The problem
Hot Corners had one job.
They blew it.
Drag a window near the edge of your screen — Hot Corners fires. Fullscreen game, video call, presentation — Hot Corners fires. macOS gives you four corners and four fixed actions. No apps, no files, no folders, no URLs. No delay. No way to pause. No way to exclude anything. So you probably turned them off. That's not a solution — that's giving up on four perfectly good corners.
How it works
Setup takes under a minute.
Four steps. No menus. No typing. Drag, drop, done.
Pick a corner
Open Smart Corners. Choose top-left, top-right, bottom-left, or bottom-right. Each corner gets its own action.
Drag your action
Drop any app icon, folder, file, or paste a URL directly onto that corner zone. No configuration panels. Done.
Set your delay
Choose how long your cursor rests before it fires — instant, or up to 1.5 seconds. Passing through never counts.
Flick and go
Push your cursor to the corner. Your action fires — no clicking, no hunting, no menu-diving. Just the thing you wanted.
Built with care
Smarter than Hot Corners.
Quieter than everything else.
Every edge case considered. Every frustration pre-empted.
No configuration menus
Drag anything onto a corner. An app, a folder, a file, or a URL. No typing, no pickers, no settings panels to dig through.
Stays quiet when you need focus
Add apps where corners get in the way — games, editors, anything fullscreen. Smart Corners disables itself automatically while they're active.
Pause in one click
From the menu bar, suspend every corner for 15 minutes — or turn everything off with one toggle. Perfect for focused sessions or screen sharing.
Never fires by accident
A state machine tells the difference between a deliberate stop and a pass-through. Drag a window near the edge with zero anxiety.
Your data stays on your Mac
Corner assignments are saved as a plain JSON file on your machine. No cloud sync, no accounts, no analytics. Nothing leaves your Mac.
Always one click away
Smart Corners lives quietly in the menu bar. Toggle it on, pause it, or adjust the delay without ever opening a settings screen.
In your control
Everything at your fingertips.
The menu bar panel puts your most-used controls one click away. Toggle, pause, or adjust the delay without ever opening a settings screen.
For your Mac
Nothing leaves your Mac.
Ever.
No account to create. No cloud service to trust. No analytics. No sign-in. Smart Corners runs entirely on your machine and saves your corner assignments as a plain JSON file that you own and control.
Simple pricing
Try it free. Own it forever.
Full access for 7 days, no card required. Like it? One purchase unlocks it forever. No subscription.
Every feature unlocked, no card required
- All four corners
- Drag-and-drop setup
- Dwell delay control
- Menu bar toggle
One-time, Mac App Store
- Everything in the trial
- App exclusion list
- Pause 15 minutes mode
- All future updates
Questions
Good to know
Does this replace Apple's Hot Corners entirely?
Yes. During first launch, Smart Corners walks you through disabling the four built-in Hot Corner actions in System Settings, so the two systems never fight over the same edge of the screen.
What can I actually assign to a corner?
Any application, file, or folder you drag onto a corner zone, or any URL you paste in — including custom URL schemes other apps register, like a specific Linear board, Obsidian vault, or Notion page.
How does it avoid firing by accident?
A state machine tracks whether your cursor has actually entered and dwelled in a corner versus just passed through while dragging a window. Combined with the configurable delay, brief or incidental contact never triggers an action.
Where are my corner assignments stored?
In a single human-readable JSON file on disk, local to your Mac. You can back it up, sync it with your own tools, or edit it by hand if you'd like to.
What happens after the 7-day trial?
Smart Corners reverts to view-only for your assignments until you complete a one-time purchase through the App Store. Nothing is deleted, and nothing renews automatically — there's no subscription.
Does it work on Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4)?
Yes. Smart Corners runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. Universal binary included.
Why does it need Accessibility access?
Smart Corners needs Accessibility permission to track your cursor position system-wide. This is the same permission many Mac utilities use — window managers, text expanders, clipboard tools. Smart Corners never reads or transmits your data. The permission is granted once through System Settings and can be revoked anytime.
Can I use it alongside the built-in Hot Corners?
We recommend disabling the built-in Hot Corners during setup so the two systems don't conflict. Smart Corners includes a step-by-step guide that opens System Settings to the right pane and shows you which menus to switch off. Takes about 30 seconds.
Does it work with multiple monitors?
Yes. Each display has its own four corners, and Smart Corners tracks your cursor across all connected screens.
Can I transfer my settings to a new Mac?
Yes. Copy the JSON configuration file from your Application Support folder to the same location on your new Mac, or sync it yourself with any file sync tool.
Give your corners a job.
Your screen corners are
doing nothing right now.
In under a minute they could be your most-used apps, your project folders, your daily URLs — waiting for a flick. Try it free for 7 days. No account. No subscription. $2.99 if you keep it.
Download for Mac — free trial7-day trial · macOS 13 Ventura or later · Apple Silicon native · No account