Quicklinks! A feature of Raycast which doesn’t even require Raycast to be open. With Raycast, I can Google a selected bit of text by pressing hyperkey+g.
And the extension library goes far beyond what is replicable in Shortcuts - I can check my gmail inbox and my Jira backlog (and take multiple actions on each message/ticket) all from within Raycast.
It is not at all clear what point you are trying to make.
I can write any program in machine language, but wouldn’t want to. So yeah, maybe I could contort Shortcuts and AppleScript to do the same things the Alfred could do (and I suppose Raycast, but I don’t use Raycast so …). And as my snarky post above hinted, Shortcuts can be a bit finicky at times (and as for AppleScript … ).
I mean, I could write a book in Apple Notes but no-one is claiming that Notes Sherlocks any of the tools the @Bmosbacker cycles through.
I agree, that the enhancements raise the bar for what Spotlight can do. And as a certain felon likes to say, “that’s a good thing”.
But just as Photos doesn’t replace Photoshop, I don’t see Spotlight replacing Alfred.
Sigh. Shortcuts. Somehow both too simple and not simple enough. It’s pretty straightforward to create snippets in Alfred. Shortcuts seems too cumbersome a tool for the routine creation of snippets.
What would be effective is for AI to begin by asking, ‘What do you want to do?’—then, through a series of questions and answers, guide you step by step in creating the shortcut or generate a draft for you to test, refining it collaboratively until it functions as desired.
You mean like this?(Via ChatGPT)
Send a Prewritten Message Automatically
This version sends a message right away—no interaction needed.
Steps:
1. In Shortcuts, tap ”+” → Add Action.
2. Search for “Send Message”.
3. Enter your message in the “Message” field.
4. Select the recipient under “Recipients”.
5. Tap the little triangle (▾) next to the action name and turn “Show When Run” OFF (if you want it to send silently).
6. Rename and tap Done.
Example:
• Message: “On my way!”
• Recipient: Jane Doe
I may use both.
I don’t see an easy way to …
• quickly launch an app with a specific recent document
• quickly move selected files to a custom location
After a first pass through the (excellent) Alfred Field Guide, here is my list of Alfred workflows and commands I can launch through Keyboard Maestro’s conflict palette. This is also kind of a cheat sheet to remember what’s available.
Agree some overlap with either shortcuts or new-Spotlight.
For starters, Shortcuts is unrealiable as hell. Can’t do a single thing (medium complexity) properly except doing flipping a few toggle in system settings. It’s just easier to write code than spend so much time with Shortcuts.
I’d bet on spotlight out of the box doing stuff than depending on shortcuts.
Alfred/Raycast still have the UI customization advantage which Spotlight might not get anytime good. Script Filters, dynamic generation of results etc won’t be available in spotlight for some time.
All of this applies to power users. For everyday joe who wants to do basic stuff and flip a few system settings, spotlight might be good enough
On the other hand, I suspect there are plenty of us who went to Alfred when Spotlight lost features a few OS releases ago and if the new Spotlight brings them back, that will be enough to draw us back.
In my case, it was when Spotlight stopped sensible keyboard navigation for an App’s recent files and made you use the stupid mouse to click in the new popup. I tried Alfred to get round that and stuck with it. I even bought the power pack, but I basically use it as an app launcher and to trigger system events (Sleep Display, Eject DVD) and nothing more. I keep meaning to look into it more deeply, but I tend to use Keyboard Maestro for more serious automation and as I haven’t got round to exploring Alfred more deeply in four years, I suspect I don’t really need it. A revamped keyboard friendly Spotlight + shortcuts will be enough.
I don’t think it’s unreliable: It’s just horrible. It’s an abstraction with an obscure visual programming paradigm that lacks a lot to be desired for the sake of making things easier. I exactly don’t know what use case it is simplifying because once you go beyond flipping system switches, it gets cumbersome and frustrating to debug.
But when it works, it works.
Yes, but perhaps with a more Socratic approach if and as needed so that there is a “dialog” concerning both the desired result and the incremental steps in setting up the idea shortcut.
It did ask:
“Would you like me to export this as a .shortcut file you can download and install?”
For those of you who’d like to see it in action:
I get that fear, but it often works out the other way around. Once users get a taste of some power, then hit the limitations of the built-in tools, they start seeking alternatives to take them further.
Often times, regular users are afraid to try tools like Alfred or Raycast, because they seem too daunting. This will let people dip their toes in the water. Then if/when they want more, they will find Alfred or Raycast and think “oh, it’s just like Spotlight… but also does X!”
