ChocolateBar
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Make room on your crowded Mac menu bar.

ChocolateBar is a native menu bar manager. Hide the icons crowding your menu bar, or show them, full size, in a second row below it, along with your open apps. A Bartender and Ice alternative that works with or without a notch. A small native download for macOS Monterey or later, with a 7-day refund.

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ChocolateBar is for the moment your menu bar runs out of room. Hide the icons crowding it, or give them a second row, whether your Mac has a notch or not.

Why does your menu bar run out of room?

Open Slack, Linear, your VPN, a password manager and a sync client, and the bar fills up. Older icons fall off the edge, and on a 14" or 16" MacBook Pro the notch hides them sooner. Either way you lose the icons you reach for, and finding the right app window means Cmd-Tab roulette or a trip to the Dock.

Hide the clutter, or give it a second row.

ChocolateBar can hide the third-party icons crowding your menu bar, the way Bartender or Ice do. Or it can show them in a thin strip directly below the menu bar, along with the app windows you have open. Click an icon and the real menu fires. Click a window and it comes forward.

See it in action

Lay the strip out wide across the screen, or stack it into a tidy column down one side. Same hidden icons and open windows, your orientation.

An additional menu bar appears!

What does ChocolateBar do?

  • Your hidden icons

    A second row under the menu bar that stays put. Everything macOS hid behind the notch, visible again.

  • Open windows, one click

    Running apps show up in the same strip. Switch without Cmd-Tab or a trip to the Dock.

  • Same menus, real clicks

    Click an icon in the strip and ChocolateBar clicks the real one in your menu bar. Same menu, no fake UI.

  • Set up once

    New menu bar icons and windows appear automatically. Install, grant permission, done.

How does ChocolateBar work?

  1. Install in seconds

    Download the 5MB app, drag it to Applications, launch.

  2. Grant Accessibility

    ChocolateBar reads and clicks your existing menu bar items and lists active windows. Sandboxed. Nothing leaves your Mac.

  3. Use your menu bar

    Hidden icons and open apps appear in the strip below. Click them like you always have.

By the numbers

ChocolateBar reads your menu bar through Apple’s Accessibility API. That’s the only public way to see another app’s menu bar items. We’ve tried it with 30+ utilities across Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. It uses about 30 MB of RAM at launch.

Download size
5 MB
Architecture
Universal (Apple Silicon + Intel)
macOS supported
Monterey through Sequoia · Tahoe soon
Tested on
Apple Silicon and Intel Macs
Refund window
7 days, no forms
Apps tried
30+ menu bar utilities

What does ChocolateBar cost?

$15$10USD · one-time

Launch deal · use LAUNCH10 at checkout · first 10 only

7-day refund, no forms · reply to the receipt email.

Lifetime updates · Every Mac you own · 7-day refund · Monterey–Sequoia · Tahoe soon · Apple Silicon · Direct download, no App Store account

48 hours, full features. No card needed.

Send feedback

What’s working? What isn’t?

Bug reports, feature ideas, anything that felt off. Read by a human. Email is optional - leave it if you want a reply.

Questions

How do I install ChocolateBar?

Download the DMG, double-click to mount it, drag ChocolateBar to your Applications folder, then launch. macOS will ask for Accessibility permission on first run - that’s how the app reads and clicks your existing menu bar items. Granting takes one click in System Settings.

What problem does ChocolateBar solve?

It gives your menu bar more room when it runs out of space. Hide the third-party icons crowding the bar, or show them (and your open windows) in a second row below the menu bar, or both, so the things you use all day stay tidy and one click away.

Can it hide menu bar icons like Bartender or Ice?

Yes. An optional toggle hides the third-party icons cluttering the native menu bar, and a chevron lets you peek at them. The difference is that ChocolateBar can also show those same icons in a second row and switch app windows, so you don’t have to choose between hiding and seeing them.

Does it really show open app windows too?

Yes. The same strip lists every active application window so you can jump between them without Cmd-Tab or the Dock. Click a window in the strip, the real window comes forward.

Does it work on Apple Silicon and the latest macOS?

Yes. Universal binary: Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, on Monterey through Sequoia. Tahoe is next. No Electron.

A menu bar icon isn’t showing in the strip.

ChocolateBar can only show icons that macOS is currently drawing in the menu bar. If an app’s icon is missing from the strip, open that app’s own settings and turn on its Show in menu bar option (the exact wording varies by app). Once the app puts its icon back in the menu bar, it appears in the strip too.

Which apps does it work with?

Anything with a menu bar icon or an open window: 1Password, Slack, Linear, Tailscale, NordVPN, Dropbox, Notion Calendar, Raycast, Fantastical, Things, Bitwarden, iStat Menus, CleanShot X, Discord, and most other menu bar apps.

How do I uninstall ChocolateBar?

Open ChocolateBar Settings → General, scroll to Permissions, and click Reset & quit. That clears the Accessibility entry and quits the app, so you can drag ChocolateBar from Applications to the Trash without the permission row lingering in System Settings. (If you skip that step and the row gets stuck, run tccutil reset Accessibility app.chocolatebar.chocolatebar in Terminal.)

My menu bar is full and running out of space. What can I do?

Use a menu bar manager. ChocolateBar hides the third-party icons crowding your menu bar, the same job Bartender, Ice, and Hidden Bar do, and it can also show those icons in a visible second row below the menu bar along with your open apps. It works on any Mac, with or without a notch.

Does it work on a Mac without a notch?

Yes. The notch is only one reason a menu bar runs out of room. On an iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Air, or external display, enough running apps will crowd the bar until icons fall off the edge. ChocolateBar hides that overflow or surfaces it in a second row either way.

Why does it need Accessibility permission?

Apple doesn’t give apps a public way to read another app’s menu bar items. Accessibility is the workaround. ChocolateBar uses it to find your hidden icons, list open windows, and click them when you do. Nothing leaves your Mac.

I installed it but nothing happens when I open it.

Two known causes. First, if macOS shows “ChocolateBar can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software” or similar, right-click ChocolateBar in Applications and choose Open, then click Open in the dialog. This tells Gatekeeper to trust the app once. Second, if launching is silent (no dialog, no icon, nothing in Activity Monitor), the download was corrupted or quarantined. In Terminal run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/ChocolateBar.app and try again. If neither works, email [email protected] with your macOS version (Apple menu → About This Mac) and we’ll sort it.

What’s the refund policy?

7 days, no forms. Email [email protected] and we’ll process your refund. Tell us what didn’t work if you’re up for it - it helps us improve, but it’s not required.

Last but not least

Have a great time with ChocolateBar.