Welcome
Welcome to the official website for Xpop.
Xpop is still under active development, and you may encounter bugs. Please don't hesitate to report any issues on GitHub to help improve the software. You can also follow me on Twitter @corgi_shum for updates.
What is Xpop?
Xpop is a utility tool for Mac that pops up a menu with multiple actions when text is selected in any application.
The action features of Xpop are quite extensive, ranging from simple copy-paste and web searches to more complex operations. Xpop offers an easy-to-use plugin system, allowing developers to easily create and implement the functionalities they desire.
Xpop is a free and open-source software, and anyone can view and obtain its source code on GitHub. You can consider it as an alternative to PopClip, with partial compatibility with its plugin system. PopClip is an excellent software that I highly admire.
Xpop is exclusively designed for the Mac platform and is written in Swift. I hope that this native application will deliver an even better user experience.
Why I Built Xpop?
I was inspired to create this open-source software after using Doubao, which offers an excellent user experience. However, as a closed-source application, it limited my ability to customize and extend its functionality. I wanted to build something similar but with the openness and flexibility that open-source software provides, ensuring a great user experience while allowing the community to contribute and improve it.
Another key inspiration came from PopClip, a fantastic tool that introduced me to the idea of a extension system. This motivated me to design my software with an extensible architecture, enabling users to go beyond basic features like translation, summarization, and rewriting—common in Doubao’s built-in functionalities—and create their own extensions to suit their needs.
Why Swift?
While cross-platform frameworks can speed up development, I believe native applications deliver a superior user experience. I chose Swift because I wanted to challenge myself to learn something entirely new. With no prior experience in Swift or web technologies, I saw this as an opportunity to experiment with building an application using large language models (LLMs) for guidance. Since this is an experiment, I decided to take on a more difficult path by choosing Swift.
A Note on the Code
Approximately 90% of the code in this project was AI-generated, which means there are likely many inefficiencies and areas for improvement. As I continue to learn and grow, I plan to refine and optimize the codebase. I welcome feedback and contributions from the community—please feel free to open issues or suggest improvements.
I hope you enjoy using this software as much as I enjoyed creating it!
Acknowledgements
Xpop owes its existence to the generous contributions of numerous individuals and open-source projects who have freely shared their work. I would like to express my gratitude to the following people and initiatives: