Early Access opens soon
Drop Down
Hide the menu bar icons you rarely need. They wait in a small glass panel under one chevron, a click away.
Requires macOS 27 or later · Runs from the Applications folder
One chevron in the menu bar, like the hidden-icons flyout on Windows: click it, or press ⌃⌥⌘D, and the icons you hid are right there.
How it works
Four steps, then it stays out of the way.
Drop Down asks macOS not to draw the icons you chose, and keeps them one click away. Nothing is moved, renamed or replaced: every app keeps its own menu.
Choose the apps
Turn off “Show in menu bar” for the apps you rarely need, in the setup or later in Settings › Menu Bar Items.
They leave the menu bar
macOS stops drawing their icons. The bar keeps what you use every day, and one chevron stands in for the rest.
Open the panel
Click the chevron or press ⌃⌥⌘D. A small glass panel opens right under it, with the hidden icons in a grid.
Click an icon
That app’s own menu opens, as if you had clicked its icon in the menu bar.
Right-click for more
A cell’s menu opens the app’s secondary menu (⌥‑click does too), shows the icon in the menu bar again, opens the app, shows it in Finder or quits it.
Drag it back
Drag an icon out of the panel onto the menu bar, and it is back in the bar.
One click, even for stubborn apps
A few apps only answer a real click. For those, Drop Down shows the icon, clicks it and puts the pointer straight back. You can switch that off in Settings › General.
The panel
Arranged the way you think.
Settings › Panel decides how the hidden icons sit under the chevron. Options marked Pro need Drop Down Pro; the rest are part of Basic, free.
Order
Alphabetical, the order the icons had in the menu bar, or a custom order: drag icons around in the panel, use ⌥ with the arrow keys, or sort the list in Settings.
Pro · Custom order
Grid size
Automatic, a fixed grid from 3 × 3 to 6 × 6, or any size up to 8 × 8. The panel fits the room under the menu bar.
Pro · Fixed sizes
Scroll or turn pages
When the icons don’t fit, scroll down, scroll sideways, or turn pages with dots, buttons, a swipe, the wheel or the arrow keys.
Pro · Sideways and pages
Icon size
Small, medium or large cells, for a compact panel or one you can hit without looking.
Pro · Icon sizes
List view
Every hidden icon on a row of its own, beside its app’s name, in the same order as the grid.
Pro · List view
Type to filter
Start typing while the panel is open and only the matching apps stay; Return opens the best match. With filtering off, typing jumps to the first match.
Pro · Filtering (jumping is in Basic)
The + button
The last cell adds an app from the panel itself. It lists the apps with menu bar icons, with their icons, including ones squeezed out of sight.
In Basic
Custom panel shortcut
Keep ⌃⌥⌘D or record your own. Drop Down refuses combinations macOS already uses, warns when another app holds yours, and falls back to ⌃⌥⌘D if it stops working.
Pro · Custom shortcut
Real icons
The icons you know, not just app icons.
With Screen Recording allowed, Drop Down shows each icon in the panel as it looks in your menu bar. For that it takes a picture of the menu bar while an icon is still visible: just before it hides it, after you open it, or when you press Refresh Icons.
The permission is optional. Without it, or until an icon’s picture is taken, the panel shows the app’s icon instead. The pictures are kept on your Mac and never leave it.
Safety
Your menu bar, always within reach.
Hiding icons should never cost you the menu bar. Every one of these is part of Basic, free.
Every icon back, in one keystroke
Press ⌃⌥⌘H in any app, at any time, and every hidden icon returns to the menu bar. Hiding then stays paused until you resume it from the chevron’s menu.
Quitting brings the icons back
macOS ends the hiding together with Drop Down, so a quit, a crash or a force quit returns every icon. If Drop Down stops responding, its watchdog lets go after two seconds.
Safe mode
Hold ⌥ while Drop Down opens and it starts with hiding paused. After two unexpected exits within ten minutes, it starts that way by itself.
One manager at a time
Two menu bar managers undo each other’s hiding. Drop Down recognises the common ones, pauses while one of them runs and tells you which. Run only one manager at a time.
Its own chevron, checked
Each time it applies hiding, Drop Down checks that its chevron is still in the menu bar. If the chevron disappears after it was shown, hiding stops until you resume it, so nothing ends up out of reach.
Careful with macOS updates
Drop Down checks the macOS service it hides icons with. If a system update changed it, hiding stays off and Drop Down says so, rather than guess.
Microphone and camera
An option pauses hiding while the microphone or a camera is in use. It is off by default: on macOS 27.0.1 the recording indicators stayed visible while icons were hidden.
Good to know
- macOS hides an app’s menu bar icons together: one app, one switch.
- Apps that run from outside the Applications folder stay hidden whenever hiding is on, even the ones you choose to show.
- While icons are hidden, the Globe+N shortcut for Notification Center does not work.
No telemetry. No account. No tracking.
Drop Down has no telemetry and nothing to sign in to. The only server it talks to is updates.getdropdown.app: once a day to ask whether there is a new version, without a system profile, and to download an update you accept. The server counts checks and downloads, with the country and a daily token instead of your IP address, so we know roughly how many copies are in use. Pictures of your menu bar stay on your Mac.
Read the privacy policyPricing
Free to use. Pro when you want more.
Drop Down opens as Early Access, on its way to 1.0. Basic is free. Drop Down Pro, a one-time purchase, adds the options marked Pro, and costs less during Early Access.
Basic
- Hiding apps and the panel, with the automatic grid
- Real menu bar icons in the panel
- Alphabetical and menu bar order
- The + button, and apps outside the Applications folder
- The ⌃⌥⌘D and ⌃⌥⌘H shortcuts
- Every safety feature
- Every language, updates and the diagnostics report
Pro
- Fixed grid sizes, scrolling sideways and pages
- Icon sizes and the list view
- Type to filter
- Custom order
- Custom panel shortcut
Planned, as part of Pro, not in the app yet: themes for the panel, your own icons and names for apps, more than one panel, each with its own apps, and notification dots.
Without Pro, your Pro choices are kept rather than deleted, the panel shows its Basic layout, and no hidden icon returns to the menu bar on its own.
What do I need to run Drop Down?
A Mac with macOS 27 or later. Drop Down has to run from the Applications folder (a folder inside it works too): macOS keeps Drop Down’s own chevron in the menu bar only for apps there. Started from anywhere else, it hides nothing and offers to move itself.
Which permissions does it ask for?
Accessibility, which it needs: Drop Down uses it to find the icons in the menu bar and to open hidden ones. Screen Recording is optional: with it, Drop Down takes pictures of the menu bar so the panel can show the real icons; without it, the panel shows app icons. The pictures stay on your Mac. Details are in the privacy policy.
What happens if Drop Down quits or crashes?
Your icons come back. macOS ends the hiding together with Drop Down, however it ends: a quit, a crash or a force quit. If Drop Down stops responding, a watchdog lets go after two seconds. And ⌃⌥⌘H shows every icon at any time.
Does it work with other menu bar managers?
Not at the same time. When two managers hide icons, macOS combines what each of them leaves visible, so they undo each other. Drop Down recognises the common menu bar managers: while one of them runs, it pauses its hiding and tells you which app it is, and it picks up again when you quit that app. Run only one manager at a time.
Does it work on a Mac with a notch?
Yes. When it first starts, Drop Down places its chevron at the right end of the menu bar, beside the system’s own items, rather than behind the camera housing. If the chevron ever ends up behind the notch, ⌃⌥⌘D still opens the panel, right at the pointer. And because you choose apps rather than icon positions, an app whose icon is squeezed out of sight can still go into the panel: the + button lists it.
Do the shortcuts work with any keyboard layout?
Yes. ⌃⌥⌘D and ⌃⌥⌘H use the keys where D and H sit on a US keyboard, so on some layouts, Turkish-F among them, the same keys carry other letters. Settings › Shortcuts shows both shortcuts as your keyboard names them.
Can I hide just one of an app’s icons?
No. macOS hides an app’s menu bar icons together, so an app with two icons has one switch. System items such as the clock and Control Center are managed by macOS itself, in System Settings › Menu Bar.
How much does it cost?
Basic is free: hiding, the panel with its automatic grid, real menu bar icons, the + button, the default shortcuts and every safety feature. Drop Down Pro, a one-time purchase, adds the panel options marked Pro; it costs less during Early Access than after 1.0. Prices are announced when Early Access opens.
How do I send feedback or report a bug?
Choose Send Feedback in Settings › About or in the chevron’s menu. It opens the feedback board, where you can post ideas and bugs and vote on others. Posts there are public. For a tricky bug, Settings › About can also save a diagnostics report to your Mac; keep it out of public posts, and you will be asked for it if it is needed.
Which languages does it speak?
English and Turkish, following the language your Mac uses. More languages are planned before 1.0.
Early Access is on its way.
Until it opens, ideas and questions are welcome.