Use Keyboard Shortcuts to Switch between Open Apps

Learn how to switch between open apps using keyboard shortcuts on the Mac.

Did you know you could easily switch between your open app using keyboard shortcuts on the Mac? Once you use it a few times, you’ll find it easier to switch between your open apps than by going to the app icon in the Dock. This is all done with Command-Tab. Learn how to switch between your open apps with keyboard shortcuts in this video for the Mac.

Video TranscriptIn this video, we’re going to look at how we can switch between our open apps using keyboard commands on the Mac. When you have multiple apps open on the Mac, instead of clicking on the icon in the Dock to switch between those apps, you can also use keyboard shortcuts. This is my favorite way of switching between open apps using keyboard shortcuts. Let’s see how we do this on the Mac. Let’s go to my Mac.

So I have a number of apps open on my Dock here or on my Mac here. If we go down to the Dock, you’re going to see that I have Safari and Mail open. I also have Messages and Maps open. And then if we keep going over to the right, I have the Calendar app, Reminders, and Notes app, and then I also have the News.

So I have a number of apps open. This is probably how most of us use the Mac. We have multiple apps open now to switch between these different open apps. What I can do is click on any one of these icons. So let’s say I wanted to open up my Messages app. I would click on this icon here on the Dock and it brings it forward, but there’s an easier way to do this.

We can use keyboard shortcut. When I hold down the command and tab key what’s going to happen is as the Mac is going to show me all of my open apps in a window, in the middle of the display. So I’m going to hold down the command key and the tab key. And if we look, we have all of my open apps across the middle of my display.

The app that is currently on or forward or in the front is going to be highlighted with a darker square here. We can see that Safari is highlighted here. Now, as I press the tab key, this highlight is going to move over to the right. And then when I let go of the command key, it’s going to open up whatever app is highlighted.

So let’s say I wanted to move over and over, and the News app. All I have to do is just press the tab key until the news. App is highlighted. I let go of the command key. It brings a news. App forward. Let’s do that again. This time, what I’m going to do is bring safari. Forward. So I hold down the command key and I go to tab until Safari is highlighted. We can see that Safari is highlighted here. Now. All I need to do is just let go and Safaris in the front.

So that’s how you can easily switch between your open apps on the Mac. All you have to do is just use command tab, hold down the command key and the tab key, and then keep hitting the tab key until the app that you want to bring forward or switch to is highlighted. Let go of the command key. And that app will be brought forward. That app your Mac will switch to.

So that’s how we can easily switch between our open apps on the Mac using keyboard shortcuts.