Glancery · Mac · Files
Coming soon to the Mac App Store
Glancery: see your files, not their names
Glancery is a Mac app that shows any folder, and any search, as big, clear thumbnails. Describe a file the way you remember it, like “screenshots from last week” or “pdfs bigger than 5 MB in Downloads”, and Glancery shows how it read your words as chips you can remove. Everything runs on your Mac.
Glancery is not on the Mac App Store yet. To hear when it launches, send an email and ask to be told.
Try it in your browser
Type a description, or click a phrase further down. This demo runs on a handful of sample files in your browser and uses a small part of Glancery’s search grammar. The app itself searches your own folders on your Mac.
Places
- Home
- Desktop
- Documents
- Downloads
- Pictures
Collections
- Recent
- Screenshots
- Large files
Say it the way you remember it
You rarely remember a file’s name. You remember what it was, roughly when, how big, and where it came from. Glancery turns that into a precise search and shows its reading as chips. Remove a chip to widen the results. Click any phrase to try it in the demo.
What it is
When
How big
Where it is, where it came from
Leave out, put in order
What Glancery does
Photos, screenshots, PDFs, videos, slides and documents appear as previews of their contents. Make the thumbnails as big as you like.
Every search becomes chips, such as “Screenshots” or “Modified last week”, so you can see what was searched. Remove one to widen the results.
Typing filters the folder you are looking at. Press Return to include its subfolders, or search across the folders you have given Glancery access to.
Recent, Screenshots, Downloaded this week, Photos, Videos, Documents and Large files.
Space for Quick Look, arrow keys to move, drag files into Mail, Messages or Slack. Show in Finder, Open, Copy, Rename and Move to Trash (with Undo) are a right-click away.
Glancery uses the Spotlight index and the Quick Look thumbnails macOS already keeps. No account, no analytics, no tracking. Details in the privacy policy.
Requirements: macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Searches are understood in English. Screenshots are recognised in other languages too, including Spanish, German, French, Italian and Dutch.
Glancery is coming soon to the Mac App Store.
Questions
What is Glancery?
A file browser for your Mac that shows every folder, and every search, as big, clear thumbnails. You narrow things down by describing what you remember in plain English, and Glancery shows how it understood you as chips.
Is Glancery available yet?
Not yet. Glancery is coming soon to the Mac App Store. To hear when it launches, email [email protected].
Does it replace Finder?
It sits next to Finder. Use it to look through folders visually and to find things; Finder keeps doing everything else. Show in Finder is one right-click away.
Why does it ask for a folder on first launch?
Apps from the Mac App Store can’t see your files until you allow it. Choose your Home folder once and Glancery can show everything in it, or choose only the folders you want. Nothing is copied or uploaded.
Does anything leave my Mac?
No. Glancery has no account, no analytics and no servers. It uses macOS’s own Spotlight index and Quick Look thumbnails on your Mac, and makes no network connections of its own.
A file I know exists doesn’t show up. Why?
Searching beyond the current folder uses Spotlight, so the folder must not be excluded in System Settings ▸ Spotlight. Typing to filter the folder you are looking at never depends on Spotlight.
Evgeny Goncharov develops Glancery and is building TechConcepts. Glancery is an independent app, not affiliated with Apple.