ben/Blink
1
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/benkoppe/Blink synced 2026-04-17 22:21:09 -07:00
Code Issues Projects Releases Wiki Activity
No description
270 commits 3 branches 11 tags 2.9 MiB
  • Swift 98.8%
  • Ruby 0.9%
  • Nix 0.3%
Find a file
Exact
Ben Koppe b34eeab531
 Merge pull request #14 from benkoppe/speed-settings 
feat: "Instant gesture speed" option
2026-04-15 11:53:37 -04:00
.github/workflows feat: add update_homebrew_tap job to github release workflow 2026-04-12 22:26:24 -04:00
Blink adjust default custom value 2026-04-15 11:49:36 -04:00
Blink.xcodeproj Remove MacControlCenterUI package dependency 2026-04-08 18:03:33 -04:00
fastlane Create & use custom bump_version 2026-04-04 13:12:26 -07:00
Resources Add app icon png resource for README 2026-04-07 18:28:15 -04:00
.envrc Add nix flake devshell with ruby 2026-04-03 09:50:58 -07:00
.gitignore Add opencode config to gitignore 2026-04-13 23:00:46 -04:00
ExportOptions.plist Add basic ExportOptions.plist file for building 2026-04-02 18:39:11 -07:00
flake.lock Add nix flake devshell with ruby 2026-04-03 09:50:58 -07:00
flake.nix Use no-CC shell in devShell 2026-04-03 10:55:11 -07:00
LICENSE Add GNU GPL v3 license 2026-03-31 15:28:11 -07:00
README.md Add before and after gifs to README 2026-04-13 08:26:07 -07:00

README.md

Blink

Blink does a simple job: enabling instant space switches on macOS.

Before After
  1. Install
  2. Why?
  3. Thanks

Install

Manual Installation

Download the "Blink.dmg" file from the latest release and drag the app into your Applications folder.

Homebrew

Install Blink using following command:

brew install --cask benkoppe/tap/blink

Why?

Every time you change spaces on macOS, ~0.5 seconds are lost from your day. On Macbook Pro 120hz screens, it's a full 1 second.

There's no real solution to this:

  1. "Reduce motion" in System Settings replaces the swipe animation with a fade that's exactly as slow.
  2. yabai requires disabling System Integrity Protection.
  3. AeroSpace and FlashSpace abandon native spaces completely, which can be overkill for some.
  4. BetterTouchTool is great, and comes with "Move Left/Right Space (Without Animation)" options, but costs money.

Blink is a simple application built to solve this problem with zero drawbacks.

Here's what makes Blink different:

Feature Details
Overrides system default hotkeys and gestures Out of the box, Blink takes over all the system inputs you'd expect. This makes Blink a seamless setup often with zero configuration.
Works everywhere Blink is currently the only app that gives you instant switches in both regular spaces and in Mission Control.
Highly customizable Blink gives full flexibility over its menu bar appearance, behavior, and more.
Simple & lightweight Blink is <10 MB and has next to zero footprint. It easily slots into your system and works its sole job.

Thanks

Without these people & app inspirations, Blink wouldn't be possible:

Name Reason
BetterTouchTool As far as I can tell, BetterTouchTool (BTT) is the first app to use this trick. Everyone else I've seen has followed BTT. Thanks @fifafu!
RGBCube's darwin-fast-workspace-switch Decompiled from BTT; original base of Blink's space-switching logic. I had also decompiled BTT to reverse engineer this feature, but I never got it working myself before seeing this.
jurplel's InstantSpaceSwitcher Around the same time I started working on Blink, I saw this posted to Hacker News. It takes a slightly different approach to Blink in some ways, but it definitely became inspiration behind some features like the Menu Bar UI.
jordanbaird's Ice Inspiration for much of Blink's UI.