Ice

Ice by Jordan Baird is an open-source macOS menu bar manager for people with crowded status items, including users of notched MacBooks. It hides and reveals groups of menu bar icons and provides layout and appearance controls.

Features

• Divide icons into visible, hidden and always-hidden sections.
• Reveal hidden items through configured pointer or keyboard actions, then hide them again automatically.
• Arrange icons in a drag-and-drop layout view and display hidden items in a separate Ice Bar.
• Search menu bar items and configure section shortcuts.
• Adjust supported menu bar appearance options, with light/dark appearance settings introduced in 0.11.10.

The project's roadmap also lists unfinished work. A roadmap checkbox is not a promise that every planned capability is available in the stable version.

Install and use

Install with brew install --cask jordanbaird-ice, or download the official Ice.zip release, unpack it and move Ice.app to Applications. Launch the app, follow its permission setup, then configure sections and arrange items in its settings. Optional launch-at-login and update settings can be managed in the application.

Version 0.11.12 requires Accessibility authorization for menu bar information and item arrangement. Screen Recording authorization is optional in this version: it enables appearance editing and individual item imagery, while a limited mode is available without it. Review the permission prompt and choose the functions you need. These requirements are confirmed by the tagged permission implementation and release announcement.

Systems, dependencies and compatibility

The official README and Homebrew cask require macOS 14 Sonoma or later. The cask lists Intel and Apple Silicon platforms, no extra formula dependency, and an explicit conflict with jordanbaird-ice@beta. Choose the stable or beta cask rather than installing both through Homebrew. macOS system APIs are central to Ice's operation; no official Windows, Linux, iOS or Android version was established.

A minimum operating-system number does not guarantee that every new macOS release or third-party menu item behaves identically. The catalog's current stable 0.11.12 was published in 2024; do not interpret that as a new 2026 release or guaranteed compatibility with every newer system. Review current upstream release and issue information for your macOS version.

If layout editing reports that automatically hidden menu bars cannot be arranged, upstream troubleshooting recommends temporarily setting the system menu bar to remain visible, editing the layout, then restoring the preferred system setting. Some upstream troubleshooting prose predates the newer drag-and-drop interface, so it should not be treated as a complete description of current capabilities.

The verified official 0.11.12 Ice.zip asset is 3,497,507 bytes. This is download size, not installed storage. No fixed RAM or disk-space minimum was published in the cited material. The official README gallery screenshot demonstrates visible, hidden and always-hidden layout sections; it is a product example, not a version-specific screenshot.

Account, cost and license

Ice is available under GPL version 3. The public release is free to download, with optional sponsorship or donations supporting development. No mandatory Ice account or subscription was established for local menu bar management. Follow the license terms if modifying or redistributing the app; bundled components can carry additional notices.

Sources: Official README and gallery, 0.11.12 permissions, Official troubleshooting, GPL-3.0 license, Official releases.