xSwitcher
A Mac app that fixes text typed in the wrong keyboard layout.
Why I built it
If you type in two languages, you sometimes type a whole line in the wrong layout and get gibberish, like руддщ instead of hello. For years I paid for a utility that fixed this, until a bug in it became too annoying. So I built my own: no extra features and no subscription, just one tap that fixes the text.
How it works
- Type a word or select some text.
- Tap Option.
- The text switches to the right layout, and so does your keyboard.
- Tapped by mistake? Tap again and it's back.
Features
What makes it different
- It doesn't record what you type, so your passwords and chats go nowhere.
- It fixes text only when you ask, even text you wrote earlier.
- It's free.
What it does
- Fixes selected text, or the last word if nothing is selected.
- Works with one tap of the Option key.
- Keeps capital letters and works both ways between Russian and English.
- Switches your keyboard to the right layout afterwards.
- Works across apps, including Safari, Chrome, Mail, Notes and Telegram.
- Lives in the menu bar.
Key decisions
- Fix on request, not as you type. Fixing text as you type means reading everything you enter and guessing with dictionaries. That's far harder, and it's a privacy risk. So xSwitcher does nothing until you tap, which also lets you fix text you wrote earlier.
- One tap, and mistakes cost nothing. A second key or a double tap would make the main action slower. So one tap does everything, and every fix is reversible: tap by mistake, tap again, and it's back.
- Small on purpose. A bug in a bigger app is why I built this, so I kept the scope narrow: Russian and English only, no dictionaries, no text replacement. It also stays out of Terminal, where typed keys can run as commands.
What's next
A free Mac download from this site. The app does one job, so I don't plan new features. The only likely addition is more language pairs, if people ask for them.
Tech
- Language
- Swift
- Interface
- SwiftUI and AppKit
- Text access
- macOS Accessibility API
- System
- macOS 15 and later
- Layouts
- Russian and English