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Basically, a Mac application has a .app extension, but it’s not really a file — it’s a package. You can view the application’s contents by navigating to it in the Finder, right-clicking it and then choosing “Show Package Contents”.

The internal folder structure may vary between apps, but you can be sure that every Mac app will have a Contents folder with a MacOS subfolder in it. Inside the MacOS directory, there’s an extension-less file with the exact same name as the app itself. This file can be anything really, but in its simplest form it’s a shell script. As it turns out, this folder/file structure is all it takes to create a functional app!

• Add New App to Mac Applications Folder. Drag your new app to the Applications folder in the sidebar of the Finder window. Select “Move” if prompted to move the application. If you would like to keep a copy of your app in your iCloud Drive, simply copy the app file and paste it back into your iCloud Drive using Cmd+C (copy) and Cmd+V (paste).
• Rocket is a free Mac app that makes typing emoji faster and easier using Slack-style shortcuts. Just start typing an emoji like:thumbsup: (👍) and Rocket will help auto-complete it – in any app! Plus, with Rocket Pro, you can add gifs, snippets, and symbols to your Rocket shortcuts.
• 7,022 Mac App icons in SVG and PNG: Android App, iOS App, Mobile App, iPhone App, Apple App, Mac App, etc.

Enter appify

After this discovery, Thomas Aylott came up with a clever “appify” script that allows you to easily create Mac apps from shell scripts. The code looks like this:

Installing and using appify is pretty straightforward if you’re used to working with UNIX. (I’m not, so I had to figure this out.) Here’s how to install it:

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1. Save the script to a directory in your PATH and name it appify (no extension). I chose to put it in /usr/local/bin, which requires root privileges.
2. Fire up Terminal.app and enter sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/appify to make appify executable without root privileges.

After that, you can create apps based on any shell script simply by launching Terminal.app and entering something like this:

Obviously, this would create a stand-alone application named Your App Name.app that executes the your-shell-script.sh script.

After that, you can very easily add a custom icon to the app if you want to.

Adding a custom app icon

1. Create an .icns file or a 512×512 PNG image with the icon you want, and copy it to the clipboard (⌘ + C). (Alternatively, copy it from an existing app as described in steps 2 and 3.)
2. Right-click the .app file of which you want to change the icon and select “Get Info” (or select the file and press ⌘ + I).
3. Select the app icon in the top left corner by clicking it once. It will get a subtle blue outline if you did it right.
4. Now hit ⌘ + V (paste) to overwrite the default icon with the new one.

Note that this will work for any file or folder, not just .app files.

Examples

Chrome/Chromium bootstrappers

I like to run Chrome/Chromium with some command-line switches or flags enabled. On Windows, you can create a shortcut and set the parameters you want in its properties; on a Mac, you’ll need to launch it from the command line every time. Run a mac app on pc. Well, not anymore :)

The & at the end is not a typo; it is there to make sure Chromium is launched in a separate thread. Without the &, Chromium would exit as soon as you quit Terminal.app.

Launch a local web server from a directory

Say you’re working on a project and you want to debug it from a web server. The following shell script will use Python to launch a local web server from a specific directory and open the index page in your default browser of choice. After appifying it, you won’t even need to open the terminal for it anymore.

More?

Needless to say, the possibilities are endless. Just to give another example, you could very easily create an app that minifies all JavaScript and CSS files in a specific folder. Got any nice ideas? Let me know by leaving a comment!

Introduction

With listen, you can have your articles in Pocket read out loud. This is perfect for those times when you’re doing chores around the house or driving during your commute, when your eyes and hands are busy.

In This Article

When you press the headphones button, Pocket will read the article back to you as if you were streaming a song on a music app (like Spotify or Apple Music). You can also listen to articles while you’re offline using your device’s text to speech capabilities.

Continue reading to learn how to use listen in Pocket on iOS and Android, with Amazon Alexa, and as a bonus, how to listen to articles on your computer as well.

Using Listen (TTS) on iOS

Starting listen from your List

When you open your List, you'll see a headphones button in the toolbar. Tap this button to launch listen, and tap the Play button to start listening to the first article at the top of your List. Or, scroll down to choose a different article from your playlist.

Starting Listen in Article View

Open an article and tap the headphones button. The listen menu will appear, and the article will begin playing immediately.

Note: It is currently not possible to read and listen at the same time.

Controlling Playback

Using the controls in the listen screen, you can select additional playback options, including:

• Change voice speed
• Play/Pause
• Skip to the next article (when paused)
• Skip ahead/back 15 seconds (when listening)
• Archive the Article you’re listening to

To stop listening and get back to Pocket, swipe down on the listen screen until it disappears.

Additional Options for Listen

Tap the gear icon in the upper right corner to open the listen settings menu. In this menu, you can customize the following settings:

• Voice and Language - Select the language and voice that will be used when listening offline.
• Always use offline voices - When enabled, Pocket will always use the text-to-speech processing function on your device

Listening While You’re Offline

Depending on your connection, Pocket will either use high quality streaming voices or lower quality text-to-speech voices. When you’re online, the high-quality voices will be used, and when you’re offline or drop your connection, Pocket will automatically switch to the other text to speech. Then, if your device comes back online, Pocket will resume using the high-quality voices for the next article.

If you have a limited amount of cellular data available, you can disable the high-quality streaming voices and save on bandwidth. To do so tap the gear icon to open Voice Options, and enable Always Use Offline Voices.

Using Listen (TTS) on Android

Starting listen from your List

When you open your List, you'll see a headphones button in the toolbar. Tap this button to launch listen, and tap the Play button to start listening to the first article at the top of your List. Or, scroll down to choose a different article from your playlist.

Starting listen from an Article

You can also start listening to an article when you're viewing it in Article View. To do so, open an article in Article View, then tap the headphones button in the bottom menu to start listening automatically.

While You’re Listening

When you start listening in Pocket, you’ll see a new toolbar appear at the bottom of your screen. Tap the middle of the Listen toolbar to show and hide additional playback options, including:

• Play/Pause
• Skip ahead/back 15 seconds
• Skip to the next/previous article (if listening from your List)
• Archive the Article you’re listening to
• Change voice speed

Additional settings for listen

Tap the gear icon in the upper right corner to open the listen settings menu. In this menu, you can customize the following settings:

• Stream best-quality voices - When this option is enabled, Pocket will use server-generated voices. If this option is disabled, Pocket will use the text-to-speech processing function on your device.
• Language and Voice Options - When “Stream best-quality voices” is disabled, you can select a language and preferred voice. For more voices, you can download and install additional Text-to-Speech Engines for Android. (See below.)
• Auto Play - If enabled, Pocket will automatically play the next article in your playlist. Turn this off to Listen to articles one at a time.
• Automatic Archiving - If enabled, articles that you listen to completely will be Archived automatically.

Listening when your device is offline

Pocket App Icon Mac Download

When you’re online, you’ll have access to streamable voice options. When you’re offline, you can use voice options that have been downloaded to your device.

By default, you’ll hear a pre-selected voice for offline reading. To choose a different voice for offline listening, you can take the following steps:

1. Tap the headphones button to open the listen menu
2. Tap the gear icon to access additional voice options
3. If already enabled, tap to uncheck “Stream best quality voices”. This unlocks the voice language and voice options
4. Tap Voice
5. Tap your preferred voice option to select it. Note that voice options with the cloud icon are only available when you’re online.

Listening to Pocket on Amazon Alexa

You can listen to articles in Pocket on your Echo and Alexa-enabled devices. Simply install the Pocket Skill to get started.

Listening to Pocket on Your Computer

Firefox (Mac and PC)

If you’re using the Firefox browser, you can listen to articles using the text-to-speech feature in Firefox Reader View. Click here to learn how to listen to articles in Firefox using Firefox Reader View.

Pocket for Mac and Pocket for Web (Mac only)

Your Mac has built-in text-to-speech functionality. Here’s how to listen to an article in Pocket for Mac or Pocket for Web:

1. Open an Article
2. Highlight (or select) the text you want to hear
3. Right-click (or Command+click) the highlighted text, and navigate to Speech > Start Speaking. You can also go to the Edit > Speech > Start Speaking.
4. To stop speaking at any time go to the Edit > Speech > Stop Speaking

Common Questions

The Listen (TTS) option seems to be missing for me. What can I do?

Listen (TTS) is available for articles. If an item you’ve saved to Pocket is not an article and shown in Web View, the listen option will not be shown.

Why am I unable to listen to certain articles?

There are a few reasons why you may not be able to listen to an article. This includes the following:

• We don’t identify the saved link as an article. The page may not be an article, such as a recipe, index page, or another type of webpage.
• Pocket may not be correctly identifying the page as an article.
• If you’re using Pocket on iOS, the article may be in a language we don’t support. Please see the languages listed below to see which are currently supported by Pocket.
• The article may be behind a paywall. If a website has a paywall which limits access to subscribers, listening will unfortunately not be possible at this time.

If you discover an article that you’re not able to listen to in Pocket, we’re happy to look into it! Click here to contact Pocket Support and let us know.

Which languages are supported by the listen feature in Pocket?

Pocket for iOS and Android uses high quality, natural sounding voices powered by Amazon Polly. The following languages are supported:

If you use Pocket for Android, you can listen to articles in additional voices by disabling the high quality voices and switch to your device’s text-to-speech processing. Instructions are included above. Click here to view them.

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We’re working to expand the number of voice options in upcoming releases. If you’d like to listen in additional languages in Pocket, please click here to let us know.