Spotlight and DigUp handle desktop search differently on macOS. Spotlight finds files by their names, text, and metadata. DigUp also finds them by what they show or say, and takes you directly to the matched page or moment. Both tools work fine side by side on your computer.
Key Differences in Search
While Spotlight searches file names, document text, and metadata, DigUp uses Google DeepMind’s EmbeddingGemma 2 model to interpret meaning. DigUp searches only the specific folders you choose to index, rather than your entire drive.
DigUp matches both conceptual descriptions and exact words:
- Images and screenshots: Finds pictures by what they depict, plus exact text inside screenshots on a Mac.
- PDFs and documents: Scans PDFs page by page up to 5,000 pages per file, opening results at the exact page.
- Audio and video: Listens to audio in overlapping 30-second windows and samples video frames, jumping directly to the timestamp when opened.
- Cross-language search: Searches across more than 100 languages, allowing an English query to locate a note in Bengali or Arabic.
- Exact strings: Matches invoice numbers, error codes, and names exactly in file text and file names.
Requirements and Setup
DigUp requires an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 14 or later. Intel Macs are not supported. On first launch, DigUp downloads an 865 MB model file once and performs an initial indexing pass across your selected folders. DigUp goes online only to download the model once and to check for updates once a day, which can be turned off in Settings.
You can get the Mac app from the Mac download page and learn keyboard shortcuts on the guide to using DigUp.