Substage is a new AI assistant built specifically for macOS. It offers a fresh take on digital productivity and organization. While Siri has been around for 15+ years and AI chatbots are now mainstream, the fusion of voice assistants and generative AI has been slow to reach the desktop. Substage fills that gap, aiming to bring real, Mac-native AI utility to your daily workflow.
An AI Assistant for macOS That’s More Than Smoke and Mirrors: Substage
Substage, by British developer Joseph Humfrey, might be the first app of this kind that I actually like. It sits below Finder windows, always ready to receive your prompts, barely noticeable when you don’t need it.
Need to do something to a bunch of files, like converting JPEG images to PNG? Select the files, then ask Substage to do that. It can also open apps, display information about your computer and OS, and much more.
In some ways, Substage has many of the features I think Siri has been lacking. And I mean it has been lacking for years, not only in its latest Apple Intelligence version.
Using Substage in macOS
Usage is really as simple as I described above. Many of the prompts, for obvious reasons, will require files to be selected, by not all. You can simply type “make this PNG file JPG”, or just “transform all PNG files in this folder into JPG”.
Commands not related to files work as well. Prompt “Open Calculator in 2 minutes,” and 120 seconds later, there it is, the Calculator app. Ask how much RAM you have, and you’ll get a response right away.
If you’re out of ideas, the app’s site has a list of commands to try in Substage. They go from batch file operations to programming tools. And, if you miss something, just add a request for the developer in Featurebase.
Substage works with a good selection of different language models. Some of them are better suited for file operations, others for coding, and so on. They’re all available in the subscription version, but you’ll have to provide your own API keys for the lifetime variant.
Substage macOS AI Assistant: Limitations
Now, the app’s not perfect. Besides missing features, Substage may also fail to understand some commands correctly. That’s to be expected, considering the app is still in the beta stage, but, anyway, you have been warned.
The good news is that since most of what Substage does is apply terminal commands, it often asks for your confirmation. This way, you can ensure the app is going to do what you expect it to before it’s too late.
In Substage’s settings, you can define the risk threshold from which the app requests confirmation before acting. It also asks you for clarifying information if instructions aren’t clear enough — and, sometimes, even if they are.
When first using the app, I suggest you try the different language models. This way, you can find out which ones perform each task better. While the app itself gives you hints about that, you’ll only know for sure after trying them for some time.
As I stated in the beginning, Substage is the macOS AI assistant I wish Siri had been for years. And, if the app performs decently, there’s a high chance I’ll keep using it for a while.
If you’re interested, you can try Substage for free for two weeks. There are some limitations, however, like the restriction to small language models. The subscription version, $3/month or $30/year, unlocks all models.
There’s also a lifetime license, which costs $30 as well. However, in this case, you’ll need to provide your own API keys, since this version doesn’t give access to others.