Psst For Mac

Despite being the world's most popular music streaming service, and the fact that most users prefer the official desktop client to the web app, Spotify doesn't offer a native app for any desktop platform, and that's not going to change any time soon.

If you're after a Spotify client that doesn't just run a browser in a desktop app, Psst is a project you should keep an eye on. It's built as a native Mac app using Rust, and it is completely free and open-source. However, it is still quite early in development, so don't expect too many features yet.

While the official Spotify app is perfectly usable, it relies on the Chromium Embedded Framework to offer a web-based UI inside an app written mostly in C++. Of course, running a browser to play your music isn't the most efficient way to do things resource-wise.

Psst, on the other hand, is written entirely in Rust, and as such has a less noticeable resource footprint, not to mention a much smaller file size. It's how all desktop apps should be built if cross-platform availability and development speed weren't such big factors.

You can access songs and albums saved to your library, whether in playlists or as favorites, as well the playlists created by the service automatically. A search function is also available, but isn't as smart as the one available in the official client, at least not yet. Many other Spotify features aren't yet available, but there are surely plans for them.

One very interesting feature, which you won't even find in the official client, is the ability to customize similar song recommendations. Just right-click a song, select 'Show Similar Tracks', and then play around with the sliders to find the perfect kind of music. This is a great example of what can be done with Spotify's developer tools if you want to give users more in-depth customization.

It might not be the time to switch to Psst just yet, at least if you don't want to help test the app, but it could become a great alternative to the official client, possibly even offering more customization options for those who want them.

Note that you will need a Spotify Premium subscription to use this app.