Gloss | Intelligent Text Expansion
Hey r/MacApps. With the looming release of macOS 27 I thought I'd announce a major update of Gloss which now includes on device AI integration and significant performance improvements.Here is a video explaining it's feature set:Better than the previous demo video I hopeProblemIf you use Slack, Discord and even Reddit, you're probably used to typing :thumbsup: or :sob: and having it just turn into the emoji. Then you switch to any other app on your Mac and that doesn't work anymore. You're back to Ctrl+Cmd+Space (or emoji button), scrolling through the emoji picker, searching, clicking. It's a tiny thing but it completely breaks your flow, especially when you do it dozens of times a day.That was the main itch for me. I wanted emoji short-codes everywhere on macOS, not just in apps that happen to support them. But once I started building that, I realised the same idea works for everything I repeatedly type. Email sign-offs, date strings in specific formats, code snippets, boilerplate responses.ComparisonaText: aText has been around for years and it works, but the interface feels like it hasn't been updated in a long time. It doesn't support scripting or dynamic content beyond basic date/time variables, and managing a large number of expansions gets painful. It does the basics, but that's about it.Espanso: Espanso is open source and genuinely powerful, but it's a cross-platform tool built to run on macOS, Windows, and Linux. In practice that means it's not optimised for any of them. I found it noticeably sluggish on macOS compared to anything native. It's also entirely config-file driven, so you're writing YAML to set up expansions with no GUI. Brilliant if you live in the terminal and don't mind the latency, but it never felt like a proper Mac app to me.There are various other text expansion apps, Gloss is positioned as an easy-to-use, cheap alternative with frequent, high-quality updates rather than a one-shot product.Downloadhttps://trygloss.tech/downloadRequires macOS 15 (Sequoia) or later. Universal binary, runs on both Apple Silicon and Intel. macOS 27 (Golden Gate) is required for AI features.PricingThere's a free tier with a 10 gloss limit, which gives users a rich experience and make informed decisions.Pro is a one-time purchase of £7.65 (~$10) with an additional 15% discount for a perpetual license. No subscription.TransparencyDistributing directly (notarised and signed with my Apple Developer ID). It can't go on the App Store due to Apple's sandboxing.Website: trygloss.tech, includes Privacy Policy and Terms of ServiceLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-mundray-98b3742b7/Background: CS student with real-world placement experience. This is a genuine side project, not a startup. I'm one person.

Submitted July 25, 2026 at 02:17PM by MurkyRaspberry9610
on r/macapps via https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1v66v5s/gloss_intelligent_text_expansion/?utm_source=iftttAn @AppleStyleOfficial project