What is App extension (widget or Shortcuts/Siri intents)?
By Junaid, maker of Taskglass · Last reviewed
A small app extension that provides a widget, or actions and search results for Siri, Spotlight or Shortcuts.
Apps, including System Settings and other Apple apps, include small extensions that run separately from the main app. Widget extensions supply widget content, and intents extensions expose actions and searchable items to Siri, Spotlight and Shortcuts. macOS starts them when needed and stops them afterwards. Seeing many of them is normal.
- Category
- Apple service
- Safe to quit:
- With care
Applies to processes matching a known naming pattern.
Why is App extension (widget or Shortcuts/Siri intents) using so much CPU or memory?
- A widget refreshing its content
- Spotlight, Siri or Shortcuts querying the extension
What to do
- 1Wait; these usually exit on their own
- 2Remove widgets you don't use
- 3Restart your Mac if one stays busy
Safe to quit? With care.
macOS starts it again when it's needed; the related widget or action may briefly not work.
Part of the Taskglass Process Library