Apple announced some of its biggest updates ever to Spotlight, the Mac’s on-device search feature, during WWDC 2025 on Monday. In macOS Tahoe, Spotlight can be used to run shortcuts and take hundreds of actions, such as writing emails, setting reminders, and playing podcasts.
Apple is upgrading Spotlight as chat applications, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, are rising in popularity. People around the world are using command line interfaces to complete more of their tasks, and it seems Apple is updating Spotlight to be part of that shift. The company says Spotlight is becoming the fastest way to browse all the content on your Mac.
Spotlight is getting a visual redesign, allowing users to browse more easily through apps, files, clipboard history, and more. All these results are now listed together, and are ranked “intelligently” based on relevance to users.
Apple also introduced quick keys: short strings of characters that take users directly to certain apps 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 apps discoverable in Spotlight using the App Intents API.
In one demo, an Apple executive showed how users could send an entire email from Spotlight, filling out parameters such as the recipient, subject line, and message, and even clicking “send” without going to another app. Whether users will truly send emails through macOS Tahoe’s revamped Spotlight remains to be seen.
Apple says that Spotlight is now integrated with Apple Intelligence to be contextually aware. The on-device search feature will now suggest actions that users commonly take, and based on what users are currently working on.
The Spotlight upgrade was one of many updates to macOS revealed at Apple’s WWDC. Apple also said macOS was getting a new live-tracking feature that integrates with the iPhone, as well as a “liquid glass” software redesign.
