New Mac users will find OS X a capable performer by default, but there are a few gaps that are best filled by third-party apps. AppleInsider has rounded up some of the most useful additions to any Mac user's arsenal.
For this roundup, we focused on true utilities: small, often single-purpose apps that plug small holes in the Mac experience. While we usually recommend that new Mac owners work with their computers for a while before diving into the Mac App Store, the apps on this list should find a home on nearly every Mac.
Notifications
Before Apple introduced Notification Center in OS X Mountain Lion, apps communicated new information to users with Growl. For various reasons, Apple's version has not yet cornered the market — Â many popular apps like instant messager Adium and streaming music player Spotify still rely on Growl for notifications.
Growl has some advantages over Notification Center for users as well: notifications can be skinned and resized, for instance, and their contents can be synthesized as speech by OS X's built-in voice synthesis engine. For those who want notifications from the apps that still use Growl but prefer to keep things organized, Growl can now act as a proxy, sending updates to Notification Center.
Formerly a free download, Growl is now available in the Mac App Store as a 6.8-megabyte download.
2 days ago Third-party apps integrate with the Facebook SDK to enable things like account login, analytics, and ads platform integration. Any issue that crops up. There are also some other third-party apps I use on my machine too that were worth mentioning. Below, I’ll quickly go over five more apps – although less important to me than the five listed above, they’re still awesome additions to any Mac I’ll use, and perhaps even for you too.
Extract compressed files
OS X ships with a built-in compressed file extraction utility aptly named Archive Utility, and while it works well, it has some limitations. Archive Utility's list of supported file formats is slim, and it has been known to suffer performance issues on large zip files or with files created in non-Roman languages.
Enter its equally-aptly-named alternative, The Unarchiver. The Unarchiver is a speedy drop-in replacement for Archive Utility that adds support for nearly 100 older or less popular compressed file formats like 7-Zip and RAR as well as disk image archives like ISO, BIN, and Microsoft's MSI.
The Unarchiver is a free, 5.3-megabyte download from the Mac App Store.
Keyboard shortcuts for everything
Alfred began life as a replacement for Quicksilver, a popular program that helped users to quickly perform system actions like launching apps using only the keyboard. Quicksilver, despite its then-immense popularity, fell into disrepair around the release of Snow Leopard and Alfred rose to Quicksilver's place.
Thanks to its laundry list of plugins and highly scriptable nature, Alfred can be configured to perform nearly any task with a few simple keystrokes. Even if users choose not to take advantage of its more advanced features, Alfred makes it faster and easier to launch applications, find contacts, create new email drafts, and search the web out of the box.
Basic Alfred functionality can be had with a free download from www.alfredapp.com, though a £17 ($28) purchase is required to unlock its more advanced features such as Automator-style worflows.
Completely uninstall apps
Though Mac apps are often distributed as single-file bundles that can be installed by simply dragging-and-dropping them into your Applications folder, uninstalling those apps is not always as easy. Apps can create related files in many locations around OS X, and Apple does not provide a central 'uninstaller' for apps that were not purchased from the Mac App Store.
Many third-party 'uninstaller' utilities are available, but AppCleaner is the best. It works quickly and easily — Â just drag an app onto its window and AppCleaner will find and display all of its related files, then remove them with a singel click.
AppCleaner is a free download from its developer at www.freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/.
Play back nearly any video file
OS X's built-in media player, QuickTime Player, is speedy and well-designed but offers limited support for different types and encodings of media. While some may advocate installing a codec pack that expands QuickTime Player's reach, we recommend usurping QuickTime Player's role entirely with stalwart alternative VLC.
VLC is a cross-platform, open source media player created by the non-profit VideoLAN organization. Put simply, VLC plays absolutely everything you can throw at it — Â from 3GP videos recorded on early-2000s camera phones to 4K video streams and even corrupted files, rare is the file that will trip VLC up. If you plan to watch video on your Mac, VLC is the app to use.
VLC is a free download from www.videolan.org/vlc/.
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Third-party apps and extensions expand your editing options in Photos for iOS and macOS. You can apply edits from multiple apps and extensions to one photo, or use any combination of apps and extensions plus the editing tools built into Photos.
Use third-party extensions on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Learn how to find apps with Photos extensions for your iOS device, turn on the extensions, and then use them to edit photos.
Install iOS apps that offer extensions
Use the App Store on your device to find and install apps that allow full editing from Photos or include extensions for Photos. Apps that include Photos extensions often say so in their descriptions; search for terms like 'Photos extension' to explore more apps.
You can also choose from the apps listed in Edit Images Faster With Photo Extensions on the App Store.
Turn on extensions on your iOS device
After you install apps that include Photos extensions on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, turn the extensions on:
- Open the Photos app, then tap a photo.
- Tap Edit, and then tap .
- In the menu that appears, swipe to the left until you see the More button, and then tap it.
- You see your apps that include Photos extensions. You can turn them on or off, or drag them up or down to change their order. When you’re finished, tap Done.
Edit photos with extensions on your iOS device
- Open the Photos app, then tap a photo.
- Tap Edit, then tap .
- Select an app from the menu that appears.
- Edit the photo with the extension's tools.
- When you're satisfied with your edits, click Done. You can choose another extension to apply more edits to the photo, or use any of the editing tools that are built into Photos.
- If you're finished with all edits, click Done to exit the edit mode.
Use third-party extensions on your Mac
Learn how to find apps with Photos extensions for your Mac, turn on the extensions, and then use them to edit photos.
Install Mac apps that allow editing or offer extensions
Photos for macOS makes finding third-party apps easy:
- Double-click a photo in your library to open it in single view, then click Edit.
- Click , then choose App Store.
The Mac App Store opens to a selection of third-party photo editing apps that are compatible with Photos.
You can also choose from the apps listed in Extensions for Fast Photo Edits on the App Store.
Turn on extensions on your Mac
After you install apps that include Photos extensions on your Mac, turn the extensions on:
- Choose Apple () menu > System Preferences, then click Extensions.
- Click Photos Editing in the left sidebar. Your apps that include Photos extensions appear.
- Turn on the extensions that you want to use in Photos. You can also drag them up or down to adjust the order that they appear in Photos.
Edit photos with extensions on your Mac
- Double-click a photo in your library to open it in single view, then click Edit.
- Click .
- Choose an app from the menu that appears.
- Edit the photo with the extension's tools that appear.
- When you're satisfied with your edits, click Save Changes. You can choose another extension to apply more edits to the photo, or use any of the editing tools that are built into Photos.
- If you're finished with all edits, click Done to exit the edit mode.
Edit photos within third-party apps on your Mac
With Photos for macOS High Sierra and later, you can send a photo to most third-party photo apps for editing, then save the changes right back into your library.
- Control-click a photo and choose Edit With from the contextual menu. Then choose from the list of third-party editing apps on your Mac. You can also click a photo and then choose Image > Edit With in the menu bar.
- The photo opens in the third-party app that you chose. Make your edits, and then save.
If the app saves photos in a non-standard format, look for an option to save as JPEG or another format that Photos supports.
Most Useful Third Party Apps For Mac Pro
Your edited photo appears automatically in Photos.
Learn more
Most Useful Third Party Apps For Mac Windows 7
- When you edit a photo with third-party extensions or the built-in tools that Photos offers, you can always start over with the original photo. Open the photo in edit mode, then click Revert to Original on your Mac or tap Revert if you're using an iOS device.
- If you use iCloud Photos, remember that it keeps your photos organized and up to date everywhere that you use the same Apple ID. So any edits that you make on one device appear on your other devices too.