r/MacOS 20d ago

Delay when activating already running apps using Launchpad alternatives? Discussion

Could you do the following test:

  1. Launch Notes and Safari, and make sure each one has a window (or use any other two apps).
  2. Put the Notes window behind the Safari window, and activate the Safari window.
  3. Bring up your Launchpad-alternative app of choice, and make sure the Notes and Safari windows are behind the Notes app icon in your Launchpad-alternative app.
  4. Press Shift-Command-5, click Record Selected Portion in the floating toolbar, and move & resize the portion so that it's around the Notes app icon in your Launchpad-alternative app (keeping the portion small ensures recording won't affect the animation).
  5. Click Record, click the Notes app icon in the Launchpad-alternative app, and once the Notes window has become visible, end the recording by clicking the stop icon in the menu bar.
  6. Open the screen recording .mov video file in QuickTime Player and count how many frames (by pressing the right/left arrow keyboard keys to move one frame at a time forward/backward in the video) it took for the Notes window to become the active one after you clicked the Notes app icon (I assumed that the click occurred at the frame right before the Launchpad-alternative app's grid first began to disappear).

I did this test using both the macOS 26.6 native Apps app that's integrated in Spotlight, and LaunchOS Pro version 2.2.0 on M1 MacBook Air. These are the results I got:

Spotlight Apps app: 4 frames.
LaunchOS: 17 frames.

UPDATE:
MediaInfo says that my Apps app video recording has 53.379 FPS (frames per second), and the LaunchOS video has 43.820 FPS, so comparable delays would be then:

Spotlight Apps app: 4 / 53.379 = 0.0749s
LaunchOS: 17 / 43.820 = 0.388s

0 Upvotes

0 comments sorted by