Spotlight is no longer just a search function, but also an action center. You can perform hundreds of actions directly, such as sending emails, creating notes, messaging or automating tasks, without having to open the companion app. V
Examples of actions can be found under ‘Tasks’ in the browse view. All of these tasks are linked to actions from Shortcuts, making Spotlight a powerful tool to initiate actions and simplify tasks.
Spotlight for Mac
Spotlight is macOS’ built-in search feature that helps you quickly find files, apps, emails, and more on your Mac. You can easily open Spotlight with the keyboard shortcut command⌘ + Spacebar or by clicking on the magnifying glass in the menu bar.
In addition to searching, Spotlight can also perform quick calculations, display definitions, and retrieve information from the Internet. Since macOS Tahoe, you can directly consult your Clipboard history from Spotlight, but before you can use this you must activate the function.
Perform actions with Assignment tasks
Spotlight is no longer just a search function, but also an action center. You can perform hundreds of actions directly, such as sending emails, creating notes, messaging or automating tasks, without having to open the companion app. Examples of actions can be found under ‘Tasks’ in the browse view. All of these tasks are linked to actions from Shortcuts, making Spotlight a powerful tool to initiate actions and simplify tasks.
Directly from Spotlight, you can perform hundreds of actions – like sending an email, creating a note, or playing a podcast – without switching apps.
Quick keys for tasks
Use a task often in Spotlight? Then it is best to add a quick key combination. When you enter these quick keys in Spotlight, the linked task is immediately added. This way you can link SE to ‘Send email’, then fill in se in Spotlight, this task will be filled in if desired and you can perform it. You can link the quick keys directly from Spotlight when you see the actions appear in the overview.
Use Spotlight in apps
From now on you can also use Spotlight when you are working in an app. Open Spotlight and search for the option you want to use in the app. This way you can immediately search for an item in the menu from the search function. Apple is opening this feature up to developers, so you will soon also be able to search the menu options of third-party apps using Spotlight.
App Intents
App Intents is a technical framework that allows developers to make their own apps’ features available in Spotlight. This means that not only Apple apps, but also third-party apps can integrate their actions and capabilities into the Spotlight menu, allowing users to perform them directly from Spotlight without opening the app itself.
With App Intents, developers can, for example, make functionalities such as sending files, applying filters or starting meetings available in Spotlight. This allows users to quickly and efficiently perform tasks through a central interface, regardless of which app the action originally belongs to.