Where did you land on privacy vs being able to reach your users?

I built my app without accounts, without collecting emails, without analytics, simply because that’s what I want from the software I install.

The only built-in way I have to communicate with users is through Sparkle update notes. No signup, no email on download, no tracking.

I liked how clean that was until I started to see the flip side.

If someone emails me about a bug, obviously I can reply to that person when it’s fixed. But if I realize the same bug affects a bunch of other users, I have no way to tell them. Same thing when I ship something useful. Most users only hear about it if they read the update notes. Price changes, features that get dropped, migrations, or anything else they might actually need to know all have the same problem.

Now I’m wondering if I went a little too far with that one.

For those of you building apps, what do you prefer? Taking an email at some point in the process, even if it’s optional? Or keeping that relationship completely anonymous and being OK with the fact that it’s harder to reach users later?

https://redd.it/1wfhd4a
@macappsbackup

Best File manager

Is there any best file manager other than Finder on MacOS? It's really very counter intuitive. Coming from Windows file explorer, i see many limitations here. Most annoying thing is, I can't just navigate to folders within folders easily/ copy any file/folder path.

Ex: I have a path c://program files/a/b/c/d .. on Windows explorer, i can just click on b to get to see or copy whichever path i want from directly the top file path. But Finder cannot fo it.

https://redd.it/1wfwuhq
@macappsbackup

Raycast 2 went cross-platform. If you left it on Mac, what did you switch to?

Raycast 2 got me thinking about this again.

I understand the business argument for sharing more code between Mac and Windows. One team, faster development, fewer things to maintain.

But with Claude/Copilot/etc. making implementation work much faster now, I wonder if maintaining native apps for each platform is actually becoming more viable rather than less.

Anyway, I'm mostly curious about people who actually used Raycast and then left it:

What are you using now?

Alfred? LaunchBar? Tinycast? Spotlight + smaller utilities? Something else?

And more importantly: what's genuinely better than Raycast, and what's the one Raycast feature you still miss?

I'm especially interested in people who've used their replacement for a while rather than just tried it for a day.

https://redd.it/1wfy0mb
@macappsbackup

ProcessSpy - Advanced process monitor for Mac

https://redd.it/1wfxx4r
@macappsbackup

[OS] Lap — 6 months later: 2.3k stars, 10k+ users, 200+ issues fixed (v0.3.2 major update)

https://redd.it/1wg1nis
@macappsbackup

I built MacGuard, a motion alarm for Apple silicon MacBooks (free Mac app, optional $9.99 companion)

https://redd.it/1wg1a3y
@macappsbackup

Kinship Vault 3.0: shared vaults, password folders, and a dead man's switch, none of it running through a server of mine (Free tier, paid plans, lifetime option)

https://redd.it/1wg5nj4
@macappsbackup

[OS] [FREE] EnviousWispr 2.5.0 - Monthly Update - 2000+ Downloads - Snippets + Live Preview + File Transcription & Lots More!

https://redd.it/1wgdawx
@macappsbackup

Accessibility permission renamed to "Device control and Data access"
https://redd.it/1wgqqhs
@macappsbackup

I built a menu bar app that turns off your MacBook's screen without closing the lid
https://redd.it/1wgvsxk
@macappsbackup

Parendi: a finance app for the Mac that reads your bank statements offline and never phones home ($34.99, one-time)

https://redd.it/1wgzamh
@macappsbackup

AppHub: a faithful Launchpad revival, with everything it was missing

https://redd.it/1wh1tjn
@macappsbackup