[cosmic_cheese]

The reason things are this way is that in Apple’s view, third party devs are effectively misusing menu items.

Originally it wasn’t even possible for third parties to add new menu extras using public APIs. That was something reserved for Apple. Third party devs had to use a tool called MenuCracker.

When Apple finally added the API used now, the intention for it was for full fat GUI programs to provide ephemeral menu item companions that disappear when the host app is quit. It was never intended to facilitate persistent third party menu extras.

So the issue hasn’t been fixed because in Apple’s view it’s a problem of third party devs’ own creation. If all third party menu items were ephemeral nobody would have enough for them to overflow into the notch area.

——

Personally I think they should offer a way to extend the Control Center and push devs who want persistence towards that. That would afford better organization for users and allow them to better control which are immediately visible (since some apps don’t offer an option to hide their menu item).

[sysworld]

It's also abused by soo many devs, just wanting there app to be seen 24/7 by the users, regardless if there app gains anything from being in the menu bar. That's why many users run out of space. Most people don't look at settings or ways to remove them (if they even give an option), so they quickly fill up the menu bar. Back in the day without a notch, people would have so many that some menu items would disappear too.

[bayindirh]

A couple of my colleagues have so many applications running at the menu bar, so they have to use Bartender to be able to have anything resembling a functional menu bar.

I understand power users, but I don't understand these users.

[deathanatos]

… on my MBP, if we discount the icons that ship with macOS, the limit is 4 items. Past that, they're hidden by the notch.

I don't get why an overflow arrow once the limit is reached is so hard here.

Or letting users decide what the order of items in the bar should be.

[m-s-y]

command-click-and-drag them to where you want 'em. don't need bartender for this

[Angostura]

Weird. I think I have about 4.

Someone is confusing the menu bar for the Dock

[tass]

Try a corporate laptop. Every stupid thing you don’t need except to know it’s running is there, but you don’t know it’s running because they may just be hidden.

Jamf, zscaler, virus checkers, etc. need to all go to hell with this crap. I’m glad Tailscale are removing theirs.

[ehutch79]

Your experience is not everyone s experience. Are you one of their colleagues. No? Then they weren’t talking about you.

[bayindirh]

They don't have to be one of my colleagues to share their own perspective and experience. We're a rather large band of computer using people here, and it's good to share experiences and viewpoints.

[bayindirh]

Currently I have 6 extras, which is a rare number I see. My normal number is 3.

[saagarjha]

I am so glad that macOS Tahoe just lets me banish those apps to the shadow realm

[bayindirh]

I believe being able to remove these icons were possible since Leopard/Snow Leopard days.

[saagarjha]

Not the ones from apps

[bayindirh]

You might be right. It was long ago, and I was a Mac OS X newbie back then.

[kstrauser]

I do love that change. I’d deleted Bartender when it sold out, and now I’m glad that I don’t need or miss it at all.

[kemayo]

> Personally I think they should offer a way to extend the Control Center and push devs who want persistence towards that.

They actually added that in macOS 26. Just like on iOS, apps can now offer custom actions that you can add into the control center.

[cosmic_cheese]

I haven’t looked into it, but does it allow arbitrary UI? It sounds like they’re just buttons that trigger a single action, which isn’t sufficient for replacing menu items.

[VerifiedReports]

That's not really defensible as an excuse, especially considering Apple's grooming of users to believe that they never need to quit applications.

All Apple had to do was add a "more" indicator at the end of the area, at the very least. Or... to give all applications' entries equal footing, collapse them all into a disclosure control once there are too many to show.

But no... once again, a simple and fair solution eludes Apple's "designers."

[osicjwjxiwu]

If the “simple and fair solution” makes it so lazy developers lose money over putting things in the menu bar where they most definitely should not be putting anything, then so be it.

Stop putting things in the menu bar. End of.

[cosmic_cheese]

Yes, the number of apps that actually deserve space up there is rather small. The last thing Apple should do is enable a Windows tray style free for all.

[VerifiedReports]

I don't disagree.

[dieulot]

There’s no statement or action (such as banning menu-bar-only apps from the Store or even changing the APIs) supporting that Apple still wants menu bar items to be ephemeral.

[cosmic_cheese]

If they wanted to enable persistent third party menu extras they’d open up the same APIs that Apple themselves use.

[apple4ever]

They basically did.