Mastodawn

Jeremy Keith 3d ago

Big news!
I'm launching a tiny Mac app 🥺🔍🤏

It's called TinyStart, and it's a lightweight Launcher and Emoji picker for macOS!

Unlike Spotlight, TinyStart is super fast at showing results and launching apps. It never becomes overcrowded with search results you don't need, and it lets you open URLs, perform web searches with custom search engines, and quickly open folders in Finder.

Oh and yes, I think the Emoji picker is pretty good too. It's everything the default macOS Emoji picker isn't: it's fast, it lets you insert Emojis in any text field, it isn't picky about keywords, and it learns your favorite Emojis over time.

Get TinyStart at https://tinystart.app: it's €5, you pay for it once and future updates are free!

also I made a lil' video to show you what it looks like:

Niléane 3d ago

Although I've experimented with Mac development for the past couple of years, this is the first time that I feel like I've made something that's actually pretty good. I hope you'll like it 🫶

+ if you know me, you know that I'm just a trans gal trying to make by with a few pennies in her bank account. So if you wanna help support me, feel free to share the above post and buy my tiny Mac app 💛

https://tinystart.app

TinyStart, a Tiny Launcher and Emoji Picker for Your Mac

TinyStart, a tiny launcher for your Mac. Launch apps, insert Emoji, open Links and Folders, and more.

Niléane 3d ago

Btw, many thanks to my Mastodon mutuals who have helped me refine the app and squash bugs over the past two weeks. You've been a massive help! <3

Niléane 42m ago

RE: https://nileane.fr/@tinystartapp/116337100656387424

Shortcuts are now in TinyStart + a bunch of fixes!

Thank you so much for the amazing reception over the past few days 🫶

Your feedback has been super valuable. The app now has its own Mastodon account, feel free to follow to get notified about future updates → @tinystartapp

Jason Garber 38m ago

@nileane @tinystartapp Holy shit, this was literally the fist thing I thought of as a “it’d be nice if…” when I was reading up on the app.

Incredible work. 👏🏻❤️

Niléane 28m ago

@jgarber @tinystartapp I'm right on time then :D <3

Joseph Humfrey 3d ago

@nileane looks fantastic, looking forward to trying it. Also that website is delightful?? Somehow the charm and whimsical aesthetics along with the price make it feel very persuasive!

Niléane 3d ago

@joethephish thank youuuu 🥺
I had a lot of fun making this cute landing page

Maya Saura 3d ago

@nileane merci niléane ! parce que l'ignoble emoji picker de mac os qui met trois plombes à s'ouvrir ça va bien au bout d'un moment

Niléane 3d ago

@mayasynth Ouais c'est horrible 😅
(merci à toi !)

Lawrence Vagner 3d ago

@nileane mais TROP BIEN !

Lawrence Vagner 3d ago

@nileane ayé c'est installé, il est TROP BIEN, merci !

Niléane 3d ago

@hellgy Trop contente que ça te plaise!

Lawrence Vagner 3d ago

@nileane je crois que c'est le truc le plus utile que j'ai téléchargé récemment, franchement bravo !

Niléane 3d ago

@hellgy Merciiii

@nileane oh wah, félicitations !!!

Niléane 3d ago

@Kalytis Merciiii !

Stewart Lynch 🇨🇦3d ago

@nileane @lwdupont This is very cool. Do the settings sync between devices?

Niléane 3d ago

@StewartLynch @lwdupont They don't, however settings are stored in a plain text file located at: ~/.config/tinystart/settings.toml

You should be able to copy that file between devices (or just the specific lines inside that you wanna transfer over)

Stewart Lynch 🇨🇦3d ago

@nileane @lwdupont It would be nice if you could somehow choose the location of the settings file so that it could be shared between devices. (I am not complaining about the app, I love it). I am just looking for more flexibility, but I think I can mak this work as both of my Mac have similar apps and folders. Links of course would be universal so if you update on one, you would have to update on the other so that is less optimal. Scope creep is a dangerous thing

Dismal Manor Gang 3d ago

@nileane
Check out SetApp by MacPaw — good exposure, apportioned “milk check” (uncles were dairy farmers).

I get my feet wet with setapp. If used frequently like Commander One, I subscribe.

@nileane OMG 🥳

Thank you Mastodon for showing me this and thank you Niléane for building this cute little launcher. I didn't know I needed this until I bought it. It's lovely and has replaced Spotlight Cmd+Space instantly. I won't be looking back.

Can you maybe check if Apple's native apps can be optionally searched? I.e. Notes, Calendar, Reminders? Everything else is right on spot!

Niléane 2d ago

@gatogatogato Glad you like it!

Do you mean the ability to launch those apps from TinyStart? It can!

@nileane No I'd like to search the content of those apps.

I.e. I have some recipes in my Notes app and if I search for ginger I’d like to find recipes containing ginger 🫚

Or reminders with title „Pick up paundry“ etc.

Niléane 2d ago

@gatogatogato Right! Unfortunately I think this kind of advanced search would be out of scope for TinyStart. It's meant to stay focused on launching apps, links and other shortcuts, but not within apps :)

@nileane Ok understood. Still a very lovely app 😍

Niléane 2d ago

@gatogatogato thanks!! 😊

Illarion Koperski 2d ago

@nileane Instant buy! ✨ I was tolerating Raycast only for the Emoji picker.

One thing that would be nice to have is custom aliases.

For example, Ghostty is the "terminal" for me in my mind. So I could type `term` to get Ghostty at top of the results.

Brian Jones 2d ago

@nileane Congrats on the launch. This is not a complaint; just curiosity because I’m considering my own launch of a small app for the first time in years and years. Am I just missing it or is there nowhere to download other than by buying? I plan to buy anyways, but again, just curious…

Niléane 2d ago

@jonesbp thanks!
Yes that's correct, the app is paid only :)

@nileane Are there plans to support the spell command of Alfred?

Loving the concept of a simple focused launcher. I'd love to change, but that one is too important for me to make the jump.

And yeah, I realize the irony of asking for a feature for a focused simple product. Ultimately it's your app to do with as you want, and I regardless wish you the best of luck with it!

Niléane 1d ago

@torb Yeah, that's wayyyy out of scope 😅

I do plan to add support for shortcuts soon-ish (don't want to rush anything), and that might open up possibilities for triggering automations or commands like these perhaps

@nileane Everybody's different in what they user their launcher for, so that's fine!

Best of luck with your app though! Having more focused apps is a good thing in my book!

Brian Hough 3d ago

@nileane Congratulations on the launch, looks fantastic!

Niléane 3d ago

@brianhough Thank youuu

Matt Fantinel 3d ago

@nileane that's so cool! Will definitely give it a shot.

You sold me on that icon alone hahah

Niléane 3d ago

@fantinel This is the stupidest logo I've ever made and I love it for that

Matt Fantinel 3d ago

@nileane good choice of font on the website, too 😏

Niléane 3d ago

@fantinel it's so cute isn't it??

@nileane Ooh, this looks awesome! Congrats on the launch!

@nileane Purchased!

Niléane 3d ago

@andycarolan yaaay!

Niléane 3d ago

@andycarolan Thank youu

@nileane Just out of curiosity, can you have TinyStart launch folders in your favorite file manager?

For instance, I use ForkLift for most everything, and would love to have folders opened from TinyStart directly in ForkLift instead of Finder.

Niléane 3d ago

@cliffwade If you do the command line trick Forklift mentions on their website to make their app the default file viewer, it should work! Do let me know if you encounter issues on this front though :)

@nileane Oh. I'll have to look for that. I'm still very, very new to Mac in general, so I didn't know they had a trick to do that.

I'm purchasing this app as soon as I get home, so thank you for this!

@nileane Hi again! Just purchased TinyStart. First let me say, thank you for such a great little app. Very fast and very handy.

I went through the process on ForkLift's site to set ForkLift as the default file manager(using the SetApp version), and it's now set as default. To verify, I right clicked a folder within ForkLift and selected Reveal In Finder, and it opened in ForkLift.

I then added a folder to TinyStart but when using TinyStart the folder still opens in Finder, not ForkLift.

Have you tested this by chance and just wondering if I'm doing something wrong somewhere.

I've tried adding different folders and still get the same result.

Niléane 3d ago

@cliffwade I've not had the opportunity to try this myself, no :/

But thanks for letting me know! I'll try the process on my end to see if I can replicate it and find a workaround

@nileane Awesome! Thank you so much and for being so quick to respond.

And just to be clear, I'm using the SetApp version of ForkLift 4. I can provide further information if it's needed or wanted at any time. Just let me know.

Cory Dransfeldt

@nileane I've been looking for something exactly like this! Bought and already remapped it to CMD + Space

Niléane 3d ago

@cory Hope you like it!!

Cory Dransfeldt

@nileane Love it so far! I was getting so tired of all the noise in spotlight 🥳

Robb Knight 3d ago

@nileane Instabuy

Niléane 3d ago

@robb 🥰

Michael Stanclift 3d ago

@nileane this looks great!

Niléane 3d ago

@vmstan thanks 😊

Thomas P. Moonis 3d ago

@nileane They’ve ruined Spotlight now. It treats too many inputs as a potential web search!

Niléane 3d ago

@MisterMoo right??? it's a nightmare

@nileane That's very cool!

I was an Alfred "user" for the longest time, but I never really used any advanced features, it just worked better than Spotlight.
With macOS 26 I gave Spotlight a try. It was not great, but just okay enough that I didn't bother re-installing Alfred.
Now this looks like it does everything I need: Quick, no unnecessary animations, looks nice and only has features that I'll actually use.

Bought it, installed it, gonna use it the next little while and see whether it works well for me in praxis

@nileane that looks like the best drop-in replacement for most of what I use #RayCast for - very well done!

At first while watching your video I was like "okay, that looks well made but I also need a symbol picker and sometimes like to do math / conversions quickly" -- imagine my gleeful smile when you listed those towards the end just like it's the easiest thing in the world to add those in!

Niléane 3d ago

@heals hahaha yes! I'm terrible at math so it's a must-have for me