One Switch Alternatives: Quick Mac Toggles Compared

One Switch collects the toggles macOS scatters: keep awake, dark mode, hide desktop icons, show hidden files, connect AirPods, empty the Trash. It is a genuinely useful idea, and it is usually reached through a subscription. If you want the same switches without one, most of them are already on your Mac.

What you are actually buying

Strip the app back and it is a menu bar panel wrapping around a dozen system actions. That means the alternatives fall into three groups: things macOS already exposes, things Shortcuts can do, and things that need a settings tool.

Already built in

• Dark mode — add it to Control Centre, or set it to switch automatically in System Settings → Appearance → Auto.
• Do Not Disturb — a Focus mode, available from Control Centre with a schedule.
• AirPods and audio output — the Sound section of Control Centre lists every output device.
• Screen Mirroring, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Stage Manager — all Control Centre items. Turn each on in System Settings → Control Centre.
• Low Power Mode — System Settings → Battery, and it can be added to the menu bar.

Control Centre is customisable and most people never touch it. Ten minutes there removes half the reason to install a toggle app.

Build the rest with Shortcuts

Shortcuts is installed on every Mac and can be pinned to the menu bar. A shortcut with a single action, marked Pin in Menu Bar, is a toggle. Useful ones to build:

• Set Appearance for a manual dark mode switch.
• Set Focus for a one-click meeting mode.
• Run Shell Script for anything else, including the two below.

Keeping the Mac awake needs no app at all:

# keep the Mac awake until you press Control-C
caffeinate -d

# keep it awake for exactly two hours, then stop
caffeinate -d -t 7200

And hiding desktop icons before a call or a recording is one preference:

# hide every icon on the desktop
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false && killall Finder

# bring them back
defaults delete com.apple.finder CreateDesktop && killall Finder

Where a settings app still helps

The toggles One Switch offers that macOS does not are the hidden-preference kind: desktop icons, hidden files, screenshot behaviour, Dock and Finder details. If those are the ones you actually reach for, a settings tool covers them and a great deal more, without a subscription. Mainspring is one option: 90+ of these settings as labelled toggles, several of them reachable from its menu bar item, for $29 once.

Toggles worth having as keyboard shortcuts

A menu bar panel needs a click and a look. A keyboard shortcut does not. Anything you toggle several times a day is better bound to keys, and Shortcuts can assign one to any shortcut you build.

• Hide every other app — Option-Command-H, already built in, and the fastest way to clear the screen before sharing it.
• Show the desktop — assign a hot corner in System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Hot Corners.
• Do Not Disturb — build a one-action shortcut with Set Focus and give it a key combination.
• Mute quickly — the F10 key mutes; holding Shift while changing volume silences the feedback click.

The point of a toggle app is speed. If a toggle is worth an app, it is usually worth a key.

Recommendation

1. Spend ten minutes in System Settings → Control Centre. Several toggles you wanted are already there.
2. Pin one or two Shortcuts to the menu bar for the rest.
3. If the toggles you want are hidden macOS settings rather than system features, that is a different category of tool, and a one-time purchase beats a subscription for something you set up once.