WWDC 25 NOTES: Thoughts about being Sherlocked or copied

In tech, “Sherlocked” means a platform copies a third-party app’s features, making the original obsolete. At the recent WWDC 25, Apple announced the new OS 26 series, including macOS Tahoe 26 with an enhanced Spotlight feature, and people react that some 3rd-party apps like Raycast, a Spotlight replacement are being Sherlocked by Apple.

Raycast did reflect to this by publishing a video showing their reaction to Apple WWDC 25 announcements. I completely agree with how they responded to the new Spotlight.

While this does present challenges for third-party developers—since users may be happy about the new features Apple provides for free, and may discontinue using our apps—it also brings new opportunities. User expectations for features can vary, and our target users may quickly hit the limitations of Apple’s offerings and eagerly seek features that Apple can’t provide.

Furthermore, Apple releases major updates to its operation systems and software once a year, whereas we certainly don’t update our apps that less often. Like Apple, we listen to our customers for feedback, but we can respond to those feedback faster and more transparently. So, as long as Apple or other platforms that your apps are on doesn’t copy / implement the exact features pixel by pixel, seeing the being Sherlocked thing as a chance is a good start.

Note: If your work is valuable to Apple, they may acquire your work, just as they did with Siri, Photomator, and others.

Next, I would like to talk about being copied. First of all, building the same features and integrating them into your apps is not the same as copying. Features required by users are countless, but for most users, what they need across similar apps are not entirely different. It’s totally fine to implement or incorporate features that your rivals have, but it’s NOT fine to copy something pixel by pixel without even considering how those features can be fit into your app.

But how I deal with the being copied? It depends. If you did put a lot of effort into designing and developing a feature, what others can copy is just the surface - they cannot see through your initial thoughts. Users can really feel the differences between the original and the copy. In this case, I have nothing to worry about and just stick to my design and implementation.

On the other hand, there are some cases where someone did copy your features, with soul included, not just the surface. Nothing can truly prevent others from doing so. In those cases, I choose to move on and later come up with much better design or implementation by my own. That way, what they copied is the obsolete version, and my updated version should be even better.

So those are my thoughts. What do you think?