Coming soon
Softset Bar
Decide which menu bar icons you see, and when.
Choose which menu bar icons stay visible and which stay hidden until you click, hover, press a shortcut, or a rule brings them back. Works with the new menu bar in macOS 27.
Coming soon. Planned price: $9.99 once, with a 14-day free trial.
The problem
The menu bar fills up, and the notch hides what doesn't fit.
Every app wants a menu bar icon. On a MacBook the notch takes the middle of the bar, so icons you actually need end up hidden behind it or folded into the system overflow menu, and macOS decides which ones.
macOS 26 added switches to turn icons off entirely, and macOS 27 adds an overflow arrow for icons that don't fit. Neither lets you say which icons matter, or bring a set back automatically when you plug in a display or unplug the charger.
Softset Bar demo
Click the chevron to tuck icons away or bring them back. ⌥-click shows everything. Flip a rule to see it take over.
Keep the icons you use in view and hide the rest.
Put the icons you rarely use behind a divider and the ones you almost never need behind a second one. Softset Bar shows them again when you click, hover, press a shortcut, or a rule applies.
Hide and reveal
Hidden and always-hidden
⌘-drag icons past the divider to hide them. An optional second divider holds icons you want out of sight until you ask for everything.
Always visible
Everything to the right of the divider stays put. Nothing moves unless you move it.
Click, hover, or shortcut
Click the chevron, rest the pointer on the menu bar, or press a global shortcut. ⌥-click shows everything, including the always-hidden section.
Auto-hide
Revealed icons hide again after a delay you choose, but not while your pointer is still in the menu bar.
Rules and profiles
Rules
Show hidden icons, show everything, or switch profile when an app is in front, when you're on battery or charging, when the battery runs low, when a display is connected, when you're on Wi-Fi or offline, or during set hours and days.
Profiles
Keep separate setups, such as Work and Presenting, each with its own reveal behaviour and rules. Switch from the menu or let a rule do it.
External displays
Hiding adapts to every display you connect, including wide monitors, and a rule can react when a particular display is plugged in.
Notch-aware
On MacBooks with a notch, Softset Bar keeps the icons you chose visible to the right of the notch instead of letting macOS pick.
Find and recover
Search menu bar items
Press a shortcut, type part of an app's name, and open its menu bar item, even when it's hidden. This uses Accessibility and is off until you turn it on.
Temporarily show everything
One click brings every icon back for as long as you need, then puts your layout back.
Safe recovery
Open Softset Bar again from Finder, or hold ⇧ while it launches, and every icon comes back with rules paused. Reset Layout puts the dividers back where they belong.
Import and export
Save your settings, rules, and profiles to a file to back them up or move them to another Mac.
Make it yours
Scroll or click to reveal
Swipe down on the menu bar to show hidden icons and up to hide them, or click an empty stretch of the menu bar.
Room beside the notch
When revealed icons would land under the app's menus, Softset Bar moves the menus aside until the icons hide again.
Spacers, labels, and symbols
Add gaps, text labels, or any SF Symbol or emoji to group your icons, and ⌘-drag them into place.
Colour and spacing
Tint the menu bar with a colour or gradient, as a full bar or a floating rounded one, and pack icons closer so more fit.
Privacy
What stays on your Mac
- Softset Bar reads which app is in front, battery and power state, connected displays, and whether you're online, only to evaluate your rules on your Mac.
- Menu bar search reads item names through Accessibility, only while you use it, and never stores them.
- No analytics, no account. The only network requests are license activation and the daily update check.
Softset trust card
What Softset Bar does with your Mac
- Internet required
- Only for license activation and a daily update check.
- Account required
- No account.
- Usage analytics
- None. The app has no analytics or crash reporting.
- Data that leaves your Mac
- Your license key and an anonymous device ID when activating. Nothing about your menu bar or apps.
- Permissions
- Accessibility: Optional. For menu bar search, revealing icons by clicking empty space, and moving app menus aside beside the notch. Hiding, rules, and profiles work without it.
- Runs in the background
- Yes. It lives in the menu bar so it can reveal icons and follow your rules.
- Apple notarized
- No public build yet. Releases are signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple before they're published.
- Architecture
- Planned: Apple silicon and Intel (universal).
- Minimum macOS
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Tested on macOS 27 Golden Gate on Apple silicon.
More detail in the privacy policy. The Mac apps contain no analytics or tracking code.
- Requirements
- A Mac running macOS 14 Sonoma or later.
- Hiding on macOS 27 uses the new menu bar's public status item APIs; on macOS 14–26 it uses the classic divider technique.
- macOS
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later
- Price
- Coming soon. Planned: $9.99 once for one Mac, with a 14-day free trial.
- Changelog
- No public release yet. Softset Bar changelog
Questions about Softset Bar
Doesn't macOS do this now?
Partly. macOS 26 lets you switch individual icons off in System Settings → Menu Bar, and macOS 27 adds an overflow arrow for icons that don't fit. Softset Bar is for when you want icons available but out of the way: you choose which ones hide, how they come back, and rules can change that automatically.
Does it work on macOS 27 Golden Gate?
Yes. macOS 27 draws the menu bar as a single window, which broke the way most menu bar managers hid icons. Softset Bar hides icons using only public status item APIs, sized for the new menu bar, and adapts to each display you connect.
How do I choose which icons get hidden?
Hold ⌘ and drag icons in your menu bar. Anything left of Softset Bar's divider is hidden; anything to its right stays visible. It's the standard macOS way to rearrange the menu bar, so your arrangement sticks.
Why doesn't it need Accessibility or Screen Recording?
Hiding, reveal, rules, and profiles use only public macOS APIs, so Softset Bar can't see your screen or what you type. Accessibility is asked for only if you turn on menu bar search, clicking empty space to reveal, or moving app menus aside, which need it to read where other apps' menus and icons are.
What if I lose track of my icons?
Open Softset Bar again from Applications or Spotlight, or hold ⇧ while it starts: every icon comes back and rules pause. Quitting Softset Bar also brings every icon back immediately.
What happens when the trial ends?
After 14 days Softset Bar stops hiding icons, so nothing stays hidden, until you add a license.
Get Softset Bar early
Coming soon. Planned price: $9.99 once, with a 14-day free trial.
