Syphon is a switcher for apps and windows designed for keyboard enthusiasts. Simply pop up Syphon, type a few characters (ideally just one), activate whatever you need, and get back to work. Engineered with performance and keyboard usage in mind, you’re guaranteed to switch to the app you need extremely quickly — even if you have hundreds open.
Features
App Switching
App switching at its finest.
Syphon is optimized for a fast, responsive switching experience — across all of your running apps, ordered by the most recently activated.
Window Switching
Windows aren’t left out.
Windows are listed by their focus date — with the most recently focused one on top.
Fuzzy Searching
Seek and you shall find.
Simply start typing to enter Syphon’s search mode, which lists all running apps, their windows, and even non-running apps.
Actions
More than just switching.
Quit, hide or unhide apps; close, minimize or un-minimize windows — even multiple at once — all through Syphon using familiar hotkeys, without disrupting its core feature: fuzzy search.
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App actions. Quit, hide, and unhide.
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Window actions. Close, minimize, and un-minimize.
App Launching
For the non-running apps, too.
Ever opened the Mac’s app switcher to activate an app, only to realize it’s not running? Syphon solves this by searching both installed and running apps. Selecting a non-running app it will launch it, allowing you to stay in the flow.
Real Time Updates
Incessantly reactive.
Syphon shows your workspace in its most up-to-date form, and will subtly notify you of events as they happen.
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Notification badges.
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Window titles.
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Apps launching and terminating.
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Apps hiding and unhiding.
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Windows opening and closing.
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Windows minimizing and unminimizing.
Aliases
Aliases always appear on top and allow you to find and activate apps with a name of your choice.
Grouping
Keep the most important stuff front and center by optionally putting hidden apps, minimized windows in distinct sections, optionally with a minimally obtrusive, compact appearance.
Rules
Take control of your app switcher with rules that allow you to completely omit apps, or constantly make them less prominent.
Even More
100% Native Mac App Syphon is built with AppKit, Apple’s battle-tested UI framework — so it’s very fast, efficient, and light on system resources.
One Keystroke Activation Save a keypress with Hold-to-Activate: launch Syphon, type your search, then keep holding the final key to activate the first result.
Adaptive Syphon learns from your habits and gets smarter with use. If you’re a designer working in Figma regularly and type “fi” into Syphon’s search field, it’ll understand that you probably want to open the design tool and not, for example, Finder.
Vertical Design Syphon’s vertical layout keeps results easy to scan with minimal eye movement.
Dynamic Icons App icons grow with the available space, making results easier to recognize at a glance.
Drag items onto Syphon to open them with the given app.
Syphon presents apps, windows, and related items as a clear outline, so navigation stays predictable as your workspace changes.
Switch to apps usually omitted from the Dock if they have at least one window.
Switch to windows that don’t participate in Mission Control and the Mac’s standard window switching mechanism.
See an app’s recent documents when opening the window switcher
