After many months of development and beta testing, Alfred v2 has now officially landed!

You can download Alfred v2 from our website to start using the new v2 features, as well as the many improved ones you’ll recognise and love from v1.

What’s new?

Alfred v2 is re-written from the ground up to be faster, more efficient and easier to use. Overall, less than 15% of Alfred v1′s code was reused, and every feature was carefully improved and given the love it needs.

Workflows

Some of the highlights of v2 include the new Workflows framework, which we sneak peeked for you during the beta and replaces the Extensions from v1. Alfred users have created amazing workflows, some of which you can find on the new Alfred forum.

Workflows in Alfred v2

To get you started, we’ve included a few examples, which you can find by clicking the + button at the bottom of the Workflows sidebar. You’ll also find a wide range of templates when clicking the same + button, to quick-start your workflow.

You’ll find templates for:

• Essentials to connect hotkeys and keywords to script and AppleScript actions
• Show Alfred with pre-filled content
• Launch files and apps with hotkeys or keywords
• Web and URL templates to launch your favourite websites
• System Commands
• Clipboard templates
• iTunes Commands

From simply connecting a hotkey to a single file, to creating a complex script workflow with multiple steps and notifications, you’ll be able to bend workflows to your will.

You can even present your results back in Alfred’s search window:

The possibilities with workflows are nearly endless, and you’ll no doubt have a lot of fun discovering them over the coming weeks

Themes

You asked and we delivered. Themes are now more flexible to allow you to make Alfred as big or small as you need. Create a new theme, then choose the fonts, sizes, colours, corner shape and spacing you prefer. Make your theme as beautiful (or as wacky!) as you want.

You can share themes and download others on the Alfred forum.

Contacts

In Alfred v1, we relied on the OS X metadata to present your Contacts in search results. Occasionally, this meant that contacts would not appear in search results, as the metadata had become corrupted. We now use the Contacts API instead, which is far more reliable and robust.

This is an improvement you won’t notice, as your contacts will just work beautifully well

Discovering the new features

There’s much more to Alfred v2 than I can cover in this launch post.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be publishing many tutorials on the new v2 features, which will help you discover what you can do. We’ll also be launching an Extras gallery for our favourite workflows and themes. In the meantime, here’s a v2 primer for users who are upgrading from Alfred v1.

And finally, thank you to the Mega Supporters who took the time to help us test the beta over the past two months; we are so lucky to have such a wonderful community of Alfred supporters!

Cheers and enjoy v2,

Vero

Where can I download v2?

If you can’t wait to get your mitts on v2, you can now grab Alfred v2 from our homepage, so go ahead and install it.

To activate the Powerpack features, you’ll need to have your v2 license. Mega Supporters received their licenses yesterday and Single Users who have purchased their license after 1st December ’12 are receiving their licenses as we speak. If you haven’t received yours, email us on license@alfredapp.com from your registered email address and we’ll reissue it for you.

Can I upgrade my v1 settings?

You’ll need to set up a few of your settings in v2, like your hotkey and location, which gives you the chance to review some of your old settings at the same time.

David Ferguson has created a workflow to allow you to import your custom searches and snippets from Alfred v1.

Extensions from v1 can’t be directly imported into v2. As Alfred v2′s workflows are so much more flexible than Alfred v1′s extensions, and every extension has been created differently, these require human intelligence to make the most of the workflows. Having said that, many v1 extensions have already been migrated to v2 by their respective developers, so check their website for more information.

Where can I find workflows and themes to import?

Workflows and themes are the two biggest changes in v2. During the beta, our amazing testers created numerous workflows and themes, which you can find on the Alfred forum. David also created many super useful workflows on dferg.us.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll feature some of our favourite workflows and themes so keep an eye on the blog for many more great workflows.

I’m excited! How can I find out more about the v2 features?

We’re so thrilled that v2 is now available for everyone to download. You’ll find some additional information on the Support site. We’ll be posting tutorials and guides to the v2 features over the next few weeks.

Join us on the forum for more chatter about v2, and enjoy the power of Alfred v2

Some days, it feels like Alfred’s been around forever; When your muscle memory kicks in to try to Cmd + Space even on someone else’s computer. Other days, it seems it was only yesterday we launched the first v.0.4 beta.

Three years from launch, Alfred v2 is just around the corner. We are currently polishing and adding final touches to your new and significantly improved personal butler. It’s with great excitement that we can say we are now hoping to have Alfred v2 in your hands within 3 weeks from today!

Don’t forget that if you buy the Powerpack now, you miss the queues and get a free v2 upgrade. Existing single license users can upgrade to a Mega Supporter, with other upgrade types coming soon.

If you are a Mega Supporter (or you upgrade now), you can help test the v2 beta to get an early look at the amazing new v2 features!

Thank you to all our v2 beta testers, and to everyone who has adopted Alfred since 2010!

Needless to say, all this enthusiasm leads to lots of questions, suggestions and ideas, so we’ve roped in the help of long-time friend of Alfred and amazing extension/workflow developer David Ferguson. Also known as jdfwarrior, David was one of the earliest and keenest extension developers, and has since become an authority on developing extensions and workflows. You’ll find some of his v1 extensions and early v2 workflows on his Tumblr.

He joins the team to help us manage the buzzing forum and give a hand to developers who are creating their own workflows. Those who have joined our forum (currently Mega Supporters-only membership until the v2 general release) will have seen how helpful he is already, but for those who don’t know David yet, you’ll most likely come across him in the Alfred forum over the coming months.

It’s also worth noting that David helps us in his spare time, evenings and weekends, so please be patient when asking questions on the forum.

Join us in welcoming David to the team! :)

Love Rdio? You’ll be blown away by the way David has integrated it. Prefer to use Chrome as your everyday browser? You’ll now be able to get to your bookmarks easily. He will also be updating his highly popular AlfredTweet extension for v2.

We can’t wait to see these first workflows take shape, and look forward to the ones you’ll create.

Rdio workflow

Rdio workflow in action in v2

Chrome Bookmarks

Chrome bookmarks found in Alfred v2

AlfredTweet

It’s great to see the workflow canvas put to good use; here is part of the workflow for the much-anticipated AlfredTweet update.

AlfredTweet Workflow in v2

Cheers,
Vero

Andrew took great pleasure in improving this particular aspect of the user experience; Users with external screens would occasionally find that Alfred was confused about where to appear on screen after disconnecting from the second screen. The preferences for v2 resolve that, as you can position Alfred’s window on your screen and, regardless of your resolution, he’ll remember it next time.

v2 Appearance: Set Alfred’s relative position (Click for full preference view)

Finding features more easily

As v1 grew organically over three years, with features added over time, we’d often get users asking “Where can I find feature option x?”, even though the feature options were there. Let’s face it, the features preferences had become a bit messy.

With a clear view of what v2 would contain, Andrew was able to restructure the preferences to make the grouping much more logical and approachable for a new user, while keeping the advanced preferences that suit many of Alfred’s current users. One of the many examples of this reorganisation is visible in how web and custom searches are now merged together.

Web searches and Custom searches

Previously, the web searches and custom searches were split between two tabs. They essentially serve the same purpose; launch a search with a keyword and open your most used websites, with or without a query.

They’re now consolidated into a single tab which can be both searched and filtered. You can hide the default web searches you’ve disabled or type to find the searches you’re interested in.

Every preference pane is receiving the same careful love and attention to ensure that using v2 is as natural to use as possible.

Time to relax and have a mince pie

Over Christmas, we’ll be spending less time online and more with family and friends. This means that it may take us a little longer than usual to respond to your tweets and emails – but we’ll keep an eye out for any urgent emails, of course!

2012 has been a brilliant year, and 2013 promises to be even more exciting. Have a great Christmas, take a break so that we can all start the new year with renewed energy!

Cheers,
Vero

Around a year ago, I decided it was time for some big changes… and by big changes, I mean, rethinking Alfred’s architecture from the ground up with a brand new foundation, on top of which all of his features are built – I started to plan Workflows.

Workflows are process containers of interconnected processing objects (haha I just made that up, sounds posh eh?). Put simply, you have triggers, inputs, actions and outputs, which can be mashed together into really useful stuff.

There are loads of great built-in objects, so non-technical users can simply pop these objects onto the canvas, connect them together and use their workflow. Not a line of code in sight.

Even better? Developers can create their own custom objects to process information in any way they like, including live filters feeding directly back into Alfred’s results.

Now for some simple examples of the sort of workflows you’ll be able to create:

Should I watch this movie?

Alfred v2 Workflow – Should I watch this movie?

Upload to Flickr

Alfred v2 workflow – Upload image to Flickr

Google Searches

Alfred v2 Workflow – Google Searches

Using the keyword “suggest” feeds Google Suggest results back into Alfred using a script filter – This is a new and extremely powerful v2 feature, allowing developers to feed results dynamically back into Alfred. Once I’ve found the result I want, hitting return will search Google. And just because I can, it’ll also post a notification to Growl and copy the suggestion to Clipboard.

Alternatively, I can launch a Google web search using the “g” keyword. Holding the Cmd modifier when hitting return, or using the Cmd + Alt + G hotkey opens the web search in Chrome instead.

These are just a few examples of what can be created with the new Workflows, and they barely scratch the surface of what you’ll be able to do with them.

What next?

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be posting a few more sneak peeks like this to share some of the v2 features.

If you want to take part in the v2 beta in January, you can upgrade your v1 single user license to Mega Supporter or buy a new Mega Supporter license today.

After over 6 months of work in secret, we can officially announce that Alfred version 2 is coming!

When we first launched Alfred in February 2010, we hadn’t anticipated that Alfred would grow up to become butler to millions of users, winning awards and engraining himself into our lives. Version 1 grew organically, with numerous releases over almost three years.

In version 2, Alfred will be even more polished and user-friendly than ever. To achieve this, Andrew has rewritten Alfred from the ground up to make every aspect more efficient, more powerful and more flexible, reusing only around 15% of code from v1. Of course, we’ve also taken great care to ensure existing users would still feel at home with v2.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing sneak previews of the new v2 features. We’ll also put out a beta once v2 is near completion in early January.

Did you say beta version?

Yes indeed! When the beta version is ready, we’ll invite Mega Supporters to give us a hand in testing v2. Your help in putting Alfred through his paces in previous development releases in the past has been invaluable, and we thought you might enjoy playing with a new shiny app ahead of release.

In order to keep a handle on the number of beta users and the feedback we’ll receive, only Mega Supporters will get early access.

If you’d like to become a Mega Supporter, you can upgrade your Single User license or, for new Powerpack users, grab a Mega Supporter license. The upgrade is great value and gives you a lifetime of updates included!

Everyone who has bought since 1st December 2012 will receive a free upgrade to v2, so if you buy today, you’ll get your v1 license instantly, and receive a v2 license when it’s released.

All users who bought prior to 1st December are eligible for a discounted upgrade and can either upgrade to a Mega Supporter license today, or a Single/Family license on release day.

We’ve created a License FAQ page with answers to most license-related questions.

Once the beta is available, we’ll provide documentation for developers who want to make their extensions compatible with v2. In most cases, this will be easy and will give you even more flexibility.

I hope this news is as exciting for you as it is for us. Follow us on Twitter @alfredapp as we won’t be able to resist posting some screenshots and sneak peeks over the coming weeks!

[Update: Have a look at the v2 tag on the blog to see all sneak previews we've posted to date!]