ChocolateBarJoin waitlist

Your hidden menu bar icons and open apps, finally visible.

ChocolateBar is a Mac menu bar app that surfaces the icons your notch hides and shows your active application windows, all in a clean strip below. Click an icon, the real one opens. Switch apps without leaving the menu bar. Auto-detects new items. Works with everything macOS shows as a status item.

Why does the notch hide your menu bar?

Open Slack, Linear, your VPN, a password manager and a sync client, and half of them vanish. On a 14" or 16" MacBook Pro, menu bar items hidden by the notch aren’t a quirk — they’re a daily papercut. And finding the right app window means Cmd-Tab roulette or a trip to the Dock.

What if there were a second row?

ChocolateBar adds a thin strip directly below the menu bar with two surfaces: every status item macOS pushed off-screen, and every application window you have open. Click a menu bar icon and the real one fires. Click a window and it comes forward.

What does ChocolateBar do?

  • Hidden icons, surfaced

    A second row beneath your menu bar that never hides. Every status item, in one glance.

  • Open windows, one click

    Active application windows live in the same strip. No Cmd-Tab roulette, no Dock detour.

  • Click to activate

    Clicking an icon triggers the real menu bar item via the macOS Accessibility API. No shims.

  • Zero configuration

    Auto-detects new menu bar items and windows the moment apps add them. Install, grant, 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

Built on the macOS Accessibility API documentation — the only public way to read other apps’ menu bar items on modern macOS. Across our internal testing, more than 30 third-party menu bar utilities surfaced correctly in the strip, and the data suggests that on a typical notched MacBook Pro running 6–8 background apps, roughly half of those status items can end up clipped behind the camera cutout.

Download size
5 MB
Architecture
Apple Silicon native
macOS supported
13 Ventura — 15 Sequoia
Chips tested
M1, M2, M3, M4 (incl. Pro & Max)
Refund window
14 days, no forms
Apps verified
30+ menu bar utilities

What does ChocolateBar cost?

$15$10USD · one-time

First 20 only · save $5

Lifetime updates · Every Mac you own · 14-day refund · macOS 13+, Apple Silicon · Direct download, no App Store account

Reserve at $10

First 20 only

Be one of the first 20. Pay $10 instead of $15.

ChocolateBar ships once the early list is locked in. Drop your email and you’ll be the first to download — and the first 20 emails get the $5 discount code at launch.

One email at launch. No newsletter, no resale.

Questions

When is ChocolateBar available?

ChocolateBar ships once the early list is locked in. Join the waitlist and you’ll get the download link the day it’s ready. The first 20 signups receive a code for $10 instead of $15 — everyone after that pays the regular price.

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. Native Apple Silicon binary. Runs on macOS 13 Ventura through the current release. Tested on M1, M2, M3, and M4 — including the Pro and Max chips in notched MacBook Pros. No Rosetta, no Electron.

Which apps does it work with?

Anything that puts an icon in the menu bar or runs as a windowed app: 1Password, Slack, Linear, Tailscale, NordVPN, Dropbox, Notion Calendar, Raycast, Fantastical, Things, Bitwarden, iStat Menus, CleanShot X, Discord, the long tail of indie utilities.

How is ChocolateBar different from Bartender?

Bartender hides menu bar items behind a toggle. ChocolateBar does the opposite: it shows hidden menu bar items in a permanent second strip, alongside your active application windows, so nothing is more than one click away. Independent developer, $15 one-time, no acquisition history.

Why does it need Accessibility permission?

macOS gives no public API to read other apps’ menu bar items. The Accessibility API is the only supported way. ChocolateBar uses it to enumerate the icons macOS has pushed under the notch, list your active windows, and click them on your behalf. Nothing leaves your Mac.

What’s the refund policy?

14 days, no forms. Email [email protected] and you’ll get a refund the same day.