Boomkey Is More Than a Keyboard Layout Switcher for Mac: Everything It Actually Does

People find Boomkey while searching for a "keyboard layout switcher for Mac". That's fair - switching is part of it. But it's the smallest part. Boomkey is a wrong-layout fixer: a native macOS menu bar app that makes text typed in the wrong keyboard language come out right, whether you notice the mistake immediately, after a sentence, or after pasting something from elsewhere.

This is the complete list of what it does, in the order most people end up using it. No marketing adjectives - just the features, the limits, and the honest status of each one.

The problem in one sentence

You have two or more layouts installed (say English and Ukrainian). You type ghbdsn when you meant привіт, or руддщ when you meant hello. macOS doesn't care - it happily shows the wrong letters. You delete, switch layouts, retype. Dozens of times a day.

Every Boomkey feature below is one way to skip that delete-switch-retype loop.

1. Auto-fix on space (beta)

Type a word, hit space. If the word only makes sense in your other layout, Boomkey rewrites it on the spot and switches the layout for you. You keep typing; you never touch the layout switcher.

• Works as you type, in any app that takes regular keyboard input.
• Language pairs: English ↔ Ukrainian, Belarusian, Hebrew, Russian. This is the beta part - the dictionary check is what decides whether a word is "real", and it's tuned per pair.
• Switches only when it recognises an actual word, so names, codes, passwords, and shortcuts stay exactly as you typed them.
• Backspace resets the correction immediately, so editing mid-word doesn't fight you.

This is the feature that makes the "which layout am I in?" question disappear for the languages it supports.

2. Double-tap Shift to fix selected text (any layout pair)

Noticed the mistake late? Select the wrong text - a word, a line, a paragraph - and double-tap Shift. Boomkey converts it between the two layouts and switches to the right one.

• Works with any pair of layouts you have installed, not only the auto-fix languages. Polish ↔ English, German ↔ Hebrew, Ukrainian ↔ Russian - if macOS has both layouts, the conversion works, because it's a character-for-character mapping, not a dictionary.
• Nothing selected? It fixes the last word you typed.
• Double Shift is the default; you can set any combo you like.
• Works in Electron apps too (Slack, VS Code, Viber, Telegram desktop) - a place where many older tools break.

If auto-fix is the seat belt, double-Shift is the manual override that always works.

3. Convert clipboard text with a hotkey

Copied a message someone else typed in the wrong layout? Or a chunk of text from a place where selection doesn't work (a terminal, a remote desktop, a PDF)? Copy it, press the hotkey, and the clipboard is converted. Paste the fixed version anywhere.

4. Layout switching that cycles only the layouts you use

Yes, Boomkey also switches layouts - and its switch shortcut cycles only through the languages you've selected in the Languages tab. If you have three or four layouts installed for occasional use, this stops the "Ctrl+Space landed me on the fourth layout again" problem. (If you'd rather just clean up your layouts, here's how to remove ones you don't need.)

5. Per-app rules

Some apps should never be auto-corrected: terminals, password managers, code editors where ls -la is not a Ukrainian word. In Boomkey you can turn auto-fix off for specific apps while keeping the double-Shift hotkey available everywhere. The rules are per app bundle, so they survive updates.

6. Word exceptions

Slang, brand names, usernames, transliterated words that the dictionary thinks are typos - add them to the exceptions list once and Boomkey leaves them alone forever. This is the fastest way to tame any false correction you hit.

7. Native, local, one-time

A few things that aren't "features" but matter when you're picking a tool that reads your keystrokes:

• Native Swift app, no Electron - it's a tiny menu bar process, not a browser in disguise.
• Everything runs locally. Keystrokes are processed on your Mac and never leave it. No account, no cloud, no telemetry of what you type.
• macOS 14 and newer, Apple Silicon and Intel.
• One-time purchase, lifetime updates. 7-day free trial, no card required. Details on the pricing page.

Two versions: this site vs. the Mac App Store

There are two builds, and they're different on purpose:

	Version from this site	Mac App Store version
Auto-fix as you type (on space)	Yes	No
Fix selected text with a hotkey	Yes	Yes (via macOS Services)
Clipboard conversion	Yes	Yes
Accessibility permission needed	Yes	No
Setup	Grant one permission	None

The App Store's sandbox doesn't allow watching keystrokes, so that build can't fix as you type - it fixes on demand. If you want the full behaviour, download from this site. Setup takes about two minutes.

What Boomkey deliberately doesn't do

• It doesn't translate. Converting руддщ → hello is a layout mapping; it doesn't turn Ukrainian into English.
• It doesn't auto-fix languages outside the supported pairs - for those you get the hotkey and clipboard conversion, which work for everything.
• It doesn't run in the cloud, sync your text anywhere, or need an account.
• It doesn't replace macOS input sources. Your existing layouts, shortcuts, and settings stay exactly as they are.

Who it's for

• Anyone typing in two alphabets daily: Ukrainian, Belarusian, Hebrew, or Russian plus English - auto-fix covers you end to end.
• Anyone with any two layouts who just wants the delete-switch-retype loop gone - double-Shift and clipboard conversion cover every pair.
• Former Punto Switcher users who moved to a Mac and found nothing quite like it.

If you'd like a comparison with the other tools in this category, we wrote an honest one that includes ourselves.

Frequently asked questions

Is Boomkey a keyboard layout switcher? It includes one, but its main job is fixing text typed in the wrong layout - automatically as you type (for supported languages) or on demand with a hotkey (for any layout pair).

Does it work with any language? Fixing selected or clipboard text works with any two layouts installed in macOS. Automatic fixing on space is currently limited to English paired with Ukrainian, Belarusian, Hebrew, or Russian.

Does it send my keystrokes anywhere? No. All processing happens locally on your Mac. There's no account and no server involved in correction.

Why does it need Accessibility permission? To see what you type and to replace the wrong word, macOS requires an explicit Accessibility grant. The App Store build skips this permission and works on demand only.

Is it a subscription? No. One purchase, all future updates included. There's a 7-day free trial with no card.

Does it work in Slack, VS Code, Telegram, browsers? Yes, including Electron-based apps and web text fields.