# Key to switch to specific Mac app

**URL:** <https://community.keyboard.io/t/key-to-switch-to-specific-mac-app/440>\
**Category:** Help and Getting Started\
**Created:** [October 18, 2017, 6:43am UTC](https://community.keyboard.io/t/key-to-switch-to-specific-mac-app/440 "2017-10-18T06:43:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 3

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**Author:** ![arley](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/community.keyboard.io/arley/32/56_2.png) [@arley](https://community.keyboard.io/u/arley)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 12:25pm UTC](https://community.keyboard.io/t/key-to-switch-to-specific-mac-app/440/3 "2017-10-18T12:25:55Z")

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I do this on my Mac.

1. I am currently using a stock Apple keyboard, so I needed [Karabiner Elements](https://github.com/tekezo/Karabiner-Elements/) to map capslock to be F19 (a key not used by anything, only on the tenkey version of the keyboard).
2. I then used Karabiner Elements to map F19 to be command+alt+ctrl+shift (sometimes called Hyper)
3. I then use [Alfred App](https://www.alfredapp.com) to create a list of shortcuts to switch apps. Hyper+A to switch to my browser, Hyper+R to switch to my terminal, Hyper+S to switch to my IDE.

Alfred app has stats for the last month and I apparently use hotkeys in this way an average of 200x a day. The biggest outlier day I’ve seen was 1500x!

Command+tab sucks, I highly recommend this!

For Keyboard Maestro you can map all your apps to the same global shortcut (e.g. command+shift+space or something) which will prompt the KM “which app did you mean” pop up—at which point typing the first letter of the app name filters if memory serves. This actually works pretty well.

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