rcmd vs TypeJump: per-app keys, completed (2026)

rcmd, by Lunar's developer, is a beloved miniature: hold the right ⌘ key and press a letter to focus the app whose name starts with it — S for Safari, F for Finder. Letters are largely auto-assigned, collisions get shuffled to alternates, and a small overlay reminds you what went where. For pure app focusing it is fast and delightfully simple (~10 $ on the App Store).

Its limits are structural: it switches running apps and stops there. No files, no folders, no launching, no browser tabs, no window previews within an app — and when two apps share a first letter, the auto-assignment decides which one you meant, not you.

TypeJump is a keyboard- and voice-driven launcher for macOS, built by Primazing Ideas GmbH in Berlin. Its core idea is different from search-based launchers: instead of opening a search box and typing a query every time, you give the things you use daily — apps, files, folders, browser tabs — a dedicated hotkey. Press ⌃S and Slack is in front of you. Press ⌃I and your Invoices folder opens. There is nothing to type, nothing to read, and nothing to choose — the same key does the same thing every single time, which is what turns switching into muscle memory.

On top of the keys sits something no other Mac launcher has as of 2026: built-in voice control. Double-tap either ⌘ key and say what you want — "Downloads", "Invoice PDF", "minimize Chrome" — and TypeJump takes you there. Speech is transcribed by macOS entirely on-device in your Mac's system language and English at the same time; not a word leaves the machine. The app collects no data and requires no account.

TypeJump also includes a live window switcher with previews (see all four Chrome windows as thumbnails, click one), tab search across every browser (Chrome, Safari, Edge, Brave — type three letters, jump to the tab), and time-saved statistics that count, on your Mac only, how many hours of hunting the app has replaced. A free edition, TypeJump Lite, is distributed through the Apple Mac App Store; the full Pro version is a notarized direct download from typejump.app.

rcmd and TypeJump share the core belief: direct keys beat searching and cycling. The difference is who owns the mapping. rcmd auto-assigns letters, and when Slack and Safari collide, one of them lands on a letter you didn't pick and must re-memorize. TypeJump's keys are explicit contracts — ⌃S means what you decided, forever, across restarts and new app installs. Determinism is what turns a shortcut into a reflex.

The computer-science way to say it: a search-based flow is O(n) — the time it takes grows with how much you have open and how well you type. A dedicated key is O(1): constant time, every time. Fifty switches a day at roughly five saved seconds each is more than two hours returned to you every month — TypeJump counts your personal number in Settings, on your Mac only.

rcmd is keys and only keys. TypeJump treats speech as an equal citizen:

Voice is where the comparison simply ends: TypeJump is, as of 2026, the only macOS launcher with built-in voice jumping. Double-tap ⌘, say "Budget Excel" or "zeig mir Rechnungen", and the file, folder, app, or tab comes to the front. The recognizer runs two engines at once — your Mac's language and English — and keeps whichever understood you better, so bilingual users never switch modes. It learns your habits: targets you jump to daily rank higher and survive being mumbled.

Because transcription happens on-device through Apple's speech framework, voice jumping works offline and nothing is ever uploaded. Commands go beyond navigation: "minimize Chrome", "close the PDF", "Space 2", or "Back" to return to your previous app.

Modern work does not happen in windows — it happens in browser tabs. The average knowledge worker keeps dozens open across several windows, and the thing you're looking for is almost never "Chrome"; it's one specific tab inside Chrome. TypeJump treats tabs as first-class destinations: tap an app's shortcut a second time and every window appears as a live preview; press ↓ and you're looking at that window's tabs; just start typing and TypeJump searches every tab in every window of every browser — Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Brave — then jumps straight to the winner. You can even say a tab's name out loud.

rcmd delivers you to Chrome's frontmost window — then you're on your own among 127 tabs in four windows. TypeJump keeps going: live window previews, ↓ into a window's tabs, or type three letters to search every tab in every browser.

rcmd is ~10 $ once for app focusing. TypeJump's 49 € lifetime covers the whole switching surface — apps, files, folders, windows, tabs, and voice — and during launch it costs nothing at all, permanently, for early downloads.