The Mac Apps community is a great place to find utilities that can charge your computing experience. Alfred, Raycast, Aldente, and Rectangle are some of the most highly recommended apps for MacOS users these days. The open source community has also created some of the utilities (and their forks) that I use every day.
Reading between lines will reveal that these apps fill a functional gap that Apple hasn't yet provided natively. On the other side of the computing ecosystem, Windows has been offering these perks for years. Will the next major software upgrade, the MacOS 26, ultimately provide users with in-house fixes? You can get the answers at WWDC 2025 in just one week.
What if Apple is still reluctant? In that case, we hope that the MacOS 26 will offer something even more bold. I hope that AI will take the lead and alleviate common tasks if possible. Apple doesn't need to weave the magic of the universe's quantum layer to achieve that. It just needs to look around and build some tricks of its own. Imagine Copilot, but under the Apple Intelligence Banner.
Why should Apple care?
That's the right question. Here we're stitching things together into a very basic level of computing. Do you remember the history of the clipboard? Well, Macos doesn't have a native clipboard yet. Why are the world's most integrated computing OSes missing something like a clipboard? Only the Apple Overlord knows.
What I know is that it's extremely frustrating to have no clipboard. For those whose life revolves around words, for those who get copies of dealing with research citations and such repetitive chores, such as CVE-2025-24126 and half a dozen variations of it, I'm tired of the CMD+C and CMD+V cycles. i hate it.
On Windows, Universal Clipboard copies text and media assets. It's a great relief and guarantees that anyone who uses tools like Office or Workspace. Some users claim that the clipboard can store sensitive information. Well, first of all, you can't copy your password.
You can then selectively delete sensitive entries or set up an auto-delete protocol for the clipboard. Apple is known for its privacy-first approach and certainly has a world-class talent to tackle elegant solutions that provide the best worlds of both worlds. Until then, we recommend a good third-party alternative, such as Maccy.
The problem works deeply
I still feel that window management on Mac is very limited, especially if you're working on external screens. On the other hand, Windows' resizing and tile approaches are far ahead. Again, the developer community comes to rescue. So far, Swift Shift has been my go-to app for window management on MacOS.
This is a free, open source app that uses the process of tile and sizing app windows that are much more frustrating than the experience with vanilla macos. Recently I experimented with loops and fell in love with its intuitive approach.
It's amazing that Apple has yet to find a practical aspect of MacBook notching. Free apps like Boring Notch have been transformed into an activity hub that handles everything from playing music and watching calendars to sharing files and previewing cameras. Apple doesn't pay attention to the cluttered menu bar situation. Once again, it's a third-party app that will help you fix the confusion.
Apple appears to be blaming even basic facilities like the scratchpad on MacOS. I recently tried Antinotes and realized how much ground Macau is still on. Also, when will the screenshots appear on my clipboard?
That's pretty surprising, especially when you realize that Apple sees Macos and iPads as somewhat of an aspiring proxy offering their own computing flavours. Still, MacOS is losing even the most basic iPados features. Native icon theme, lock screen customization, and deeper widget control are some of the features that should appear on MacOS.
Similarly, you can use the flexibility to set up a different dock layout for each desktop or work profile. Again, third-party apps allow you to do just that. Also, Apple takes it a step further by simply porting control center adjustments from iPados to Mac and offering similar treatments to the menu bar.
Ai to rescue?
Well, that's a long wish list. In hindsight, given how basic these features gaps are, it's unlikely that WWDC 2025 will see solutions for all of them if Apple hasn't addressed them before. I haven't held my breath either. So, what's next? Well, the MacOS 26 reportedly has been getting an overhaul of the design. Additionally, Apple is also rumored to announce several big AIs.
Macos desperately needs some of them. Right now I'm not on an AI hype train. However, there are scenarios that prove to be useful almost every day. Deep research is my favorite. The second closest is Notebooklm. I regularly rely on Gemini to break down complex research papers and turn them into interactive podcasts for a better collection of knowledge. Macos can use some of its magic, but they bake at a more basic level, with some guardrails in place.
Apple has already implemented a partnership with Openai, which integrates ChatGPT within the Apple Intelligence Stack. Apple now needs to shift gears and extend AI access within other apps, both internally and third-party. See Gemini integration with workspaces across Windows 11 OS and Copilot fingerprints.
I recently tried Windows Recall on my Copilot PC and couldn't stop dreaming of a similar system on MacOS. Apple's M-Series Silicon definitely offers enough firepower to make it a “Mac memory bank.” Apple is reportedly in discussions to extend its internal model to developers, so there is hope for positive developments coming out of WWDC 2025.
With the current situation of Macos, Apple needs to be desperately careful. You can either fill existing gaps, develop breakthrough features, piggyback in AI races and redefine how you can get the job done in the age of AI.
We have already rethinked how AI agents such as CHATGPT operators, Project Astra, and Mariner interact with computing machines, and have managed to get the work done across the Internet. The MacOS 26 needs that Eureka moment.
If Apple took the latter route and offered it with a privacy-first approach, I would be happy. Apple certainly can pull it off. It's the question of how and when it will happen.
