Out of 20 working days per week, an average person spends four days reading and writing emails. That’s almost 9 hours a week - and can take up to 15 if you work in sales or human resources. Since the number of messages we have to deal with is growing year over year, it’s important to find ways to optimize the way you send DMs and emails to your business and personal contacts.  One way to make the message routine less excruciating is a text expander - software that lets you insert large chunks of text - such as email templates or canned responses - with just a keyboard shortcut or a few clicks.  A more productive alternative to copying and pasting the text from the notes, autofill text expanders can save you hours, boost your productivity, and significantly improve the efficiency of your communication. Let's find out good alternatives to Text Expander or similar tools. TextPie Overview Textpie is a user-friendly Google Chrome extension and one of Text Expander alternatives that works as a MacOS or Windows. A truly magical alternative to good old “Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V” routine, Textpie can help you: Select and insert a template in a few clicks With its autofill text expander app feature, Textpie lets you select the most appropriate template from your personal collection and paste it into Gmail, LinkedIn, Upwork, or any other platform you need to send messages on. Reach prospects 10x faster Textpie’s automated personalization feature enables you to reach out to multiple people faster and more efficiently - with it, you can reach 100 prospects in the same amount of time it would normally take you to reach 10 people without a text expander. Enhance cold outreach & close more deals Textpie doesn’t just let you create templates - with its Variables feature, you don’t have to be afraid that you’ll send an email with a wrong name, position, or date anymore. With a few clicks, you can create highly personalized cold outreach messages that actually convert and help you close more deals after a great first impression. Textpie Use Cases Textpie is the best text expander tool that can help you streamline your daily messaging routine. The fewer repetitive tasks you have left, the more productive and motivated you can be for all the other stuff on your list. Here are just some of the things you can use it for: Sell products or services with personalized messages Scale your communication on Upwork and get more orders with carefully crafted cold outreach messages and saved replies that cover basic order completion stages. If you are running an online store on Shopify or Etsy, you can use Textpie to handle customer support requests, upsell & cross-sell messages, and gather product feedback. Find employees - or employers - on LinkedIn Finding the perfect match between a candidate and a company is tough for both sides - but a series of properly composed templates can make it somewhat easier. If you’re looking for a job, maximize your chances with a set of personalized first connection and follow-up messages. With Textpie’s variables, all the necessary details will be inserted in just a few clicks. If you work for human resources, streamline the search process with outreach, invitation, feedback, offer, and rejection emails.  {{banner_1}} Cut the time you spend tab surfing and copypasting One can manage finances of a whole company in a single Excel spreadsheet, but there’s a better way. The same goes for messaging people - sure, copying the messages from a Word document may feel comfortable, it’s extremely time-consuming.  With Textpie, you can forget about switching between dozens of tabs - and losing the one you need - or hitting the way-too-familiar keyboard shortcuts hundreds of times a day. All you need to do is hit // and choose a template from the list you’ve previously set up. It’s as easy as pie. Minimize errors and boost open rate The success of your message starts with a properly chosen subject and a relevant opening sentence. Insert the recipient's name into the first lines of your email - and the message is guaranteed to get the attention it deserves. And, once the email gets opened, your recipient won’t find any errors - with proofread templates and Variables that insert just the info that should be there. Minimum typos, minimum errors, maximum efficiency. Text Expansion Tools Overview Textpie is the best text expander software out there, but it’s not the only one. There’s a whole array of tools that let you type faster by converting hotkey combinations and abbreviations into longer words or sentences. Some tools are more basic - they let you expand a shortcut like “brg” into a phrase “Best regards” or let you assign keys to different types of email sign-off. Depending on how good the text expander software is, it can let you: Save time on repetitive typing, copying, and pasting Create and send messages faster Minimize typos and errors Text expander software goes by different names - some of them are called autofill tools, others say they are designed for shorthand typing or, less rather counterintuitively, for text abbreviation. Also, they can be called “tools for text acceleration,” which sounds both ambiguous and really cool. Some of the text expander tools come as downloadable software for either MacOS or Windows, while others, like Textpie, can be Chrome extensions that work equally well on both operating systems. How do I choose the best text expander? Whenever you are exploring text expander app alternatives, you must make sure that you are getting the best value for your money. Even if the solution you are looking at is free - or has a free plan, as Textpie does - it doesn’t mean that you should go for it right away. Compare and analyze features, check the compatibility with operating systems, make sure that you go for an option from ethical developers, and pick the solution that best fits your needs. To make sure you are making an informed decision, you can search for comparison articles with the help of search terms like “text magic alternatives.” Paid and Free Text Expander Alternatives OSlash Website Price: starts at $139.95 for business / free for personal use Free trial: available Positioned as an AI-powered co-pilot for teams and software, OSlash can help you write, search and plan faster with its Assistant product. Features and benefits: Shareable shortcuts Team collaboration Cross-platform support Room for improvement: Limited offline functionality The learning curve for new users Beeftext Website Price: free An open-source text expander for Windows, Beeftext allows you to assign combos - keyboard shortcuts - to larger pieces of text or code you use on a regular basis. Features and benefits: Simple and lightweight Open-source Customizable hotkeys Room for improvement: Limited advanced features Windows-only PhraseExpress Website Price: starts at $139.95 for business / free for personal use Free trial: available A Text Blaze alternative, PhraseExpress is available on both Windows and MacOS - and even on iPhones and iPads. Identifying as “autotext software”, this solution helps you manage text snippet and has an integration with OpenAI. Features and benefits: Powerful macro automation Cloud synchronization Multilingual support Room for improvement: It can be overwhelming for beginners Higher price point for business users Magical Website Price: starts $10/month for Pro version / free plan available Free trial: available One of Text Magic alternatives, Magical is an AI productivity app that, among other things, offers you a way to automate emails, notes, and data entry jobs. Features and benefits: Browser extension Calendar integration Automated workflows Room for improvement: Limited to browser-based usage Features can feel basic compared to competitors aText Website Price: $4.99 one-time fee  Free trial: available aText is a text template, text shortcut, text macro, text automation, text expansion tool - well, text everything solution that accelerates your typing in any application by replacing abbreviations with frequently used phrases you define. Features and benefits: Simple and affordable Customizable abbreviations Real-time text expansion Room for improvement: Limited customer support TextExpander Website Price: starts at $4.16/month Free trial: available Just like the name suggests, TextExpander is a text expanding solution that lets individuals and teams save time by setting up shortcuts that help insert snippets of text. What’s curious is that TextExpander is a text expander alternative, but, at the same time, it’s not a TextExpander alternative. Features and benefits: Cross-platform support Shared snippets Detailed analytics Room for improvement: Some users report issues with the version for the phones Breevy Website:   Price: $34.95 one-time fee Free trial: available Breevy, which recently changed their name to aBreevy8 - get it? - is a major productivity enhancer that has been around for more than 15 years and claims that anyone can learn how to use it in 30 seconds.  Features and benefits: Syncs with Dropbox Extensive abbreviation support Integration with other apps Room for improvement: Windows-only The interface may feel outdated AutoHotkey Website Price: free AutoHotkey provides a simple, flexible syntax allowing you to focus more on the task at hand rather than every single little technicality as it allows users to easily create small to complex scripts for all kinds of tasks such as forming fillers, auto-clicking, macros, etc. Features and benefits: Highly customizable Extensive scripting capabilities Open-source Room for improvement: Steep learning curve No official customer support Windows only FastKeys Website Price: starts at $19.95 Free trial: available Fastkey claims that their automation software has Everything you need to automate repetitive tasks, and the list of features is, indeed, impressive. Among other things, it includes a clipboard manager, shortcuts, and even a macro recorder. Features and benefits: Comprehensive automation Customizable text templates Built-in start menu Room for improvement: Overwhelming for new users Windows-only FastFox Website Price: starts at $16.97 Free trial: available FastFox is an instant Word Expansion, Keyboard Shortcuts & Macro Software for MacOS that can be used to insert your most commonly used text quickly and easily, such as phrases, paragraphs, documents, images, and more. Features and benefits: Easy text expansion Hotkey shortcuts Document automation Room for improvement: Limited advanced features Interface could be more modern Text Blaze Website Price: starts at $2.99 / free plan available A magical alternative to old-fashioned typing and pasting, Text Blaze provides you with easy-to-use templates with endless customizability and powerful automation. According to their website, Text Blaze saves up to 28 hours or work per month. Features and benefits: Snippet creation and management Form-filling automation Dynamic templates with variables and formulas Collaboration and sharing Integration with web apps Room for improvement: Currently, it’s only available as a Chrome extension Limited offline functionality Conclusion No one can write your emails for you - unless you have an assistant - so text expanders of all kinds are a great idea for productivity and saving time. If you are looking for the best solution for text expansion and automation, try Textpie. It works on all popular operating systems, lets you select and insert a template in a few clicks, reach prospects 10x faster, enhance cold outreach with Variables. Textpie isn’t just another Text Blaze alternative - it’s an extremely handy tool you should definitely give a try. After all, it has a free plan, so you have absolutely nothing to lose - except for maybe all the routine copy-and-paste work you are doing now.