Drop Down now runs on macOS 15 and 26

From Early Access 3, version 0.9.3, Drop Down runs on macOS 15 and macOS 26 as well as macOS 27. It still needs a Mac with Apple silicon. On macOS 27 nothing changes; on 15 and 26 it hides icons in a way of its own, and this post explains how, and what that means for you.

Why

Until now Drop Down needed macOS 27. That is where it started: on macOS 27, Drop Down asks the system not to draw the icons you chose, and macOS 15 and 26 have no way to ask that. But most Macs are not on macOS 27 yet, and a full menu bar is just as full on macOS 26 or 15. So Drop Down now has a second way to hide icons, made for those two systems.

How it works on macOS 15 and 26

Besides its chevron, Drop Down keeps a second item in the menu bar: a separator you cannot see. Icons to its left are hidden. While hiding is on, the separator is wide enough to push them past the left edge of the screen, so they are still in the menu bar, only out of view.

1. Choose the apps. As before: in the setup, in Settings › Menu Bar Items, or with the panel’s + button.
2. Drop Down moves their icons. It moves them across the separator itself, with a quick ⌘-drag of its own, a moment after your click.
3. Or arrange them yourself. Choose Show All Icons, and a ‖ mark shows where hiding begins. Hold ⌘ and drag icons across it: icons left of it are hidden when you resume, and the app’s switch in Settings follows.
4. Open the panel. Click the chevron or press ⌃⌥⌘D, as on macOS 27. The hidden icons are in the panel, in a grid.
5. Click an icon. Its app’s menu opens, as if you had clicked the icon in the menu bar.

Every way back works here too: ⌃⌥⌘H shows every icon and pauses hiding, quitting or a crash brings the icons back, and holding ⌥ while Drop Down opens starts it with hiding paused.

What is different from macOS 27

Hiding by position has side effects, which Settings › Safety lists on these systems, and a few other things differ too:

• A quick move. When you hide or show an app, the pointer jumps to the menu bar and back for a moment while Drop Down moves its icons. Hiding an app usually shows nothing else; showing one, and hiding one on some displays (one with a notch, for instance), shows the hidden icons for a moment too. They also show for about a second when Drop Down starts.
• Opening shows the hidden icons. When you open a hidden icon from the panel, all hidden icons come back into view until its menu closes, so the menu opens on the screen.
• New apps. macOS places an icon it has not seen before on the hidden side. An app that shows a menu bar icon for the first time can therefore stay hidden for a few seconds, until Drop Down moves its icon out.
• Pictures on macOS 26. With Screen Recording allowed, the panel shows each icon as it looks in your menu bar. macOS 26 cannot take a picture of an icon that is off the screen, so there Drop Down takes the picture while the icon is visible: before it hides, while you open it, or with Refresh Icons, which shows the hidden icons for a moment. Until then the panel shows the app’s icon. macOS 15 can take pictures of hidden icons where they are.
• Any folder. On macOS 27, Drop Down has to run from the Applications folder. On 15 and 26 it works from any folder, and the setup does not ask to move it. Drag it out of the disk image first, though: a copy opened straight from the disk image cannot update itself.
• The panel’s look. On macOS 15 the panel has that system’s translucent look; the glass look needs macOS 26 or later.
• Other menu bar managers. As on macOS 27, Drop Down pauses its hiding while another manager it recognises runs. On 15 and 26 that includes Dozer and Vanilla.
• A menu bar that hides itself. With “Automatically hide and show the menu bar” set to Always, the bar is in view only while the pointer is in it, and Drop Down moves icons only while the bar is in view and the pointer is not. So hiding or showing an app waits until you change that setting; apps already hidden stay hidden.

What you need

• A Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 15 or later. Drop Down is built for Apple silicon only, so Intel Macs cannot run it, even with macOS 15 or 26. macOS 14 and earlier are not supported.
• Accessibility, so Drop Down can find the icons, move them and open hidden ones. Screen Recording is optional.

Before this release, Drop Down was tested by hand on macOS 27.0.1 and, in virtual machines with a single display, on macOS 15.6.1 and 26.6.2. So if you use several displays, or a Mac with a notch, on macOS 15 or 26, tell us how it goes on the feedback board.

Updating

If you already use Drop Down on macOS 27, the update arrives as usual, and hiding works as before. Everyone else can download it free from the home page: open the disk image and drag Drop Down into Applications. The release notes list every change in this version.