Secrets of the new Spotlight

Mac's system-wide search is getting a big overhaul.

Author

Leander Kahney
August 29, 2025

In partnership with

After many, many moons, the Mac is finally getting a built-in clipboard manager — and I’m all for it.

The new clipboard manager allows you to quickly paste from a long list of all your recent copy and cut operations.

And best yet, it strips out any text formatting, which, as we all know, can be a huge pain when pasting.

The new clipboard manager is built into a major revamp of Spotlight in macOS 26 Tahoe, which is currently in beta testing and will likely be released next month.

It’s just one of several handy new features coming to Spotlight, the Mac’s universal search tool.

Another advanced feature is the ability to quickly launch apps like Instagram, which aren’t available on the Mac, via iPhone mirroring.

Overall, Spotlight’s getting a big makeover, with a bunch of advanced features added. Here’s everything you need to know about it.

Also in today’s newsletter:

— Leander Kahney, EIC.

A message from iPhone Life

Master your iPhone

We wanted to tell you about another great newsletter we think you’ll love — the iPhone Life Tip of the Day newsletter. It’s a free daily newsletter with 600,000+ readers that helps you discover your Apple device’s hidden features.

Every day, you’ll get a one-minute tip on how to get the most from your Apple devices, like:

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Read the iPhone Life Tip of the Day newsletter each morning over a cup of coffee. Every tip includes expert advice, easy-to-follow how-tos, and helpful screenshots.

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Tweets of the day

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One more thing ...

❝

Mac stands for what we are as a company — taking technology that's out of reach of the people and making it really great. That's what we did with the Apple II, and that's what we're going to do again with Mac. Computers and society are out on a first date in this decade, and for some crazy reason, we're in the right place at the right time to make that romance blossom.

— Steve Jobs, 1984.

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