What is Hidden Bar?
Hidden Bar is a free, open-source Mac utility that hides menu bar icons behind a divider arrow. You hold Command and drag icons to the left of the arrow, then click the arrow to push that group off the visible edge of the menu bar. A second optional separator gives you an always-hidden zone for icons you never want on screen. It is written by Dwarves Foundation in about 1,500 lines of Swift, sandboxed, with no helper app, no daemon and no network access, and it is licensed MIT. The current release is 1.11.1 and requires macOS 13 Ventura or later, because start-at-login moved to Apple's SMAppService API; the last version that supported macOS 10.13 through 12 was 1.10. It is also on the Mac App Store, though that build is years behind the direct download.
Verified product facts
- Type
- menu bar managerEditorially reviewed
- Platform
- macOS
- Apple Silicon
- Yes
- Pricing
- Open sourceDeveloper-stated
- Open source
- Yes
- Developer
- Dwarves FoundationDeveloper-stated
- Relationship to Nuanyue
- Third-party product — not published by NuanyueEditorially reviewed
- Licence
- MIT
- Current version
- 1.11.1Developer-stated
- Official website
- github.com/dwarvesf/hidden
Last updated . Facts marked developer-stated come from the developer and are not independently confirmed; editorially reviewed marks a Nuanyue judgement.
Key features
What Hidden Bar does at a glance.
Hides a group of menu bar icons behind a divider arrow; clicking the arrow pushes them off the visible edge
An optional second separator creates an always-hidden zone for icons you never want on screen
Hold Command and drag icons to choose
Side of the separator they sit on
Opt-in hover-to-expand, enabled
With a defaults command, expands the bar when the pointer dwells in it
Auto-collapse after expanding
With the timer deferring while you are actually using the menu bar
Right-clicking the arrow opens the same context menu as the separator, so Preferences is reachable from the control you already click
Start
At login through Apple's SMAppService, and a global keyboard shortcut to toggle the bar
Multi-display aware
The collapse width is sized for the widest attached screen and reapplied when displays are plugged in
What you can use Hidden Bar for
- Cutting a crowded menu bar down to the icons you actually watch
- Hiding status items that sit behind the notch on a MacBook with a camera housing
- Keeping rarely needed icons available without leaving them permanently on screen
- Replacing a paid menu bar manager with a free utility that does one job
Who is Hidden Bar for?
- Mac users who want a free, open-source menu bar hider with no configuration
- People who prefer to install from the Mac App Store or with Homebrew
- Anyone on macOS 13 or later who wants a utility with no daemon and no network access
Who is Hidden Bar not for?
- Users on macOS 12 or earlier, who need version 1.10 rather than the current release
- Anyone who wants automatic, rule-based hiding — Hidden Bar hides the group you place behind the arrow, not one it decides on
- People who need per-icon scheduling or appearance customisation, which Bartender and Ice provide and this does not
Limitations
- Requires macOS 13 Ventura or later. Start-at-login uses SMAppService, which does not exist on earlier releases, so macOS 10.13 to 12 users are pinned to version 1.10
- The Mac App Store build is far behind the direct download: the store listing is still on version 1.8 from June 2021, while the direct download is 1.11.1
- On macOS 27 the App Store build cannot hide icons at all, because the native hiding path needs Accessibility reads that the App Sandbox blocks; the direct download is unaffected
- Icons that macOS inserts to the left of the separator appear in the hidden zone by default, because new status items are placed at the far left of the menu bar
- Hiding is manual and group-based: there are no rules, schedules or per-app triggers
- The project still uses the repository name and bundle identifier com.dwarvesv.minimalbar from before the app was renamed Hidden Bar
Strengths and trade-offs
What Hidden Bar does well, and what to weigh before choosing it. Points marked developer-stated come from the developer’s own material and have not been independently confirmed.
Strengths
- Free and open source under the MIT licence, with no paid tier, no in-app purchase and the full source on GitHub.
- Sandboxed and self-contained: the developer's architecture notes describe a single process with no helper app, no daemon and no network.Developer-stated
- The direct download is notarized, and the project also publishes on the Mac App Store and through Homebrew.
- Ships as a universal build, so it runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs alike.
- Multi-display handling sizes the collapse width to the widest attached screen, so icons do not leak onto a wider external monitor.Developer-stated
Trade-offs
- Requires macOS 13 or later; users on macOS 10.13 to 12 are stuck on version 1.10.
- The Mac App Store listing is still on version 1.8 from 2021, so the store is not a route to the current release.
- On macOS 27 the App Store build cannot hide icons at all because the App Sandbox blocks the accessibility reads the native hiding path needs.Developer-stated
- New menu bar icons land in the hidden zone by default and have to be dragged back out, which is a recurring annoyance the developer lists as known.Developer-stated
First-use experience
What the app asks of you when you set it up. Only established facts appear here; anything we could not confirm is left out rather than guessed at.
- Installation
- Install with `brew install --cask hiddenbar`, download the notarized build from the GitHub releases page and drag the app to Applications, or install it free from the Mac App Store.
- First launch Developer-stated
- Launch the app and its arrow appears in the menu bar. The developer's instruction is to hold Command and drag the arrow to the right, past the icons you want hidden, so it sits between the visible and hidden groups.
- System integration Developer-stated
- Adds a menu bar arrow and an optional always-hidden separator. Start-at-login registers through Apple's SMAppService, and a global hotkey toggles the bar. A tutorial view runs on first launch and can be rebuilt from Preferences.
- Apple Silicon
- Supported
What it is
Hidden Bar hides menu bar icons. You hold Command and drag the icons you do not want to see to the left of the app’s divider arrow; clicking the arrow pushes that whole group off the visible edge of the menu bar. Dragging the arrow yourself decides where the boundary sits. An optional second separator adds an always-hidden zone for icons you never want on screen at all.
That is the entire interaction model. There is no rule engine, no schedule and no per-app logic, which is the main thing separating it from Bartender.
How the hiding works
macOS offers no API for hiding another app’s menu bar icons, so the app fakes it with geometry. The developer’s architecture notes describe a separator status item whose length is inflated to roughly the width of the widest attached screen, shoving every icon to its left out of view; collapsing and expanding is just flipping that length between about 20 points and the inflated value. macOS caps a status item’s length at 10,000 points, so the value is bounded accordingly.
The design has consequences worth knowing. Because the menu bar replicates on every display, the collapse width is derived from the widest screen rather than the main one, and it is reapplied when a display is plugged in — otherwise icons leak onto a wider external monitor. And because macOS inserts new status items at the far left of the menu bar, a newly installed app’s icon will land in the hidden zone and have to be dragged back out. The developer lists a built-in pin as a planned redesign, but it does not exist yet.
Scope, licence and privacy
The project is written by Dwarves Foundation in roughly 1,500 lines of Swift with a single dependency, and the architecture notes describe it as a single-process, sandboxed AppKit app: no helper app, no daemon and no network. Its privacy policy states it uses no third-party services that collect identifying information. The licence is MIT, and the source is on GitHub.
Versions and where to get it
The current release is 1.11.1, published on 18 September 2026. Version 1.11 raised the floor to macOS 13 Ventura, because start-at-login moved to Apple’s SMAppService API; anyone on macOS 10.13 through 12 needs version 1.10 instead.
Install it with brew install --cask hiddenbar, or download the notarized build
from the GitHub releases page. The Mac App Store listing exists and is free, but
it is not the way to get the current version: it is still on 1.8 from June 2021,
and on macOS 27 the App Store build cannot hide icons at all, because the native
hiding path needs Accessibility reads that the App Sandbox blocks. The direct
download is unaffected.
One naming note: the app is now called Hidden Bar, but the repository is still
dwarvesf/hidden and the bundle identifier is still com.dwarvesv.minimalbar.
Release history
Dated releases recorded for Hidden Bar, newest first, each with the source it was read from.
1.11.1
Fixes the Preferences window showing a Custom View placeholder instead of the General and About tabs on macOS 27.
Source: Source repository
1.11
Raises the floor to macOS 13 Ventura, restores hiding on macOS 27 by using native menu bar visibility, adds opt-in hover-to-expand, and fixes multi-display collapse width and auto-collapse timing.
Source: Source repository
1.10
Last release supporting macOS 10.13 High Sierra through macOS 12 Monterey; later versions require Ventura.
Source: Source repository
Questions about Hidden Bar
Is Hidden Bar free?
Yes. It is free and open source under the MIT licence, with no paid tier and no in-app purchase, and it is also free on the Mac App Store.
How do I install Hidden Bar?
With Homebrew: `brew install --cask hiddenbar`. Or download the notarized build from the GitHub releases page and drag it into Applications. It is also on the Mac App Store, though that build is years behind.
Which macOS version does Hidden Bar need?
Version 1.11 and later require macOS 13 Ventura or newer, because start-at-login uses the SMAppService API introduced there. Version 1.10 is the last release that supports macOS 10.13 through 12.
Does Hidden Bar hide icons automatically?
No. It hides the group of icons you have dragged to the left of its arrow, and you toggle that group by clicking. There is no rule system that decides for you.Editorially reviewed
Why are my new menu bar icons hidden?
Because macOS places new status items at the far left of the menu bar, which is inside the hidden zone. Hold Command and drag them to the right of the separator. A built-in pin is on the developer's planned redesign list.Developer-stated
Does Hidden Bar work on macOS 27?
The direct download does, using macOS 27's native menu bar visibility, which needs Accessibility permission and requires the app to run from Applications. The Mac App Store build cannot hide icons on macOS 27 because the App Sandbox blocks the required reads.Developer-stated
What is the difference between Hidden Bar and Dozer?
Both hide menu bar icons behind a clickable control and neither has a rule engine. Dozer adds two or three dots and a second toggled group; Hidden Bar uses a divider arrow and adds an optional always-hidden section, and it is actively maintained while Dozer has not had a release since 2020.Editorially reviewed
Alternatives to Hidden Bar
Apps that could replace this one — the same job, a different trade-off.
Ice
Menu bar manager for hiding icons and organizing layouts.
Both are free menu bar hiders, but Ice adds arrangement, profiles and appearance controls while Hidden Bar is a divider arrow with an optional always-hidden section.
Competitors
Direct competitors: overlapping features aimed at the same users.
Vanilla
Free Mac app that hides menu bar icons, with a one-time Pro tier.
Both hide menu bar icons behind a divider, but Vanilla is closed source with a paid Pro tier while Hidden Bar is free and MIT licensed.
Bartender
Menu bar manager with hiding, triggers and a second bar.
Both declutter the menu bar, but Bartender applies rules to decide what is visible while Hidden Bar only hides the group you have moved behind its arrow.
Similar apps
Related in purpose, but not a straight swap.
Dozer
Free open-source utility that hides macOS menu bar icons.
Both are small open-source menu bar hiders with no configuration beyond which icons sit to the left of the toggle.
Links
Sources
Facts on this page are checked against the sources below. Last updated .
