Apple has announced some of its biggest updates ever to Spotlight, Mac’s on-device search feature, while WWDC 2025 Monday. In MacOS Tahoe, Spotlight can be used to arrange shortcuts and make hundreds of actions, such as writing emails, set reminders and play podcasts.
Apple updates Spotlight as chat applications, such as Openai’s Chatgpt and Google’s Gemini, increase in popularity. People around the world use command line interfaces to perform more of their tasks, and it seems that Apple updates a spotlight to be part of that move. The company says Spotlight becomes the fastest way to browse all the content on your Mac.
Spotlight gets a visual redesign, allowing users to browse more easily with programs, files, clip history and more. All of these results are now listed together, and are ranked “intelligently” based on importance for users.
Apple has also introduced fast keys: short strings of characters that take users directly to certain programs or actions. Mac users can type “SM” to send a message, or “ar” to add a new reminder. Users can also assign quick keys to custom functions in Spotlight. Developers can also make their programs discoverable in Spotlight using the API -Api.
In one demo, Apple -Executive showed how users could send a whole email from Spotlight, filling parameters like the recipient, theme and message, and even clicking “Sending” without going to another app. Whether users will really send emails with MacOS Tahoe’s renewed spotlight remains visible.
Apple says Spotlight is now integrating with Apple Intelligence to be contextually aware. The on-device search feature will now suggest actions that users usually do, and based on what users are currently working.
The Spotlight update was one of many updates to Apple’s WWDC WWDC. Apple also said MacOS is getting a new life-track feature that integrates with the iPhone, as well as “liquid glass” software.
