I’m trying to find some underrated or lesser-known Mac apps that most people don’t know about, but could really improve productivity or make daily tasks easier. It’s hard to sift through all the common ones everyone mentions. If anyone can recommend any secret or hidden gems, I’d appreciate the help!
Some Underrated Mac Apps Most Folks Miss
Alright, so I’m cruising through my Applications folder one night, as one does when you’ve got about 23 tabs open and none of them are what you need. And there it is—a bunch of tools Apple shipped with every Mac, quietly collecting digital dust. Here are four that never get their five minutes of fame, plus how to actually make them useful, not just decoration.
1. Grapher: For When You Wish You Remembered High School Math
Ever find yourself needing to plot out a function or visualize data, but firing up Excel just feels like bringing a rocket launcher to a water balloon fight? Grapher sits right in your Utilities folder, flexing all these 2D and 3D plotting muscles. Nobody hypes Grapher, but it’s a legit, if overlooked, part of macOS.
How to get started:
- Open Finder, hit Applications, scroll to Utilities.
- Launch Grapher.
- Hit “File” → “New” and pick 2D or 3D graph.
- Type an equation like y = cos(x), press Enter, and boom—there’s your graph.
- Tweak axes, colors, add labels—totally customizable.
Detailed steps and more info from Apple: Graph equations in Grapher on Mac
2. Digital Color Meter: Your Inner Designer’s Secret Cheat Code
Ever see a color online and immediately need to know its exact hex value for your latest side project or to out-geek your designer friend? Digital Color Meter is already installed, but unless you’re knee-deep in design, you might never even touch it.
Here’s how you put it to work:
- Pop into Applications → Utilities → Digital Color Meter (or just Spotlight it).
- Hover your mouse over anything—icons, apps, browser windows—to see its color code.
- Change color formats using the View menu: RGB, hex, whatever works.
- Press ⌘-Shift-C to copy the color code into your clipboard—no drama.
Apple’s official guide: Use Digital Color Meter on Mac
3. Console: Your Mac’s Black Box Recorder (For the Brave or the Curious)
Brace yourself—Console is like peering into the soul of your Mac, or at least the logs it keeps stashed about every little blip, warning, or hiccup. Most people will never open this app unless they’re troubleshooting, but it’s ridiculously powerful for diagnosing weird issues.
If you want to dig in:
- Finder > Applications > Utilities > Console.
- Watch logs update in real time. Enter keywords to filter, or click “Errors and Faults” to see if anything’s going haywire.
- Command-click a message to reveal its app or process.
Want to go full tech-detective? Here’s the official Apple doc: Check Logs in Console on Mac
4. Stickies: The OG Mac Note App Nobody Appreciates Enough
Yes, I know—everyone’s got Apple Notes, Evernote, Bear, or one of a hundred other apps shouting at you to get organized. But Stickies? It’s like Post-its for your desktop. There’s something charmingly analog about jotting something down on a digital sticky and just letting it float on your screen.
To bring back those early-2000s vibes:
- Finder > Applications > Stickies.
- Hit File > New Note (or just Command-N).
- Type anything. Change note colors (Window > Color) for rainbow chaos or mild organization.
- Notes stay put—even after a reboot, unless you delete them.
Apple’s tips: Use Stickies on Mac
There you have it, four unassuming Mac tools that deserve more love. If you’re the type to go poking around System Preferences for fun, or just like making the most of what you already own, dive in and see which one becomes your new secret weapon.
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Love seeing someone actually shout out Grapher and Stickies—totally criminally underrated. But let’s be real, Apple’s hidden gems in Utilities are cool and all, but some of those are ancient or super niche (looking at you, Console… great until you realize 99% of those log lines are total gibberish if you’re not an IT person). So, here’s my not-so-mainstream line-up that people sleep on, but isn’t about dusty built-ins:
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Amphetamine – The anti-sleep mode app. Way better than the old Caffeine (rip). Lets you keep your Mac awake for downloads, presentations, whatever. You can fine-tune triggers, even by app or time. Way better than juggling Energy Saver settings or risking your download choking when the display sleeps.
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Horo – Stupid simple timer that lives in your menu bar. Type “25m” and, boom, Pomodoro countdown starts (or “2h13m” if you’re feeling weirdly specific). Barely uses resources, no frills, stops you from time-blind doomscrolling.
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HiddenMe – Hides all the junk on your desktop with a single click. Gamechanger if you screenshare or present and your desktop looks like a dumpster fire. Not technically “Apple-built-in,” but way more productivity-boosting than say, Digital Color Meter unless you live in Adobe apps 24/7.
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Shottr – For screenshots, this little freebie rivals Snagit (without the price tag). Annotate, pixelate sensitive stuff, capture scrolling web pages. Native screenshot tools are barebones and Preview’s markup is clunky in comparison.
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Yoink – A drag-and-drop shelf for temporarily storing files, text snippets, images. If you’re juggling stuff between folders or different spaces/apps, this thing rules. Not from Apple, but Mac-only and flies under most lists.
And honestly, Stickies? Ehhh, it’s only magical if you like your organization chaotic-neutral. For actual quick notes, try ‘Tot.’ It’s a super minimalist, fast note app—syncs with iCloud, pretty, distraction-free.
@Mikeappsreviewer did a great job bringing up the totally hidden ones already on your system (respect for the Grapher nostalgia), but IMO, the real “hidden gems” these days are third-party minitools that do something hyper-focused and just work. And let’s be honest, Color Meter is nice… but 90% of users will copy hex codes straight from a Chrome extension.
Anyone else got a gem most folks don’t know about? Always looking for something new to make my dock even more crowded.
Man, I think both @mikeappsreviewer and @boswandelaar brought solid options, but honestly, they missed one thing: nobody talks about Accessibility-based gems. Like, VoiceOver isn’t just for visually impaired folks—it’s a pretty slick way to test how websites actually sound on assistive tech. But you want less niche? Two weird ones people sleep on:
1. Automator Shortcuts – Okay, look, Shortcuts is getting all the hype now, but old man Automator can still do batch renames, image resizing, and throw together time-saver scripts way quicker than Shortcuts if you hate tapping through a million scenes on the phone just to zip a folder.
2. Quick Look Plugins – Not a direct “app,” but with the right plugin (QLStephen, QLColorCode, etc), you can peek inside MD, JSON, or even code files right from Finder with spacebar. No bloaty apps, no fuss.
Also, hot take: Amphetamine is overrated since Apple has built-in “Prevent sleep” in the Energy Saver settings AND the terminal “caffeinate” command. But, whatever floats your boat.
For seriously underrated apps, check out Rectangle (window snapping that actually makes sense, unlike Apple’s half-baked green button), or even Numi (calculator/note hybrid that can make sense of your late-night math ramblings).
If you ever have to scan/tweak PDFs, PDF Squeezer or PDFPen lets you compress or annotate without Adobe bloatware.
And hey, someone’s gotta say it—Stickies is just clutter with nostalgia goggles. Try SideNotes for cleaner, focused stickies.
Curious what others are hiding in the depths of their Utilities folder, but Apple’s “secret” tools feel kinda ancient, ngl.
Don’t get me wrong, Grapher and Digital Color Meter are absolute “wait, that’s already on my Mac?” moments—and yeah, Automator deserves some low-key respect (even if Shortcuts is shinier and more marketable). But let’s zoom out. All those “hidden gems” in Utilities are great, but what about apps from the wild that should come built-in? Here’s where the real productivity juice is:
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Yoink: If you ever found yourself dragging files around, hunting for the right Space or window, Yoink is that temporary shelf your workflow craves. Just drag to the side, stash files, drop anywhere later—beats trying to juggle a Finder window with one hand and your patience in the other.
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Pros: Super intuitive, drastically speeds up drag-and-drop, works with text, files, images, whatever.
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Cons: Not free (but usually worth the spend), “I might forget stuff in Yoink” syndrome.
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Contexts: I get Rectangle and Magnet love (window snapping is king), but nobody’s raving about Contexts. It turbocharges window/app switching—command-tab on steroids. You see live app previews, keyboard-driven, and even filter by typing a few letters.
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Pros: Too fast to describe. Helps with chaos when you’ve got 50 windows open.
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Cons: Takes a bit to train your muscle memory vs. classic Cmd+Tab.
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Renamer: Bulk file renaming made stupidly easy. Automator does the job but Renamer applies robust rules, regex, date, sequence, etc., with instant previews.
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Pros: No scripting needed; granular control.
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Cons: Overkill for casual users; paid app.
For Accessibility fans (shoutout to the earlier post), Voice Control is wild—you can control your whole Mac with voice commands, not just dictation. Not exactly “hidden,” but rarely used outside demo reels.
And about Stickies—solid for quick notes, but it turns into desktop confetti pretty quickly, and searching sucks. Notion, Obsidian, SideNotes, or even Bear blow it away for anything bigger than a phone number.
So, while apps like Grapher, Console, and Digital Color Meter get their hidden-feature badge, the real magic comes from extending your Mac beyond what’s in the box. Test Yoink if you want literal drag-and-drop bliss—the time saved shaves off years in Mac user stress. But, for those who love built-ins, at least don’t sleep on Preview’s markup tools or Quick Look plugins (seriously, QLMarkdown!).
Competitors make good points: built-in tools save money and are privacy-friendly; indie apps tend to iterate quicker and tailor to niche pain points. Pick what fits your workflow—and if all else fails, just open Terminal and “caffeinate” your productivity the UNIX way.