For years Spectacle was the answer to "how do I snap windows on a Mac". It was free, it was three keystrokes to learn, and it asked nothing of you. Then its author stopped, and said so clearly. If you are here because your copy vanished in a migration or stopped responding after an update, this is where things stand.
The short answer
Do not install Spectacle in 2026. Its README states it is not being actively maintained and the repository is archived, so nothing gets fixed when a macOS update breaks it. Its last build is Intel only, and on Apple silicon the Rosetta it depends on stops covering apps in macOS 28. The README itself names the way out: Rectangle, which is free, actively developed, and can adopt Spectacle's own shortcuts so nothing you memorised is wasted. On macOS Sequoia and later you may not need either, because the system tiles windows now.
What the author actually said
Worth quoting in full, because plenty of download sites still hand out the binary without mentioning any of it: “This project is not being actively maintained. Unfortunately, after almost a decade of on-and-off development I can no longer dedicate the time needed to be a responsible maintainer of this project.” The same README adds the recommendation: “Spectacle users have recommended Rectangle as an open source alternative.”
That is an unusually graceful way to end a project, and it makes the decision easy. This is not a tool in a quiet patch between releases. It is finished, its author says so, and it points you somewhere specific.
| Status | Archived. README states it is not being actively maintained |
|---|---|
| Last release | 1.2, January 2022, marked "the last stable release" |
| Price | Free, open source |
| What it did | Moved and resized the front window to halves, corners, thirds and centre from keyboard shortcuts |
| Minimum macOS | 10.9 for 1.2. 0.8.6 was the last version for Mac OS X 10.7 |
| Apple silicon | Intel only. Runs through Rosetta, which Apple limits to certain older games from macOS 28 |
| Homebrew | No cask listed |
| Author's recommended replacement | Rectangle |
| Restores a layout after a display change | No. It never claimed to |
The shortcuts, for reference
These are Spectacle's defaults, which matter for one practical reason: Rectangle offers them as a preset, so you can move without relearning anything.
| Left half | Option-Command-Left Arrow |
|---|---|
| Right half | Option-Command-Right Arrow |
| Top half | Option-Command-Up Arrow |
| Bottom half | Option-Command-Down Arrow |
| Upper left corner | Control-Command-Left Arrow |
| Lower left corner | Control-Shift-Command-Left Arrow |
| Upper right corner | Control-Command-Right Arrow |
| Lower right corner | Control-Shift-Command-Right Arrow |
| Maximise | Option-Command-F |
| Centre | Option-Command-C |
| Undo, redo | Option-Command-Z, Option-Shift-Command-Z |
Does it still run?
Sometimes, for a while. Spectacle moves windows through the macOS accessibility APIs, the same mechanism every snapper uses, and that is one of the parts of macOS Apple revises most often. A permissions prompt that no longer appears, a signing requirement that tightens, one changed behaviour in the window server, and an abandoned app quietly stops doing anything. Nobody is watching for that on Spectacle's behalf.
So a working install is not evidence that installing it now is sensible. It is evidence that the last thing to break it has not shipped yet.
Downloading Spectacle, and the Apple silicon problem
If you still want it, the only build the author shipped is on the Spectacle releases page on GitHub: version 1.2, published in January 2022 with the note “This is the last stable release of Spectacle.” It needs macOS 10.9 or later. Homebrew no longer lists a Spectacle cask, so brew install will not find it, and a download site offering a newer version number is not offering anything the author made.
The bigger problem is the chip. Spectacle 1.2 is an Intel-only app, so on any Mac with Apple silicon it runs through Rosetta, Apple's translation layer. Apple's own support page says Rosetta is available on macOS 27 or earlier, and that “starting with macOS 28, the next major macOS release, Rosetta functionality will be available only for certain older, unmaintained games that rely on Intel-based frameworks.” A window snapper is not a game. On an M-series Mac, Spectacle has one macOS release left.
What to move to
If you want the same thing, maintained
Rectangle. Free, open source, actively developed, and it explicitly positions itself as Spectacle's successor with a shortcut preset to match. For someone coming from Spectacle it is the shortest possible move, and there is no reason to shop around before trying it.
If you are on macOS Sequoia or later
Try nothing first. macOS tiles windows itself now: drag one to a screen edge, or press Fn-Control-Left Arrow. If halves and quarters were all you used Spectacle for, that is the whole requirement met with no app installed. The full set of shortcuts is in how to split screen on a Mac.
If you would rather buy something
Magnet for an App Store purchase with App Store updates, or Moom if you want custom grids and saved arrangements on top of snapping. Both are covered against each other in Rectangle vs Magnet vs Moom.
If you want windows placed for you
Automatic tilers are a different way of working: instead of snapping a window when you say so, they lay out every window all the time. Amethyst, AeroSpace and yabai each take a different route to it. The whole landscape is mapped in the Mac window manager comparison.
The thing Spectacle never did, and Rectangle does not either
If part of your reason for searching is that windows keep ending up piled on the wrong screen after you undock or redock, replacing Spectacle will not help, because that was never what it was for. Snapping puts the window in your hand somewhere specific, now. It has no memory and no involvement ten minutes later when macOS has to fit a two-screen layout onto one screen.
Why your Mac windows move when you unplug a monitor explains the mechanism. The tools built for it are restorers: they record where your windows are and put them back after something outside your control rearranges them. Putback is one of those, and we make it, so weigh this paragraph accordingly. It learns your layout as you work rather than asking you to save snapshots, keeps a separate memory per display setup, and restores everything in about 0.4 seconds when that setup comes back. It never snaps or tiles anything, so it sits alongside whatever you replace Spectacle with instead of competing with it.
