Your shortcut to every meme.
A Spotlight-like launcher for the memes, GIFs and stickers on your Mac. Press F4, type a few letters, hit Enter: it is on your clipboard, still animated.
Always the latest version · macOS 14 Sonoma or later · Apple Silicon and Intel · no account, no tracking · All releases
michael-scott-no.gif
cool-cool-cool.gif
this-is-the-worst.gif
mocking-spongebob.gif
awkward.gif
happy-dance.gif
fake-typing.gif
idk.gif
It's not about saving time.
It's about answering with the perfect GIF before the conversation moves on.
Pastes like the real thing.
Most apps flatten a GIF into one frame when you copy it. F4 copies the file itself, so the animation lands in Slack, Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp and Messages exactly as it should.
- The file URL and the raw bytes, never a flattened image
- Optional auto-paste: F4 presses ⌘V for you
- Only the selected GIF plays in the panel, so it stays light
Giulia
deploying to prod on a friday, what could go wrong
Marco
F4 · “no” · ↩ · ⌘V — two seconds
Giulia
Built for keyboard people.
Everything is one shortcut away, and nothing asks for a permission it does not need.
Fuzzy search.
Type a few letters of the name: "tif" finds "this is fine". Favourites and the memes you used last come first.
One key.
F4, from any app, even full screen. Change it in Settings.
GIFs stay animated.
F4 copies the file, so Slack, Discord and Telegram get the animation.
Folders are categories.
Subfolders show up as categories you can search. New files appear without a restart.
No permissions.
The global shortcut needs no Accessibility or Input Monitoring. Auto-paste is optional and degrades gracefully.
Instant.
Folder scans and thumbnails run in the background. The panel never waits.
Raycast too.
A Raycast extension searches the same folder, if that is where your hands already are.
English and Italian.
The app follows your Mac's language. And yes, a few lines from Boris and The Office are hidden in the search field.
Updates itself.
Signed updates in one click. F4 only goes online to check for updates, to search GIPHY while you use it, and to download a link you paste.
Install in a minute.
Needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Pick whichever you like; F4 keeps itself up to date after that.
One line in Terminal
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kkratterf/f4/main/install.sh | shHomebrew
brew tap kkratterf/f4 https://github.com/kkratterf/f4
brew install --cask f4Questions.
macOS says it cannot verify the developer. Now what?
F4 is not notarized by Apple yet. Open it once, close the warning, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway. Or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/F4.app in Terminal. The install script does it for you.
Where do the memes come from?
From you. F4 ships with no images at all: no copyrighted stills, no GIF packs. Point it at a folder of your own and it indexes what is there. The GIFs on this page are shared by the shows' official channels on GIPHY and load from there.
Does it send anything anywhere?
No. No analytics, no account, no server. Your files are read locally. F4 only goes online to check for updates against the release feed on this site, to search GIPHY while you are in the GIFs or Stickers tab, and to download an image link you paste or drop into the panel. Updates and GIPHY can both be turned off.
Which files does it understand?
GIF, PNG, JPEG and WebP (WhatsApp and Telegram stickers). HEIC and short videos are on the roadmap.
Can I change the shortcut?
Yes, in Settings, from the menu bar icon. F4 is only the default; any function key works on its own, any other key with ⌘, ⌥ or ⌃.
F4 opens Spotlight or Launchpad instead. Why?
On a Mac keyboard the top row are media keys first. Hold fn and press F4, or turn on Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Function Keys. On most other keyboards F4 just works. Or pick another shortcut in Settings.
Why "F4"?
From "F4, basito", the face Stanis makes in the Italian series Boris. The icon is the F4 key itself; the basito face shows up inside the app, drawn in code. Put a .basito.png in your meme folder to use your own.
Can an AI assistant or a script use F4?
That is being built (a URL scheme, Shortcuts actions, a command line tool and an MCP server). Facts for AI assistants live in llms.txt, and the full reference in llms-full.txt.