Show HN: Badgeify – Add Any App to Your Mac Menu Bar

118•ahonn•10mo ago

Comments

mlangenberg•10mo ago

I actually wonder how I can get them out?

Every background service wants some screen estate in the menu bar, but the app that I need is always hidden behind the notch of my MacBook. Why can’t I hide the ones I don’t frequently need?

monkey_monkey•10mo ago

There are several 3rd party utilities (free and paid) that allow status bar icons to be hidden

ndegruchy•10mo ago

You can Command-Drag some of them off the menubar. It doesn't work in every case, but it might help. Plus there are tools like Ice and Bartender that help you hide most or all of them.

fullam•10mo ago

im a big fan of https://matthewpalmer.net/vanilla/

7839284023•10mo ago

I am not! Bought the program about a month ago and it’s really buggy on MacOS 15. You can clearly tell that it was developed for some previous MacOS version and has been since then forgotten.

alook•10mo ago

There are apps that help you hide unused menu bar apps - this one works well: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hidden-bar/id1452453066?mt=12

sangeeth96•10mo ago

FOSS solution that's actually really good: https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice

hombre_fatal•10mo ago

You have to grant global Screen Recording permissions to use these menubar managing apps.

It's insane to grant that just to move some icons around.

sangeeth96•10mo ago

If you see some other way to resolve this, I'm sure Ice welcomes contributions.

hombre_fatal•10mo ago

I don't think a project's core security concerns should be left up to my charity.

I get why they need the permission to implement their cutesy drag and drop interface.

But I'd like to hear why these apps can't continue to hide menu icons after you've revoked the permission. Ice and Bartender at least require you to grant it at all times last I looked a few months ago.

hbn•10mo ago

As far as I understand it works by grabbing screenshots of your menu bar and redrawing overtop of it. It can't do that if it doesn't have the permission to do screengrabs.

hombre_fatal•10mo ago

I deserve the downvotes for my first line, heh.

Maybe I can redeem myself by clarifying that the real frustration here is with bad macOS UX, not people trying to hack around it. I barked up the wrong tree.

victor106•10mo ago

Interesting. do all these apps work the same way? Apple does not provide any API's to modify the menubar?

hbn•10mo ago

Unless we're just waiting on someone to figure out another genius workaround, that's the case, yes. Macs are not Linux, for better and for worse.

To be honest it seems crazy at this point an overflow for menu bar items isn't built into macOS, especially now that all their laptops have this notch that can hide menu bar items if you have too many. Plus it competes with space with the dropdown menu items on the left since if an app has too many they'll wrap to the other side of the notch.

sunaookami•10mo ago

Theoretically it would work without this permission but it wouldn't be convenient: https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice/discussions/362

oneeyedpigeon•10mo ago

Interestingly, the site in question contains a relevant article:

https://badgeify.app/how-to-fix-mac-menu-bar-icons-disappear...

typeofhuman•10mo ago

I use Hidden Bar to hide icons I don't want to see (some of my icons are company required software that I can't quit)

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hidden-bar/id1452453066?mt=12

PTRFRLL•10mo ago

Also available via Homebrew

neerajdotname2•10mo ago

I've been using hidden bar for over a year and it's working beautifully.

harlanlewis•10mo ago

Lots of good recommendations in replies.

Calling it out only because I don’t see it mentioned - until last year, Bartender was one of the popular go-to tools to manage menu bar items, but it fell from favor after quietly changing owners, changing certs, general shadiness https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/psa-bartender-mac-app-u...

A specific and relevant reminder why open source is so important for system utilities.

rpgbr•10mo ago

Many apps offer hiding their menubar icon as an option. I'm always looking for that option and I managed to get a super clean menubar[1] — without sacrificing features or apps I need. The “11m” icon is from a little gem called Aware[2].

[1] https://i.imgur.com/0AFL1rU.png [2] https://awaremac.com/

lobsterthief•10mo ago

There’s a great app called Bartender that does this. I’ve been using it for over 10 years. Very stable.

hbn•10mo ago

You should know at some point in the past year or so it was silently sold to a shady company which makes me VERY wary for something I gave screen recording permissions to. I'd never install Bartender on my machine again.

lukeholder•10mo ago

Since other people are sharing their fav menu bar manager, shoutout to bartender app: https://www.macbartender.com

jtokoph•10mo ago

Some people are worried about the new ownership: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40584606

kstrauser•10mo ago

Yeah. I've moved all my stuff to Ice, and that's what I recommend to friends now.

freewizard•10mo ago

I use Badgeify, nice feature set, and I appreciate this works with Ice[1], there's an OSS alternative[2] but not work well with Ice somehow.

[1] https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice

[2] https://github.com/xiaogdgenuine/Doll

crossroadsguy•10mo ago

Ice never worked for me. https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden is the only thing I could make on my Mac work for some reason. I think https://github.com/Mortennn/Dozer didn't work either for me (well, it used to then it stopped after a Mac update or so).

Anyway, after 15.4 update yesterday a lot of things are misbehaving for me including miraculous battery drains.

touristtam•10mo ago

I have just started to use hidden, and although it isn't pretty by any means, it works fine (MBP M3 Pro 15.4)

supermatt•10mo ago

Maybe you should rename your "lifetime duo" to "lifetime trio"?

Mystery-Machine•10mo ago

Great app! I'd love to support it through https://setapp.com/

belthesar•10mo ago

This seems like a polished, limited in scope version of what xbar[1] and SwiftBar[2] does. Personally, I love using the menu bar as the place for at-a-glance information. I currently use SwiftBar to provide status indicators for my audio devices with some hacky scripts I wrote to talk to my mixer.

[1] https://xbarapp.com/

[2] https://swiftbar.app/

guzik•10mo ago

glad you mentioned xbar, and your comment is ranked high (so maybe someone can help me out). I've been a long-time user of xbar, but recently it stopped showing up in the menubar on macOS 15.2. Even a simple script with just print doesn't display anything. Anyone else running into this?

btw. I'm starting to think xbar might be abandoned - it hasn’t seen updates in a while.

belthesar•10mo ago

I agree that xbar's seemingly not getting as much love as it once was. I was also having some weird CPU resource issues with it, which all but went away with SwiftBar, so I'd definitely recommend swapping it out. The script backend is compatible with xbar/BitBar scripts, so migration should be pretty pain-free. I'm currently running SwiftBar on 15.4 with no issues (minus some interesting nuance with how it handles to menu bar items which I think is more of a macOS menu bar thing than a SwiftBar thing, as I had the same issues with xbar).

Nezteb•10mo ago

Another good name would have been "Barify".

I use a combo of xbar [1] and Menubarx [2]. I used to have several widgets just for system stats but eventually moved to mac-stats [3] for that.

[1] https://github.com/matryer/xbar

[2] https://menubarx.app/

[3] https://github.com/exelban/stats

mdasen•10mo ago

I love the idea of putting things in the menu bar, but it seems like the apps still have to be taking up space in the dock. I can't have WhatsApp, Signal, FB Messenger, Slack, Discord, etc. tucked away running in the background and popping up in my menu bar when there's something to respond to. I have to have them crowding my dock with half a dozen icons.

Is there a way to hide the items from the dock and just have them in the menu bar?

gwbas1c•10mo ago

When I did Mac programming a decade ago, there was an app metadata flag, inside the bundle, to hide the icon in the Dock.

Now that apps are digitally signed, it might require a few more hoops to manipulate the app. (Your Mac protects you from running tampered apps.)

jedberg•10mo ago

The problem I have is too many things in my menubar. I like having all the info at a glance, but when I go mobile, only a few items fit before it runs out of space.

Not sure what a good solution there is.

savolai•10mo ago

Relevant? https://badgeify.app/how-to-fix-mac-menu-bar-icons-disappear...

latchkey•10mo ago

Bartender was sold off and became dubious in nature.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40584606

Ice (mentioned several times on this page) is the open source replacement.

dtgriscom•10mo ago

From ten months ago: https://www.macbartender.com/b5blog/Lets-Try-This-Again/

latchkey•10mo ago

It really is too bad... once I switched to Ice, I have no desire to switch back... and I'm saying that as a paying customer of Bartender.

andrei_says_•10mo ago

A bit hard to believe especially given the amount of time between the community raising the alarm and any coherent response from the new owners.

Still no individual’s names or contact info on the website.

I am a paying user who uninstalled the app from all my Macs and replaced with ice.

Ice lacks my favorite bartender feature (show the extended app bar when mouse hovering over the camera island) but I still prefer it to a shady alternative.

ronnieboy493•10mo ago

The same company Applause recently bought out Strongbox [0], which has been discussed a few times on HN a few times[1]. They have a pretty reliable history of destroy applications / extracting maximum value.

[0] https://strongboxsafe.com

[1] https://kagi.com/search?q=strongbox+site%3Anews.ycombinator....

thejohnconway•10mo ago

There’s an open source menu bar manager called Ice. Works well. https://icemenubar.app/

wappieslurkz•10mo ago

Tried reducing the space between the icons?

https://community.folivora.ai/t/reduce-menu-bar-icon-spacing...

ahonn•10mo ago

It’s super hard to make menubar show just the stuff I care about. Tons of apps like Bartender or Ice can hide icons, but adding the ones I actually want? That’s what Badgeify do.

Plus, it can stay quiet and only show icons when there’s a message, so it’s not in your face all the time.

Show HN: Look Ma, No Linux: Shell, App Installer, Vi, Cc on ESP32-S3 / BreezyBox

Show HN: I spent 4 years building a UI design tool with only the features I use

Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

Show HN: ARM64 Android Dev Kit

Show HN: R3forth, a ColorForth-inspired language with a tiny VM

Show HN: Smooth CLI – Token-efficient browser for AI agents

Show HN: Slack CLI for Agents

Show HN: Fitspire – a simple 5-minute workout app for busy people (iOS)

Show HN: Gigacode – Use OpenCode's UI with Claude Code/Codex/Amp

Show HN: I built a RAG engine to search Singaporean laws

Show HN: Artifact Keeper – Open-Source Artifactory/Nexus Alternative in Rust

Show HN: Horizons – OSS agent execution engine

Show HN: Daily-updated database of malicious browser extensions

Show HN: FastLog: 1.4 GB/s text file analyzer with AVX2 SIMD

Show HN: Falcon's Eye (isometric NetHack) running in the browser via WebAssembly

Show HN: BioTradingArena – Benchmark for LLMs to predict biotech stock movements

Show HN: I built a directory of $1M+ in free credits for startups

Show HN: A Kubernetes Operator to Validate Jupyter Notebooks in MLOps

Show HN: Micropolis/SimCity Clone in Emacs Lisp

Show HN: 33rpm – A vinyl screensaver for macOS that syncs to your music

Show HN: A password system with no database, no sync, and nothing to breach

Show HN: Chiptune Tracker

Show HN: GitClaw – An AI assistant that runs in GitHub Actions

Show HN: Local task classifier and dispatcher on RTX 3080

Show HN: An open-source system to fight wildfires with explosive-dispersed gel

Show HN: Agentism – Agentic Religion for Clawbots

Show HN: Disavow Generator – Open-source tool to defend against negative SEO

Show HN: Craftplan – I built my wife a production management tool for her bakery

Show HN: Total Recall – write-gated memory for Claude Code

Show HN: BPU – Reliable ESP32 Serial Streaming with Cobs and CRC

Show HN: Look Ma, No Linux: Shell, App Installer, Vi, Cc on ESP32-S3 / BreezyBox

Show HN: I spent 4 years building a UI design tool with only the features I use

Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

Show HN: ARM64 Android Dev Kit

Show HN: R3forth, a ColorForth-inspired language with a tiny VM

Show HN: Smooth CLI – Token-efficient browser for AI agents

Show HN: Slack CLI for Agents

Show HN: Fitspire – a simple 5-minute workout app for busy people (iOS)

Show HN: Gigacode – Use OpenCode's UI with Claude Code/Codex/Amp

Show HN: I built a RAG engine to search Singaporean laws

Show HN: Artifact Keeper – Open-Source Artifactory/Nexus Alternative in Rust

Show HN: Horizons – OSS agent execution engine

Show HN: Daily-updated database of malicious browser extensions

Show HN: FastLog: 1.4 GB/s text file analyzer with AVX2 SIMD

Show HN: Falcon's Eye (isometric NetHack) running in the browser via WebAssembly

Show HN: BioTradingArena – Benchmark for LLMs to predict biotech stock movements

Show HN: I built a directory of $1M+ in free credits for startups

Show HN: A Kubernetes Operator to Validate Jupyter Notebooks in MLOps

Show HN: Micropolis/SimCity Clone in Emacs Lisp

Show HN: 33rpm – A vinyl screensaver for macOS that syncs to your music

Show HN: A password system with no database, no sync, and nothing to breach

Show HN: Chiptune Tracker

Show HN: GitClaw – An AI assistant that runs in GitHub Actions

Show HN: Local task classifier and dispatcher on RTX 3080

Show HN: An open-source system to fight wildfires with explosive-dispersed gel

Show HN: Agentism – Agentic Religion for Clawbots

Show HN: Disavow Generator – Open-source tool to defend against negative SEO

Show HN: Craftplan – I built my wife a production management tool for her bakery

Show HN: Total Recall – write-gated memory for Claude Code

Show HN: BPU – Reliable ESP32 Serial Streaming with Cobs and CRC

Show HN: Badgeify – Add Any App to Your Mac Menu Bar

Comments