Alfred is an
application launcher and productivity application for
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
. Alfred is free, though an optional paid upgrade ('Powerpack') is available.
Using a
keyboard shortcut
computing, a keyboard shortcut also known as hotkey is a series of one or several keys to quickly invoke a software program or perform a preprogrammed action. This action may be part of the standard functionality of the operating system or ...
chosen by the user, Alfred provides a quick way to find and launch applications and files on the Mac or to search the web both with predefined keywords for often-used sites such as
Amazon.com,
IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, p ...
,
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read ref ...
and many others, with the ability to add users' custom searches for the sites most applicable to them. In its free version it also serves as a calculator, spell-checker and a convenient interface for controlling the Mac with system commands.
Alfred's capabilities can be extended with the Powerpack which provides additional features, including the ability to directly navigate your file system, perform actions on the files and applications you search for, control
iTunes, open Address Book entries, save text clips, and more. Alfred also allows you to set global hotkeys, access your URL history and create auto-expanding text snippets.
There are hundreds of user-created extensions. A large repository for user-created workflows and themes created for Alfred 2 and 3 can be found at Packal.
Alfred can be used as an alternative to macOS launchers such as
Quicksilver
Quicksilver may refer to:
* Quicksilver (metal), the chemical element mercury
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Quicksilver, a bluegrass band fronted by Doyle Lawson
* "Quicksilver" (song), a 1950 hit for Bing Crosby
* ''Quicksilver'' (sound ...
and was created primarily with
ease of use
Usability can be described as the capacity of a system to provide a condi