TypeSnap Is Live
TypeSnap is a text expansion app for Mac. It works system-wide, costs $17.99 once, and can import your entire TextExpander library in about 60 seconds.
That last part is the one I kept coming back to while building it. TextExpander became a subscription in 2016, and a lot of people have been holding on to old versions or using workarounds ever since. There are other one-time-purchase alternatives, but none of them have a real TextExpander import. You end up re-entering everything by hand. TypeSnap fixes that.
How it works
You create snippets with abbreviations. Type the abbreviation anywhere on your Mac and TypeSnap expands it. That is the core of it, and it works in every app because it hooks into the macOS Accessibility APIs rather than running inside a specific application.
Beyond plain text, snippets can include dynamic content: today’s date in whatever format you want, clipboard contents, fill-in-the-blank forms that pop up before expanding, and JavaScript for anything more complex. There is also a clipboard history panel and a global quick search (Command-Shift-T) for finding snippets without typing an abbreviation.
Everything is stored locally. No cloud account, no analytics, no telemetry.
Why I built it
The text expansion space on Mac has not seen much movement. TextExpander went subscription. TypeIt4Me is solid but does not import from TextExpander. Typinator is good but has a complicated UI and has not kept up with recent macOS design. aText has been effectively abandoned.
I wanted something that would let a TextExpander user migrate in minutes and feel at home immediately, built on modern macOS architecture, with a clean interface and a price that does not require a yearly commitment.
What is in the app
- Plain text, rich text, JavaScript, and image snippets
- Date and time macros, fill-in forms, cursor positioning, nested snippets
- System-wide expansion via Accessibility APIs
- Clipboard history panel
- Global quick search panel
- Full import from TextExpander and TypeIt4Me
- iCloud sync
- 7-day free trial, $17.99 one-time after that
Download the trial at typesnap.app.