Quick comparison
| Feature | Refrain | Apple Text Replacement |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 one-time | Free, built in |
| Where it lives | Menu bar, plus a global shortcut | System-wide, invisible |
| Trigger | Click in menu, or shortcut + search | Type a shortcut string |
| Multi-paragraph text | Yes, full editor window | Possible but awkward |
| Storage | Plain markdown file you own | Synced by iCloud |
| Edit outside the app | Any text editor | System Settings only |
| Works in apps that skip system expansion | Yes, clipboard paste | No |
| Sync to iPhone and iPad | No | Yes, via iCloud |
How Apple Text Replacement works
Apple Text Replacement is a macOS feature in System Settings, Keyboard, Text Replacements. You map a short string (like @@sig) to a longer one (your email signature). When you type the short string in most text fields, macOS swaps in the full version.
It's built in and syncs to your iPhone and iPad through iCloud.
Where Apple Text Replacement wins
- Short text you type mid-sentence. If you can remember
@@emfor your email address, expansion is quick and you never leave the keyboard. - iPhone and iPad. iCloud syncs text replacements across your Apple devices. Refrain is Mac-only.
- Nothing to install. It's already on your Mac.
Where Refrain wins
Text Replacement gets harder to live with once you have more than a handful of snippets, or once the text runs past a line or two.
- Longer text. A support reply, an out-of-office message, a meeting notes template, or a detailed AI prompt. Text Replacement can store paragraphs, but editing them in a single System Settings field is cramped. Refrain has a full editor window, and copying keeps every line break.
- Works in every app. Text Replacement depends on the app honoring system-level expansion, and some don't, including many terminals and some web and Electron text fields. Refrain puts the text on your clipboard, so it works anywhere you can press Cmd-V.
- You can see your list. Refrain shows every snippet in the menu bar, and its shortcut (Control-Option-Space by default) opens a search palette where you type part of a title or the text itself. Text Replacement is invisible: if you forget you set up
@@refund, it might as well not exist. - Plain-text file. Your snippets live in one markdown file at a location you choose. Open it in any editor, sync it with iCloud Drive or Dropbox, or keep it in git. Changes made outside the app reload automatically.
- Ready on day one. A new Refrain file starts with 13 starter snippets in your Mac's language: email signature, mailing address, meeting link, a note suggesting times, follow-up, thank-you note, out-of-office, two support replies, a meeting notes template, a git command, and two AI prompts. Edit them to fit.
Using both together
They work fine side by side. A common split: keep a few tiny abbreviations you type mid-sentence, like omw, in Text Replacement, and keep everything you'd rather pick from a list in Refrain: replies, templates, addresses, commands, and AI prompts.
Which to pick
Apple Text Replacement if your snippets are short, you remember a trigger for each one, and you want them on your iPhone too.
Refrain if you have more snippets than triggers you can remember, some of them run longer than a line, and you want them in a visible, searchable list that pastes into any app on your Mac.