessary action. In Loopty, I put my core apps in the inner circle, my system utilities in the second ring, and the web shortcuts in the outermost ring with progressively smaller icons for easy identification.
And just in case you’re wondering, yes, all apps play well with the tinting and theming options available in macOS Tahoe. In fact, Loopty offers you even more controls to customize the edge, background, and ring coloring.
The devil’s in the details
Loopty is one of the most well-designed apps of its kind that I’ve used so far. But more importantly, it’s the sheer level of granular details that comes as a pleasant surprise. Let’s start with the basics.
You can set its default on-screen position, choose the launch protocol, reverse the app scroll direction, only have it open active apps, and make it remember the last active session. In addition to keyboard and mouse triggers, you can also set the dedicated scrolling key.
The real magic happens when you start customizing the ring. By default, you get a single ring, but you can add more concentric circles to host more apps. You can adjust the number of rings that appear in each ring, tweak the icon size, customize the ring background, and even play with the launch animation.
Loopty also lets you decide how tightly the icons are packed, set colorful background circles for improved visibility, and even add focus rings on each active app icon so that it’s easy to spot the selected icon while scrolling.
All it takes is a simple drag and drop gesture to put any system folder, app, or website shortcut on a ring. On a similar note, when you are setting up a website shortcut, the app automatically pulls its icon.
For a few websites, these are not high-resolution packages, but the developer behind Loopty has promised to let users add their own custom icons, as well. There’s also a neat time machine option baked within the app.
I wish Apple made something like Loopty
Designing a multi-ring layout in Loopty takes its own sweet time, especially with the ring scaling and sizing, aside from the app and shortcut selection. Thankfully, Loopty lets you save the current configuration as a local file with a single tap. And it’s easy to export one, as well.
The only crucial miss that I noticed in Loopty was the absence of custom Shortcuts as a dedicated category, alongside apps, folders, and websites. Now, Shortcuts are not nearly as popular within the Mac community as they are in the iPhone-using circles, but I still have a few that I use on a daily basis.
Another minor papercut is the absence of app clusters. Moreover, it would’ve been amazing if the app allowed users to set trigger shortcuts for each ring, especially if you set only a certain kind of items in every ring.
Overall, though, Loopty is a fantastic replacement for the Mac dock and how app switching is handled. And the fact that it goes beyond native apps, and also pulls folders and websites into the mix, is a functional cherry on top.
For me, it has completely replaced the dock. And if you’re someone who doesn’t like the sight of it, and the screen hogging woes that it triggers, you should definitely give Loopty a try on your Mac.
Download Loopty on the official website.
