KeyCue is a shortcut cheat sheet that lives in your Mac’s menu bar.
Hold Command to see every menu shortcut
Hold down the Command key for a beat and a clean overlay pops up, listing every available menu shortcut for the app you’re in. There’s no digging through menus—just glance, find the keystroke, and keep typing.
System hotkeys and an emoji browser built in
You can set it to reveal system-wide hotkeys alongside the app-specific ones, all in one view. It also has a full emoji browser where typing a word like “pizza” brings up the matching symbols instantly.
Works in any program
Pick up shortcuts by doing, not drilling
People who live in a handful of apps all day—designers, writers, spreadsheet wranglers—tend to feel the difference within a week. Instead of memorizing shortcuts from a static PDF, they pick them up while working. I’ve seen folks who swore they’d never touch a keyboard shortcut start chaining them together just because KeyCue nudges the right combination into view at the right moment. Emoji fans get a bonus too: the searchable browser saves scrolling through Apple’s tiny picker, and the recent list keeps your most-thrown reactions within reach.
If you use lots of different tools, the payoff is even bigger. The overlay adjusts to whichever app you’re in, so you’re not juggling separate cheat sheets for a browser, a code editor and a writing app.
Goes beyond menu commands and free tools
CheatSheet does one thing well—hold Command and see shortcuts—and it’s free. But it stops at menu commands. No system hotkeys, no emoji lookup. If that’s all you need, it’s a lightweight pick. ShortcutDetective goes the other direction: it reacts after you press a shortcut, telling you which app grabbed it. Useful for diagnosing conflicts, but it won’t teach you new combinations. KeyCue covers both learning and lookup in one tool, plus the emoji browser, which neither of the others touches. The trade-off is a little more interface to explore, but once the habit of holding Command settles in, you rarely think about it.
Bottom line: if you want a bare-bones shortcut revealer, CheatSheet works. If you’re troubleshooting key commands, ShortcutDetective has your back. If you want a single download keycue for mac that teaches, surfaces system shortcuts and handles emoji without switching apps, KeyCue earns its spot in the menu bar.
Yes. It runs quietly behind the scenes on macOS 13 and later, ready to surface shortcuts for whatever application is frontmost—no per-app setup needed.
Version 11.2.1 tidies up a few things under the hood. Nothing flashy, just small tweaks to keep everything running smoothly.
- macOS 13 or later
- Apple Silicon or Intel processor
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