Welcome to Amphetamine Enhancer

NOTE: Amphetamine Enhancer requires Amphetamine 5.0. Visit the Mac App Store to upgrade.

Want to skip the introduction and just download Amphetamine Enhancer? Click here.

What is Amphetamine Enhancer?

Amphetamine Enhancer is a helper application that enhances a couple of Amphetamine’s features. In its 1.0 release, Amphetamine Enhancer adds the following abilities to Amphetamine:

• Adds a fail-safe for the closed-display mode feature found in Amphetamine 5.0+

• Gives Amphetamine 5.0+ the ability to use all running processes with Triggers and app-based sessions

More enhancements may be added in the future.

Why is a Separate App Needed?

Amphetamine itself is a sandboxed app. All apps distributed through the Mac App Store are sandboxed (it’s a requirement). Sandboxing severely limits what an app can do on your Mac. This is usually a good thing as it helps prevent malware and viruses from taking over your Mac or stealing your information.

Unfortunately, sandboxing also means that certain actions/tasks can’t be completed by the sandboxed app. Getting a list of every app and process running on your Mac is something a sandboxed app can’t do. That’s where Amphetamine Enhancer comes in. Since Amphetamine Enhancer is not distributed through the App Store, it’s not sandboxed and isn’t limited in the same ways Amphetamine is.

Why Not Un-Sandbox Amphetamine and Distribute it Outside the App Store?

Amphetamine is a popular app and is downloaded hundreds to thousands of times every day. For better or worse, the App Store is an easy way to distribute apps. As an independent developer, with little to no income from my apps, I don’t have a desire or the financial resources to pay out-of-pocket for the bandwidth and web hosting fees that would be incurred by distributing Amphetamine outside of the App Store. I also don’t have an advertising budget either. Amphetamine has become popular via word-of-mouth and it is consistently ranked high in the Mac App Store (which gives it visibility to those browsing the App Store charts). This popularity caused Apple to feature Amphetamine in an App Store Story. It’s unlikely all of this would have happened without the App Store as a distribution channel.

Beyond that, the majority of people who use Amphetamine have no need for the advanced features that Amphetamine Enhancer provides. There’s also a ton of people who would never visit Github and download a DMG or installer for Amphetamine. Losing the ease-of-distribution and App Store ranking visibility would only hurt Amphetamine’s user-base growth.

Can I Trust Amphetamine Enhancer Not to Steal My Info and Hack My Mac?

Amphetamine Enhancer is open-source. I’ve done this so you can feel comfortable that it is not stealing your information, infecting your Mac, or doing anything else naughty. Apple has also notarized the downloadable release(s) of Amphetamine Enhancer. This means Apple has scanned Amphetamine Enhancer for known malware and other vunerablities.

What License Applies to Amphetamine Enhancer?

This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT license.

Where Do I Download Amphetamine Enhancer?

Right here on Github.