Some projects are born from necessity, others from ambition. Thock? It sprang into existence because I was too stubborn to spend $5. What began as a weekend Swift experiment, a cheeky alternative to the App Store’s “Klack”, quickly took on a life of its own. I expected Thock to fade into GitHub obscurity after launch. Instead, it took off. 700+ users, a solid feature list, and a Reddit thread that refuses to die.
This is the story of how a joke turned into something people actually use.
The “$5” Origin
It all started with a simple thought: “Why pay for something I could build myself?” Klack, a $5 menu-bar app that simulates mechanical keyboard sounds, had gained a cult following. But as someone who’d never touched Swift or macOS native development, I saw it as the perfect excuse to dive in. A month later, Thock was born. Clean, MIT-licensed, and completely free. I figured it would live quietly in some dark corner of GitHub, a footnote in my coding journey. Oh, how wrong I was XD
Reddit to the Rescue
Before archiving the repo, I tossed a Hail Mary: a Reddit post announcing Thock’s existence. I braced for crickets. Instead, the post exploded. Over 150 upvotes, endless comments, and genuine excitement. People loved that it was open-source, lightweight, and (of course) free. The post even got a second wind months later, with users still trickling in to share their delight.
Community-Driven Evolution
Here’s where things got wild. Users didn’t just download Thock. They shaped it instead. Requests poured in:
- “Would it be possible to add an option so that Thock stays silent when Apple Music is playing?”
- “Support for custom sound files – Allowing users to upload their own keypress sound effects (e.g., .wav, .mp3, etc.) would add a great level of personalization and flexibility.”
- “Volume settings resets after rebooting mac. Please prevent it from resetting everytime.”
- and so on!
Each feature was a puzzle, but the community helped solve it. Contributors jumped in, submitting PRs for anything sound related to a Raycast extension. This little app became ours.
Where Thock Landed
Fast forward to today: Thock has 700+ users and counting. It’s not just a novelty. It’s a utility, complete with auto-updates, global shortcuts, and a sneaky Homebrew workflow that sidesteps the App Store’s paywall. The lesson? Build something stupidly niche with care, and you might just stumble into a community that cares back.
Oh, and don’t be afraid to jump into some tech you are not familiar with. I see it happening all the time with my friends, coworkers. Just don’t. DO NOT BE LIKE THAT. Think of it like driving a car. Yeah, you got a BMW, but it doesn’t mean you can’t drive an Audi (okay, okay, i wouldn’t too… maybe that was a bad example after all).
Try It Yourself
Curious? Check out Thock on GitHub. Install, tweak the settings, and join the chorus of mechanical sounds. Or, if you’re feeling brave, roll your own sound pack. I’d love to hear what you come up with.
And if your $5 joke ever takes off? Hit me up. I’ll buy you a coffee.