MacOS limit Spotlight results to .app files

Question

I have already limited Spotlight search to Applications inside System Preferences > Spotlight

However, this seems to actually just limit searches to the directory /Applications.

It means there are results from application files, configuration files, etc..

Is it possible to limit Spotlight search results to the .app file extension?

Using macOS Catalina (10.15.7).

Thanks Craig

Answer 1

Interesting. I saw your clarification; you want Spotlight to only search apps, always, or to default to that, and you can opt out?

I don't think you can, directly, but you could record an Automator flow that launches Spotlight, adds the appropriate kind:app, and then change the system keyboard shortcut to point to your flow.

It really depends on what you are trying to do. Spotlight searches are quite valuable for documents, are you sure you want to give that up?

Also, have you considered using Alfred or something like it, instead?

Answer 2

If you invoke Spotlight (⌘ + space) and enter search term followed by kind:app you will see only applications (and 'Related searches' block with 'Search the Web' and 'Search in Finder' options)

Refer to Apple support document Search by the type of items to find item types you can use to narrow Spotlight search results.

Answer 3

If you initiate your search from Finder (rather than Cmd + Space), after typing your search name you can add criteria using the + button on the right side:

and then filter by "Kind" is "Application." If you want to filter to items named "*.app": on my screenshot where the dropdown box is "Kind," scroll down and select "Other", then choose "File Extension", and you can do this:

(Filtering by "Name" is "*.app" did not produce the same result for me.)