Blink

Hold ⌥` to see the things you check all day. Let go and carry on.

Download for Mac macOS 14 or later, free

  1. You are halfway through a sentence.
  2. Checking one thing means switching apps, then finding your place again.
  3. Hold ⌥`. The things you check appear over what you are doing.
  4. Let go. You are still in your sentence, and now you know the number.
  5. Websites stay signed in and refresh on a timer, so they are current when you look.
  6. Clocks for the cities you work with. Reminders to tick off. Today on your calendar.
  7. PDF and HTML files too. Save the file and the tile shows the new version.
  8. Tap ⌥` instead and it stays open, so you can click, scroll and type.
  9. Drop a tile under another to stack them, and pull any edge to make a tile wider or taller.
  10. It opens over full-screen apps too, and leaves them as they were.

Hold Space to try it Press and hold ⌥` to try it

Private, free and open source.

Private

No account, no analytics, no server. Your layouts and everything you browse in Blink stay on your Mac.

Free

There is no paid version and nothing to unlock. Download it and it is yours.

Open source

The code is on GitHub under the MIT licence. Read it, change it, or build it yourself.

Also in Blink

Quieter pages
Third-party ads and trackers are blocked and cookie banners hidden. Click any part of a page to hide it for good.
The right display
It opens on the display with your pointer, the one with the active window, or one you pick.
Your own shortcut
Keep ⌥ `, choose any other combination, or use one key on its own, such as fn or the right ⌘.
Open it elsewhere
Send any tile to your browser, or a file to the app that usually opens it.

Questions

How do I install it?

Download the disk image, open it and drag Blink into Applications. Blink is not notarized by Apple yet, so macOS stops it the first time you open it. Go to System Settings, then Privacy & Security, and choose Open Anyway. You only do this once.

Does it need any permissions?

Not for the shortcut: ⌥ ` is an ordinary combination. Calendar and Reminders ask the first time you add those widgets. The Messages widget needs Full Disk Access, which you turn on for Blink in System Settings, because that is the only way macOS lets an app read Messages; it reads them only to show them. If you choose a key on its own as the shortcut, such as fn, macOS only shows it to apps you allow under Input Monitoring, so Blink asks then. It watches for its shortcut and does not record what you type.

How does it update?

Once a day Blink asks GitHub for the newest release and offers to install it. The request carries nothing about you or your Mac. Check for Updates in the menu bar asks straight away, and Settings, About turns the daily check off.

What does it know about me?

Nothing it sends anywhere. There is no account, no analytics and no server. Websites you add are stored like a browser stores them, on your Mac, and so are your layouts.

Is it really free?

Yes. Blink is open source under the MIT licence, with no paid tier. You can also build it from the source with Xcode 16.

Which Macs does it run on?

Any Mac with macOS 14 Sonoma or later, Apple silicon or Intel.

Hold ⌥`, look, let go.

Download for Mac

macOS 14 or later, free.
Source on GitHub

Once more: hold Space and Blink opens over this page.Once more: press and hold these keys.