Why I replaced Spotlight with Alfred on my Mac

As a long-time Mac user, I finally replaced Spotlight, the built-in system-wide search feature, with Alfred. After using it for a while, I realized that Alfred allows me to do much more, such as controlling system settings, playing music and writing emails.

1 Quick control of system settings

One of the best parts about Alfred is how quickly it allows me to control my Mac’s settings. When I need to put my Mac to sleep, I wake up Alfred and type “sleep”. Similarly, typing “quit all apps” will close all open apps. Then I type “shut down” to shut down the Mac mini.

Alfred allows me to control almost every Mac setting, including volume level, ejecting locally mounted volumes, hiding open applications, and emptying the Recycle Bin.

Once you start using these system control commands frequently, Alfred will automatically suggest them after you type the initial characters, further speeding up the process. If not Alfred, you can replace Spotlight with Raycast on your Mac as it offers similar features.

2 It can act as a clipboard manager

Alfred is more than just a replacement for Spotlight. It can also act as a clipboard manager, saving items you’ve copied over the past few days, including text and images, to your clipboard for quick access. It’s not just a basic clipboard manager though; he is smart.

You can set Alfred’s clipboard manager to ignore text and images from other Apple devices. This is useful if you have multiple Macs linked to the same Apple account. Even better is the useful option to append the currently selected clipboard item with previously copied text.

For security reasons, Alfred may ignore saving content copied from certain applications, such as your password manager.

3 I can run terminal commands quickly

I don’t use Terminal much on my Mac. I run shell commands directly through Alfred when needed. All I have to do is prefix “>” to the command.

If you’re using another application as your command line interface, you can go to Alfred’s preferences and switch to it. You can also create your own AppleScripts for terminal actions in command-line programs.

Although it may not seem significant, Alfred’s Terminal integration can save you countless hours in the long run if you use it often.

4 Easily search my vault with 1 passwords

With a first-party workflow, you can integrate 1Password—one of the best password managers for family groups—with Alfredo. This allows you to directly search for passwords and logins in your 1Password vault through Alfredo. As a heavy user of 1Password, I find this integration very useful and saves me a few minutes almost every day.

Bring up Alfred’s preferences and click 1Password from the Features tab. From there, follow the instructions to install the 1Password Alfred workflow.

You can then search your 1Password vault using Alfred by typing “1p” followed by your search term. The first time you do this, you’ll need to sign in to your 1Password account, which will require you to download 1Password for the CLI.

5 Enjoy a smarter and superior file search

As a replacement for Spotlight, you can use Alfred to search for files and folders on your Mac. Its search function is much more powerful and smarter than Spotlight and allows you to make adjustments directly.

For example, when using Alfred to find the right file, press the right arrow to bring up the action bar. It contains many useful options such as copy, move the file to another folder, throw it to the trash, open the file path in a new Finder window and more. To preview a file without opening it, just press the button Shift key.

Another useful option is adding files to the buffer, which allows you to perform bulk actions on them. You can add or remove a file from Alfred’s buffer by pressing a button Choice and Up arrow keys together.

If you know the file you want to open, type “open” followed by the file name and press Return (or Enter). Alfred opens the file directly. If that’s not enough, Alfred can also search the contents of a file. To do this, use the keyword “in” followed by the search term.

6 Do a Google or Bing search directly

Alfred can also enhance your browsing experience. To do a quick Google search, bring up Alfred and type “Google” followed by your search term. Press Returnand the Google search results page will open in your preferred browser.

Similarly, type “Drive” followed by a search query to find files on Google Drive. Alfred supports search on almost all popular services, including X, Apple Maps, Bing, Amazon and Google Maps.

There’s even an option to add a custom search, allowing you to add the URL of a site you search frequently.

If you still don’t want to give up your Mac’s built-in search feature, check out some Spotlight tips for more efficient search in macOS.

7 Integration with third-party applications

You can further extend the capabilities of Alfredo by integrating third-party applications using Workflows. It allows Alfredo to talk to other apps and services like Spotify or ChatGPT, speeding up your daily routine. For example, the Share with AirDrop workflow lets you share files, text, and URLs directly via AirDrop right from within Alfredo.

Similarly, you can add a Unit Converter workflow to Alfred to quickly convert between different units of measurement. There is an Outlook workflow that allows you to draft emails or search your Outlook inbox directly from Alfredo. You can create your own workflows or browse the most popular ones in the Alfred gallery.

8 It can work as a powerful text expander

Text expansion is a great way to type faster on your Mac. While macOS provides a built-in text expansion feature, Alfred’s implementation is much more powerful. You can assign a keyword to a snippet and Alfred will automatically expand it when you type it in the text box.

You can create rich snippets with different formatting and colors. They can also have dynamic placeholders for date, time, and clipboard contents. You don’t have to bother remembering all your snippets, because you can view them at any time directly through the Alfred clipboard manager.

The best thing about Alfred is that it is free to use, despite having so many features. Many advanced features will require the purchase of a Powerpack, but the free version is more than sufficient for basic use.

If you sell Alfred and decide to replace it with Spotlight on your Mac, be sure to assign it Command + Spacebar keyboard shortcut. By default, this key combination is mapped to Spotlight. After that, take your time and set Alfred’s preferences according to your requirements. This will allow the app to really shine and help you fill your workflow.