Must Have Mac Apps for 2025 💻

Summary

In this engaging video by MacRumors, the host introduces several must-have Mac apps for 2025 that can greatly enhance your productivity and functionality. From turning your MacBook notch into a Dynamic Island-style dock to utilizing advanced AI in an email app, you get an overview of practical and innovative applications. These include tools for organizing emails, cleaning menu bars, sharing files between devices, adding emojis seamlessly, and more. Stay ahead in tech by exploring these apps!

Highlights

• Notch Nook transforms your MacBook's notch into a multi-functional tool with media players, shortcuts, and more! 🎵
• Dropover simplifies file transfers with a shake-to-add feature for easy file management. 💼
• Shortwave uses AI to sort emails and mimic your writing style for natural responses! ✉️
• Ice provides a minimalistic approach to manage your menu bar icons effectively. 🖱️
• Stay on top of software updates with Latest, even for apps outside the App Store. 🚀
• Rocket is your gateway to quick emoji access across various apps for fun communication. 📝
• LocalSend makes Android to Mac file sharing swift and wireless under encryption. 🔐
• HyperDuck enables easy sharing of online content across your Apple devices, without needing proximity. 📡

Key Takeaways

• Turn your MacBook notch into a Dynamic Island-style dock with Notch Nook for ultimate productivity! 🖥️
• Dropover makes file management a breeze by letting you drag and drop files easily between locations. 📂
• Shortwave is revolutionizing email with AI that can organize inboxes and craft personalized replies. 🤖
• Keep your menu bar tidy with Ice, and glance at everything neatly without clutter. 🧊
• Keep all apps updated effortlessly with Latest; no more manual checks needed. 🔄
• Rocket adds emojis to any app quickly—perfect for emoji enthusiasts! 😊
• Seamlessly share files from Android to Mac with LocalSend, bypassing the traditional plug-ins. 📲
• HyperDuck allows webpage sharing between your iPhone and Mac from anywhere, even while devices are off.🌐

Overview

In this video by MacRumors, take a look at the innovative apps designed to elevate your Mac experience in 2025. Notch Nook creatively converts your MacBook's notch into a versatile dock supporting various functionalities like media controls and shortcuts, changing the way you interact with your device.

Discover Dropover, a handy tool, which simplifies how you handle files between locations on your Mac. The increased utility continues with Shortwave, an email application powered by AI that archives, organizes, and even crafts emails in your unique style!

Additionally, apps like Ice for decluttering your menu bar, and Latest for ensuring all your apps stay updated are introduced. Plus, enjoy seamless file transfers with LocalSend and unique browsing capabilities with HyperDuck, rounding off essential apps you should consider for a seamless digital workflow.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Must-Have Mac Apps This chapter introduces essential Mac apps, highlighting a few standout applications that enhance MacBook functionality. Notably, the 'Notch Knook' app is discussed, which turns the MacBook's notch into a Dynamic Island-like dock, offering more functionality, such as a media player with album features.
• 00:30 - 01:30: Notch Nook App Features The 'Notch Nook App Features' chapter discusses various functionalities of the app. It highlights that the app integrates with numerous media applications, such as Spotify, Apple Music, and even YouTube in Safari, allowing users to manage audio playback comprehensively. The app also supports customizable shortcuts, enabling users to quickly launch apps like Slack or view their calendar with ease. Additionally, users can utilize quick notes featuring distinct shapes for organization and have constant access to personal notes. The app even includes a mirror feature that utilizes FaceTime to function as a real-time mirror.
• 01:30 - 02:30: Notch Nook vs. Dropover Features The chapter discusses features of the Notch Nook app, particularly its ability to offer a quick camera view of oneself before a meeting, and its drag-and-drop file management feature. Users can move files to different locations on their Mac or directly into an AirDrop tile for quick transfer to other devices. It mentions the app's pricing, including a $3 monthly subscription or a lifetime license for five machines at $25, highly recommended by the speaker.
• 02:30 - 05:30: Shortwave: AI-Powered Email App The chapter discusses various AI-powered email apps similar to 'Notch Nook.' The speaker mentions that while there are other free apps available, they did not find them as enjoyable as Notch Nook. The speaker emphasizes that their purchase of Notch Nook was not influenced by sponsorships, maintaining transparency with the audience. They briefly introduce the next app, which offers a function similar to Notch Nook's tray feature and operates in a similar manner.
• 05:30 - 06:30: Ice App: Menu Bar Organizer This chapter discusses a tool called Drop Over which simplifies the process of moving files on a Mac. The tool allows you to grab a file and, with a mouse gesture, make a pop-up box appear where the file can be placed temporarily. You can then navigate to the desired location and move the file from the box to your target. Drop Over also integrates directly with other Mac features, enabling you to drag and drop files into tiles that perform actions like sending messages, emails, or using Airdrop. It caters to power users with many additional features.
• 06:30 - 07:30: Latest App: Update All Mac Applications The chapter discusses a Mac application called Shortwave, which is highly favored by the speaker due to its AI functionalities. These features include organizing the inbox by archiving low-priority threads, creating to-do lists for emails that require responses or actions, and applying labels. The speaker highlights the actual usefulness of these AI capabilities in managing emails.
• 07:30 - 08:30: Rocket App: Quick Emoji Access The chapter discusses the 'Rocket App' which facilitates quick emoji access. It highlights a feature where tapping the AI button allows the app to scan emails, start archiving, and create to-dos. Moreover, the AI assistant can summarize emails with one click, and provides instant AI-generated replies. It uniquely analyzes the user's email writing style, aiming to mimic that style in responses, rather than creating an unfamiliar one.
• 08:30 - 10:00: File Sharing Apps: LocalSend and HyperDuck This chapter discusses the efficacy and functionality of file-sharing applications, LocalSend and HyperDuck. It emphasizes how these tools facilitate smoother and more convenient sharing of files without the necessity of complex configurations. The discussion also touches upon possible integrations with email tools for more streamlined communication, although specific details on the latter are minimal due to privacy reasons. The narrative is interspersed with personal usage experiences, although specific examples are avoided for confidentiality.
• 10:00 - 10:00: Conclusion and Viewer Engagement In this conclusive chapter, the focus shifts to the technological advancements that enhance productivity and viewer engagement. The narrator highlights the impressive capabilities of AI assistants in managing tasks seamlessly. With the AI's help, the narrator can effortlessly respond to emails by sending an address, which the AI fetches from past correspondences. An anecdote illustrates how an AI assistant, Shortwave, helps manage a busy schedule by creating calendar invites from a list of tasks, showcasing the potential of AI in organizing personal and professional lives efficiently.

Must Have Mac Apps for 2025 💻 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 turn the notch on your MacBook into an incredibly useful Dynamic Island style dock an email app with actually useful gamechanging AI functionality and a really easy way to share photos videos whatever files you might have from your Android device to your Mac in this video I'm going to show you these apps and even more incredibly useful Mac apps that you need to check out first up we have Notch knook and this app makes your Notch basically a dynamic Island but with way more functionality so not only do I get a media player here with album
• 00:30 - 01:00 artwork that works with all media apps like Spotify Apple music or literally anything that's playing audio on your computer so even YouTube videos and Safari you can also get access to shortcuts so like for me I have uh custom shortcuts set up to open up any app quickly like slack and I also have my calendar set up here and then there's some quick notes you know different corresponding shapes for different notes that you can write to yourself and have up at all times and there's a mirror which basically turns on your FaceTime
• 01:00 - 01:30 camera so you can get a quick look at yourself to see how things are before you jump into a meeting that's not all though notbook also provides you with the ability to drag and drop files into a tray that you can then move around to another location on your Mac or drag and drop directly into an airdrop tile so that you can send it to another device really quickly the app has a subscription for like $3 a month but I just recommend getting a license that lasts you a lifetime up to five machines for only $25 which I highly recommend
• 01:30 - 02:00 there are also other apps like this out there and I think one might be free but I didn't really enjoy using those ones as much as I like Notch Nook but go for it you can try them out just Google it I did purchase this app myself this is not sponsored by any means nothing in this video is sponsored but you know people always ask so just for full transparency I did actually purchase this one myself our next app has a very similar function to notch nook's tray feature and it works pretty much the same way but you
• 02:00 - 02:30 don't need to have like a special MacBook with a notch on it drop over allows you to just simply grab a file then you give your mouse a little wiggle and then all of a sudden a box will pop up and you can place that file inside of the box and then you pull up another location that you want that box stays present and then you pull the file off the box and into wherever you need to drop it you can also drag and drop this directly into some tiles that trigger different functions like sending it via mail messages and even airdrop there are tons of other features available for power users out out there but I like
• 02:30 - 03:00 this very simple primary function that I just mentioned one of my favorite apps on the Mac right now has to be shortwave which is an email app that has some incredibly useful AI functions built in like for real the AI is actually useful here so some examples include having AI organize your inbox by archiving low priority threads it can create to-do lists which puts them at the top so your emails that require responses or actions it'll make it into a to-do list you can apply labels and so much more all you
• 03:00 - 03:30 have to do is tap the AI button in the top left corner and it'll begin scanning all of your emails and start archiving creating those to-dos Etc but it doesn't stop there the AI assistant can now summarize any email with one click you can get instant AI replies to emails but what makes this unique is that the assistant actually reads all of your emails and kind of determines the style that you usually write in and so it tries to mimic your style rather than create a new one that's not how you would normally interact so it's much
• 03:30 - 04:00 more natural and once you get a reply you can tweak it by typing out different prompts or insert it into a draft or create an entirely new email to send honestly I'm not going to be showing my personal email here because well it's a lot of sensitive stuff but I have some of the b-roll that is provided from shortwave but I use this daily for asking AI to gather a list of my emails that need a follow-up response for example and then I have it reply to all of them at once if it's like a generic blanket statement if I have an email asking for my shipping address and
• 04:00 - 04:30 whether I want to review something I can just say you know respond yes and send my address and it goes through my emails it figures out what my addresses because I've sent it before and it immediately adds it into that email and gets sent off other things that really blew my mind was I got a list last week of like a bunch of things that I needed to do for uh my week in San Francisco for Samsung and there was a bunch of like you know calendar specific things that didn't create calendar invites I asked shortwave AI assistant to create an invite for everything that's in this
• 04:30 - 05:00 email and it broke off like five or six different things all with the correct information and the time and then added it to my Google Calendar without any like work on my end it was absolutely incredible now I've used the free version first and I do think that's probably good enough for most of you out there especially if you're just using this by yourself and you don't require like a team situation for work but there are subscription prices that are pretty reasonable if you want it starts at $7 a month and then just kind of goes up from
• 05:00 - 05:30 there depending on what you need I'll admit this email app isn't perfect despite how much I'm hyping it up the design can be cluttered right out of the gate but what makes it really good is that there's so many customization options that you can tweak and get this app to your liking that I feel fully confident that if you don't like it at first if you mess around in settings enough you'll definitely get it to the way you want it ice is a pretty simple app here that can clean up your menu bar with just a few simple clicks everything to the right of the dot will remain visible at all times and these will be your crucial apps that you need visible
• 05:30 - 06:00 at all times you can then drag and drop the unnecessary stuff that kind of gives you all that clutter to the left side then all you need to do is just hover over that left side to see any of the apps that are hidden whenever you might need them now there are other functions available for this app but this is all I need it's just a way to get a very clean and neat menu bar latest is another Simple app that gives you a look at all of your apps on your Mac that need to be updated so whether or not they're from the Mac App Store or more importantly apps that you have downloaded from a
• 06:00 - 06:30 website that are not part of the App Store this gives you a list of everything that you can download and install updates for without having to like go to the website you know on your own or figuring it out on your own this just makes it a really easy way to update everything all at once in one location this app is also free but the dev is accepting donations so I highly recommend supporting small developers like this if you can so that these useful apps can continue to remain free rocket is another app that has one very specific use case but it is really
• 06:30 - 07:00 useful and that is the ability to add in emojis in any app quickly and easily all you got to do is just simply press the colon key and then start typing the name or the description of the Emoji that you want so I can do this inside of notes messages Twitter Youtube comments whatever it might be any text where emojis can go in and it'll add those emojis in the apps style since everyone seems to want to make their own for some reason but I just type in a colon I type in H eyes or heart or whatever it might
• 07:00 - 07:30 be thumbs up and it'll bring that for you and there is a free version and a pro version if you need the pro version for like adding gifts and images or symbols you can do that but the free version works just fine for me lastly I have two apps here that make it incredibly easy to share content from one device to another so first we have a fantastic solution for airdropping files from Android devices to my Mac which is something that I need to do quite often so when I was reviewing the Samsung Galaxy s25 Ultra which Shameless plug you you can see my camera comparison in
• 07:30 - 08:00 the card here in the upper right corner but I need to send photos videos and any file really to my Mac so that I can use it in the video and plugging it in for some reason in 2025 is still not a very easy or viable option so if you download local send on your Mac and Android device and if you're connected to the same Wi-Fi you can easily share these files to and from each device and it's really really quick and super easy the app is secure with end to-end encryption it's free which again is always nice and and it's multiplatform so it's not just
• 08:00 - 08:30 limited to Mac and Android but you can use this with iOS if you want to Windows and even Linux another option for sharing stuff is HyperDuck now this is a very specific use case and before you say oh I think I could just do that by airdropping those links to your devices I don't need to download this app sure but you can't do this specific thing installing HyperDuck on your Mac and your iPhone is what you need to do first and then whenever you're browsing the web and you need to share a web page to your Mac if you want to read it later at like the office or on your home desktop
• 08:30 - 09:00 you just share it using HyperDuck then when you get to your Mac the page will automatically just open up this works anywhere in the world wherever you might have internet connection on your iPhone and the Mac doesn't even need to be powered on it could just be you know dormant laptop lid closed whatever it might be and then the moment you open it up and connect it to Wi-Fi this web page will automatically appears so obviously it's different than airdrop because you don't actually need to be anywhere near the device to send those l links or
• 09:00 - 09:30 articles or you know tweets or whatever it might be to your Mac I could be here at my office and send something to my home computer and I'll have that waiting for me whenever I get to that Mac so I think this is a little bit better than what I usually do which is like throw it in the reminders app and then forget about it or throw it in a text to myself and then forget about it uh this just presents the web page immediately there is a $4 onetime fee but it's way better than having a subscription and I recommend it so that's it those are my eight apps that I think are incredibly useful and definitely worthy of your time and checking it out but let me know
• 09:30 - 10:00 what you think in the comments down below if you have any other apps that you think are useful that I should check out definitely let me know in those comments this has been day with Mac Rumors thanks so much for watching and I look forward to seeing you around in the next video