All posts tagged: macOS

Status Light

March 2, 2026
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“Are you on the phone?”

I’ve worked from home for 15 years, and have heard this question from my wife or kids a thousand times. I made Status Light so they never have to ask again.

Status Light is a simple macOs menu bar app that detects when your camera or microphone is in use and triggers an Apple Shortcut to let the people around you know you’re busy.

That Shortcut can do whatever you want: turn on a smart light (make it red!), change your Focus, send a message, or anything else that helps keep kids, partners, parents, or roommates from wandering into frame to ask if you want a sandwich.

When you start a call, Status Light knows. When you end the call, it knows that too.

Download it on the App Store for $1 (and if you work at Automattic, ping me for a coupon).

“Call with iPhone” for macOS

January 2, 2018
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call-with-iphone

Six years ago I made a little utility to right-click a phone number on my computer and dial it using Skype. I’ve used this daily for years, but it broke recently with Skype’s redesign.

I don’t otherwise have a reason to use Skype regularly these days, and ever since Apple introduced the ability to make phone calls from macOS via FaceTime (and your iPhone), I’ve been meaning to explore using that instead anyway.

FaceTime supports the tel protocol, so adapting my AppleScript to use that was easy.

You can download it here. Double-clicking the file should open Automator and prompt you to install it (or install manually by putting the file in ~/Library/Services/).

Now you should be able to right-click any phone number (including international formats) in most applications and “Call with iPhone” using FaceTime (it does make a “real” phone call, not FaceTime or FaceTime Audio). If an application other than FaceTime launches, you probably need to go to FaceTime > Preferences and set FaceTime as the “Default for calls”.

“Call With Skype” Service for Mac OSX

September 6, 2011
15 comments
Projects

Update: “Call with iPhone” now available too.

I spend a lot of time on the phone these days, and am tired of copy/pasting phone numbers into Skype’s finicky little dial pad, so I hacked together a Service for OSX to dial them for me.

Download this zip file, unpack it, and drop the Call With Skype file into ~/Library/Services/ (note for anyone using an OSX version since Lion: the Library folder is hidden…you’ll need to use the command line or go to Finder > Go and press your Option key).

Once you’ve done that, you should be able to highlight a phone number within any application, and right click to Call With Skype:

It should work for international numbers too.

Also, a tip: if you have a bunch of Services installed, “Call With Skype” might get buried under a “Services >” submenu when you right-click. Most people don’t use Services at all…if you’re in that camp you can head to System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services to disable any that you’re not using. If you disable enough of them, the submenu will disappear.