There are every kind of actions included out of the field. You’ll be able to add calendar appointments and reminders and set timers. You’ll be able to ship textual content messages or begin FaceTime calls. You’ll be able to even set devoted keyboard shortcuts for any of those actions.
It is also the precise form of factor that, till now, Raycast did that Highlight couldn’t. The distinction is one in every of implementation. Apple’s strategy presently solely works with Mac functions that implement the Highlight characteristic. Proper now, it’s mainly restricted to simply Apple’s personal instruments, however that’s going to alter; in response to Apple’s presentation for builders, third-party functions may even be capable to add actions which might be executable from inside Highlight. I could not discover any non-Apple functions that presently implement this, however I am certain that may change as we get nearer to the autumn.
Justin Pot
Raycast, in the meantime, will be enhanced by user-built extensions that you may simply set up from the built-in retailer. This has a draw back, largely that if you wish to join an utility, you are going to have to put in and configure the extension your self. That is not onerous, although—the built-in retailer gives tons of of those extensions, and you’ll set up them with just a few keystrokes. These extensions can also join with any service, not simply those who have Mac apps, that means web-only companies like Google Docs are supported. Many of those extensions provide options that Highlight by no means will, corresponding to customized menu bar icons for issues like calendar appointments or the presently taking part in track in Spotify. I may go on; Raycast’s strategy is solely extra versatile.
Proper now, for energy customers, I believe Raycast is the higher selection. That may change as extra functions add assist for Highlight, although, particularly given the truth that customers don’t want to put in something or set something as much as get new capabilities in Highlight.
An Precise Clipboard Supervisor
Home windows has had a clipboard supervisor for years—simply press Home windows-V and you will see an inventory of the whole lot you have copied currently. There have at all times been many third-party functions that offer you a extra highly effective clipboard on the Mac, together with Raycast.
The brand new macOS replace provides this characteristic to Highlight, making it simple to return and discover that factor you copied earlier at this time. It is the form of characteristic you do not understand you want till you begin counting on it, and I am glad macOS lastly gives it.
What Raycast Has That Highlight Doesn’t
Justin Pot
With these new options, Highlight is a superb deal extra highly effective than earlier than, however it is not a one-for-one Raycast substitute. The largest benefit Raycast has over Highlight, at this level, is the Raycast retailer, which makes the launcher appropriate with far more functions and companies than Highlight can have for a very long time.
However there are different options. Raycast can handle home windows, permitting you to set keyboard shortcuts for issues like docking a window to the left or proper facet of the display. It has a built-in snippet supervisor, permitting you to save lots of issues that you end up retyping always, so you may shortly paste them. There’s additionally a distraction blocker software known as Focus. Raycast has, through the years, added every kind of options that had been beforehand fashionable bits of devoted software program, and Apple is not prone to copy all of them.
The Raycast crew, for his or her half, is not fearful in regards to the newly enhanced Highlight. In a put up on X the corporate’s CEO, Thomas Paul Mann, stated the brand new options will give customers a style for an utility like Raycast. “Individuals will run into limitations and need extra from a launcher, which is the place we step in,” he wrote.
I am unsure how true that’s, however I stay up for seeing how the whole lot develops. I, for one, will in all probability use each choices for some time and see which I favor.
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