Apple’s 2021 MacBook Pro models have arrived along with it came an unexpected display notch, or as Apple would like to refer to it, a camera housing. This sits dead center at the top of the screen. The article you are reading will cover all the ways you can hide the notch or the ways with which you can at least make it play nice with your apps using software-based solutions.
The inclusion of this notch on the redesigned 14-inch as well as the 16-inch MacBook Pro has helped Apple in slimming down the display bezels. It also helped to move the menu bar up to around the camera housing. This allowed them to leave more screen real estate below, however, this was a controversial decision.
For some customers, the appearance of the notch in the center of the menu bar is playing havoc on an otherwise fantastic screen. For other customers, its location is actively interfering with app menu items. Either way, many users wish they would rather not have to deal with it at all. Fortunately, there are ways that can be used to hide the notch to varying degrees or at least to make it compatible with app menu bars.
This article will take provide the available tricks below, starting with how to conceal the notch completely.
You can Hide the Notch with Full screen Mode-
The easiest and the most straightforward way to make the notch essentially invisible when you’re working with a specific app is to use it in Fullscreen mode. If you click on the green button in the row of traffic lights at the top-left of the app window, the app will expand, and it will fill the screen. This will automatically hide the contents of the menu bar, as it will turn it black.
If you desire, you can hover over the menu bar with your mouse pointer to reveal the menu items. However, the effect is such that you will not even be able to see the notch is present, as long as you remain in Fullscreen mode. To exit out of Fullscreen mode, simply just click the green traffic light button again.
You can use Apps That Hide the Notch Completely-
If you don’t fancy the notch staring you in the face while you are looking at the display, don’t worry, there is an app for that. The following third-party apps don’t outright cancel the notch, however, they at the very least make the notch’s existence a little less obvious by forcing a black menu bar. This is similar to how macOS Monterey adds a black bezel to the top of the display when apps are run in Fullscreen mode.
Forehead (This app is Free): This app provides the users the ability to switch between default wallpaper and a black notch-less one. Forehead also provides the option to round the corners of the screen. This is similar to the rounded top corners in MacBook Pros. The ability to simulate a notch on older Macs is said to arrive in an upcoming update.
TopNotch (This app is Free): This app offers the same features as Forehead, while also supporting Dynamic Wallpapers. It works with multiple displays and spaces, all while it remains in the background and detects wallpaper changes.
De-Notch-ifier (This app will cost – $9.95): This app also offers the same features as Topnotch. This is in the form of a dropdown menu in the menu bar. De-Notch-ifier isn’t a completely fresh app, rather it’s a pre-configured version of the Boring Old Menu Bar. That gives you a boring old non-transparent menu bar on macOS Big Sur and later models. If you happen to buy one app, you will get the other for free.
You can Scale App Menu Bars to Adjust to the Notch-
In a few cases, older apps that require extensive use of menu bar items may have some of their content concealed beneath the camera housing. This makes for an unsightly appearance while making it difficult to access the menu options. Even if you Go Fullscreen or hide the notch using a third-party app will not be solving this issue. So, what can be done to fix this notch?
Thankfully, the company was wise to realize the potential issue of having menus or menu items in the menu bar, which would be caused due to them being inadvertently hidden behind the notch. In macOS Monterey, there is a compatibility setting which is named “Scale to fit below the built-in camera.” This will adjust an app’s settings so that it can either use the whole display or it can use only the area below the camera housing.
“Scale to fit” ensures that the menu bar, as well as the app window, will appear below the built-in camera on the Mac. If the app happens to have menu bar items or if the windows that would appear behind the camera housing, all open apps. OR. All the apps that share the same space appear below the camera until you close the app using the scaled setting.
How you can turn it on for an individual Mac app-
- Close the app that you had wanted to adjust as per the notch.
- Launch Finder, then select the Applications folder.
- Right-click or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-click, the icon for the app in question, then select Get Info.
- After that you have to check the box beside Scale to fit below the built-in camera.
- After you do so, you have to restart the app, while the app re-launches you will be able to see that the screen automatically scales to fit its entire menu bar below the notch area. Thus, ensuring all the app’s menu bar items remain visible.
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