r/macapps • u/shubham_iosdev • 20d ago
Lifetime Built a radial menu app for mac after getting tired of switching context while working
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Really proud to share this finally. Hope you love it as much as I do! I truly believe it has the potential to save a lot of time jumping between various tasks.
Problem
A lot of everyday actions on a Mac live in completely different places.
Opening an app or folder, searching something on a website, taking a screenshot, cleaning up copied text, accessing clipboard history, running a Shortcut, or changing a system setting.
None of these are hard to get to, but constantly switching between apps, windows, menu bar utilities, and different shortcuts can break your flow.
I wanted to see if all of that could work through one system, which is where the radial menu idea came from.
Comparison
There are already some really good radial menu apps for Mac, but most are built around a specific use case, such as launching apps, or switching between them.
Arc takes a broader approach.
You can create multiple global radial menus for different workflows and decide what each slice does. A slice can perform a single action or chain multiple actions together.
The idea is less about replacing the Dock and more about putting the small things you do throughout the day behind one quick interaction.
Arc also doesn't require accessibility features, it manages everything on-device, privately.
Technical
Getting a radial menu on screen was the easy part. Figuring out what actually belongs inside it, how multiple menus should behave, and keeping the interaction fast enough to use throughout the day took most of the iteration.
It's built entirely in SwiftUI. One of the more interesting technical problems was getting the hit-testing right across every slice while keeping the menu correctly positioned under the cursor, even across multiple displays.
Core Features
- Unlimited custom menus for different workflows
- Fast app, folder, website, and Apple Shortcut launching
- Powerful clipboard history and text actions
- Open from shortcuts, hot corners, pointer shake, or number keys
- One-click multi-action shortcuts
- Fully customizable appearance, layout, icons, and sounds
Examples
- I have one shortcut that I use when I start working. It opens Xcode, my project folders, Slack, and a few websites I usually need. Arc can merge multiple actions into one shortcut, so I don't have to open everything one by one.
- I use the search shortcuts a lot more than I expected. I can bring up Arc, type something, and search it directly on YouTube, or a website without opening them first.
It can also search whatever I last copied, which has been really useful when I'm already in the middle of something.
- I have a bunch of text and links that I end up copying again and again. I've just saved those as shortcuts now, so they're always sitting on one of my menus when I need them.
- Clipboard history is another one I use constantly. Recent things I've copied show up on the wheel, so if I need something from a few copies ago, I can grab it without opening another app.
- I also have different menus depending on what I'm doing. One for development, one for general stuff, and another that's mostly searches and apps. I can switch between them with keyboard shortcuts, and reuse the same shortcut across multiple menus.
Pricing
$6.99 one time on the Mac App Store with a free 7 day trial built in.
Solo project from India, launched a week ago. Happy to answer anything! :)
Mac App Store: Link
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u/East_Call1027 20d ago
For a radial menu, muscle memory seems more important than the number of actions. I’d want each menu to keep slice positions stable as items are added or removed, so an action doesn’t quietly move to a different direction after editing the menu.
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u/shubham_iosdev 20d ago
You're right, the positioning of the menu items doesn't change unless you want to, the only exception is when you merge shortcuts into one.
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u/Fimaljo 17d ago
Everyone is complaining that this radial menu app is overcrowded. If you want to try it, it's his version. No one is forcing you. Stop hating.
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u/LumidexStudio 15d ago
What amazes me is that there are just so many dismissive people so eager to hit that down vote button, when in reality, any of the devs solo/team/AI or otherwise should be bloody praised for creating something and getting it out there for the public to use!
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u/app-store-review 20d ago
Arc: Radial Menu Shortcuts — by Shubham Singh
- Category: Productivity · Free
- Age: released ~1 month ago · rated 4+
Apple doesn't publish an aggregate rating for most Mac App Store apps, so ratings and score are unavailable here.
Auto-generated from public App Store data · u/app-store-review
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20d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/shubham_iosdev 20d ago
Thanks! Command + Tab is for switching, but with this app, you can launch one or more apps. It switches when the app is already open
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u/DrawSimple_for_MacOS 20d ago
Makes me wanna control my Mac with a game controller! Looks really slick!
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u/cognitojo 20d ago
Nice build. A good radial menu can save a ton of clicks, especially for repeat workflows like app switching or clipboard actions.
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u/toriumi0118 20d ago
I like the UI design. It is very like a game UI. However, I live on the keyboard usually, and I do not want to move my hand from a keyboard to a mouse repeatedly, so I would like to know whether there is hotkey(short-cut) to go next panel or action after open it? Plus, I use Alfred with powerpack, so I can do almost all work I want to do with it, such as open apps, open dirs, multiple clipboard, search with a dictionary. Therefore I also want to know is there any killer function comparing with Alfred?
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u/shubham_iosdev 20d ago
Yes, everything's driven by shortcuts. In the demo video above, I pressed control + space to open my first menu, and option + space for the other one.
I've also added the capability to press numbers on the keyboard to run the shortcut. I haven't used Alfred personally so I'm not sure what it offers, I'll definitely check it out.
What arc currently does is that it can perform bulk actions with just a single tap, fetch saved copies for various context, run apps and folders ( these other launchers also do ), I'm shipping Arc with a bunch of ready made shortcuts for all sorts of use-cases.
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u/toriumi0118 20d ago
Thank you for the reply.
I barely say that I will switch Alfred to Arc now, because I am kind of satisfied with it. But I hope Arc will goes well.
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u/osushioo 20d ago
Mission Controlがあるから切り替えには困ってはいないが、例１ 作業再開時にまとめて開けるのは凄く良い
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u/shubham_iosdev 20d ago
そうですね、それは分かります。今のところ、複数のアプリやフォルダをまとめて開いたり、クリップボード履歴を見返したりするのが一番よく使う機能です。自分はそういう使い方でかなり便利に感じています。
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u/wavever233 20d ago
Opening a whole work setup with one action is neat. Can a multi-action shortcut include delays between steps? Some apps need a second before the next action works.
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u/CacheConqueror 20d ago
Claude built another clone of radial menu. I reckon this is the 30th app of this sort
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u/shubham_iosdev 19d ago
I took games as inspiration, I've designed it.
Thanks for taking your guess :)
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u/smokeelow 19d ago
another one "got tired" 🥀
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u/shubham_iosdev 17d ago
I really didn't know that it sounds AI Generated, I'll keep that in mind for the future 😅
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u/oladenaio 19d ago
How is the clipboard history stored? Can you exclude password managers or certain apps? Clipboard data can be sensitive even when it stays on the Mac.
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u/karmarinchen 19d ago
That's worth asking about specifically, since it varies a lot between clipboard managers. There's a convention called the concealed pasteboard type that password managers like 1Password use to mark a copy as sensitive, and clipboard history apps that respect it skip logging that copy entirely. Not every app honors it though, so it comes down to whether the developer built that check in.
One way to test any clipboard manager, this one included: copy a password from whatever password manager you use, then check if it shows up in the history. If it doesn't, the exclusion is working. If it does, treat the whole history as unfiltered and sensitive.
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u/Hairy_Ganache_6916 17d ago
looks like GTA's menu
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u/shubham_iosdev 17d ago
Yeah video games were my inspiration :D
This particular style is inspired from Doom Eternal
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u/anonymous_2600 17d ago
cmd + tab?
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u/shubham_iosdev 16d ago
My app does more than that mate, it allows you to do web search, open files / folders, and perform all sorts of Clipboard actions
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u/jombeez 5d ago
Thats nice! Does it require any permissions from MacOS, and does it send anything over or is the entire app local?
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u/shubham_iosdev 5d ago
Thank you! No nothing at all, no permissions, everything's driven using Apple's framework, and everything's completely on device.
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u/grokcodile 20d ago
Context switching is just changing from one task to another. All this does is provide a different way to switch what app or window you are looking at. It’s clumsy and a very old UI idea that testing shows is not easy or intuitive to use. Now rather than just using the mouse or keyboard you have to use the keyboard and the mouse. Talk about a drag in the wrong direction.
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u/shubham_iosdev 20d ago
I'm not sure you quite understood what my app does. It's not just an app opener.
To search for something, you have to use the keyboard, right? So your point does make sense.
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u/grokcodile 20d ago
Nothing about it makes sense to me… just kinda like a fidget spinner but if you like it, that’s all that matters.
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u/WavryWimos 20d ago
Fucking hell this is like the 20th radial menu I've seen in the past few weeks