{"slug": "alttab", "name": "AltTab", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 5, "warners": 0, "score": 3.759, "rising": 0.02, "first": "2026-01-05", "latest": "2026-09-16", "why": "I have to say I've never found anything wrong with the alt-tab app I use on macOS.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 0, "compare": 1, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I have to say I've never found anything wrong with the alt-tab app I use on macOS.", "icon": true, "domain": "netlify.app", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["AltTab"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 795748452, "item_id": 49734278, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49734278", "by": "SmasherEpilepti", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "AltTab: MacOS's keyboard driven app and window switching are terrible.", "excerpt": "Homebrew/nix: The most obvious one. MacOS just has no good package manager. It's even worse than Windows, which is also pretty bad, but at least on Windows you can install an app and manage it in a central \"Add and Remove Programs\" view, and they've standardized an installer format that cares about and manages versions and upgrades. Middle Click: This is a galling one. Rectangle: Far better than the MacOS's native sn", "context": "uses macOS at work, prefers KDE/Gnome", "use_case": "window switching", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 27 Golden Gate \u2013 Review"}, {"id": 778426529, "item_id": 48651658, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48651658", "by": "speedgoose", "date": "2026-06-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "AltTab and Rectangle to have more features to manage windows.", "excerpt": "Homebrew to get a package manager that is not managed by Apple and its many restrictions and high fees. AltTab and Rectangle to have more features to manage windows. Ghostty can replace Terminal.app though I think it leaks memory. Zen Browser is Firefox with an Arc inspired interface. It's slow and heavy but it blocks ads and trackers a bit better than Chromium based browsers, or Safari.", "context": "", "use_case": "window switching", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: New clean macOS install. Must-have apps? Best browser?"}, {"id": 752113586, "item_id": 47007099, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47007099", "by": "zeppelin101", "date": "2026-02-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "and, of course, \"Alt-Tab\"", "excerpt": "Agreed. On MacOS, I use a variety of smaller apps and scripts to make it less awkward, e.g. Karabiner, BetterTouchTool, Hammerspoon, and, of course, \"Alt-Tab\" (https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/). I am even contemplating starting to use a dedicated window manager, such as Aerospace (https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace/). But all of this is a massive time investment.", "context": "macOS user", "use_case": "window switching on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Resizing windows on macOS Tahoe \u2013 the saga continues"}, {"id": 743976304, "item_id": 46498519, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46498519", "by": "walthamstow", "date": "2026-01-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have to say I've never found anything wrong with the alt-tab app I use on macOS.", "excerpt": "I have to say I've never found anything wrong with the alt-tab app I use on macOS. I wonder if you're referring the permissions it has to ask for? https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos", "context": "", "use_case": "window switching on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "It's hard to justify Tahoe icons"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "SmasherEpilepti", "context": "uses macOS at work, prefers KDE/Gnome", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49734278", "date": "2026-09-16"}, {"by": "zeppelin101", "context": "macOS user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47007099", "date": "2026-02-13"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["window switching", "window switching on macos", "app switching"], "compared": [{"slug": "rectangle", "name": "Rectangle", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "homebrew", "name": "Homebrew", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "karabiner-elements", "name": "Karabiner-Elements", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "aerospace", "name": "AeroSpace", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 776410240, "item_id": 48525640, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48525640", "by": "lwouis", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Recently i've redone my app website (https://alt-tab.app)", "excerpt": "I like this familly of technologies. Having an SPA-type app that's mostly backend. Recently i've redone my app website (https://alt-tab.app), and I implemented a minimal spa.js that has a similar approach. I find the end result blazing fast, simple to maintain / reason about, few moving pieces. I used Early Hints, compressed every single thing, inlined CSS, etc. I don't know how i could even make it faster. I recomme", "context": "app developer", "use_case": "app website", "switched_from": "", "story": "Phoenix LiveView 1.2 Released"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49732036", "title": "macOS 27 Golden Gate \u2013 Review", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49233423", "title": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48643848", "title": "Ask HN: New clean macOS install. Must-have apps? Best browser?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48524293", "title": "Phoenix LiveView 1.2 Released", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46997008", "title": "Resizing windows on macOS Tahoe \u2013 the saga continues", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46497712", "title": "It's hard to justify Tahoe icons", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"compare": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 795748452, "item_id": 49734278, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49734278", "by": "SmasherEpilepti", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "AltTab: MacOS's keyboard driven app and window switching are terrible.", "excerpt": "Homebrew/nix: The most obvious one. MacOS just has no good package manager. It's even worse than Windows, which is also pretty bad, but at least on Windows you can install an app and manage it in a central \"Add and Remove Programs\" view, and they've standardized an installer format that cares about and manages versions and upgrades. Middle Click: This is a galling one. Rectangle: Far better than the MacOS's native sn", "context": "uses macOS at work, prefers KDE/Gnome", "use_case": "window switching", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 27 Golden Gate \u2013 Review"}, {"id": 787768033, "item_id": 49235502, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49235502", "by": "emp_", "date": "2026-08-09", "stance": "compare", "quote": "the only alternative was AltTab (that I could find) but it has so many more features and goals, plus I had performance issues with it", "excerpt": "Just promoting a small utility for others that may need it. For us MacOS users that use Spaces and want to CMD+Tab only inside that Space, the only alternative was AltTab (that I could find) but it has so many more features and goals, plus I had performance issues with it remotely over HPSS which I use heavily so I've generated the simplest utility that only shrinks the CMD+Tab list per Space and nothing else. https:", "context": "", "use_case": "app switching", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)"}, {"id": 778426529, "item_id": 48651658, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48651658", "by": "speedgoose", "date": "2026-06-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "AltTab and Rectangle to have more features to manage windows.", "excerpt": "Homebrew to get a package manager that is not managed by Apple and its many restrictions and high fees. AltTab and Rectangle to have more features to manage windows. Ghostty can replace Terminal.app though I think it leaks memory. Zen Browser is Firefox with an Arc inspired interface. It's slow and heavy but it blocks ads and trackers a bit better than Chromium based browsers, or Safari.", "context": "", "use_case": "window switching", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: New clean macOS install. Must-have apps? Best browser?"}, {"id": 752113586, "item_id": 47007099, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47007099", "by": "zeppelin101", "date": "2026-02-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "and, of course, \"Alt-Tab\"", "excerpt": "Agreed. On MacOS, I use a variety of smaller apps and scripts to make it less awkward, e.g. Karabiner, BetterTouchTool, Hammerspoon, and, of course, \"Alt-Tab\" (https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/). I am even contemplating starting to use a dedicated window manager, such as Aerospace (https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace/). But all of this is a massive time investment.", "context": "macOS user", "use_case": "window switching on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Resizing windows on macOS Tahoe \u2013 the saga continues"}, {"id": 743976304, "item_id": 46498519, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46498519", "by": "walthamstow", "date": "2026-01-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have to say I've never found anything wrong with the alt-tab app I use on macOS.", "excerpt": "I have to say I've never found anything wrong with the alt-tab app I use on macOS. I wonder if you're referring the permissions it has to ask for? https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos", "context": "", "use_case": "window switching on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "It's hard to justify Tahoe icons"}]}