thaw-app/Thaw 3.0.0-beta.1

on GitHub

macOS 27 only · Build 111 · First beta

Thanks to your support, Thaw is now part of the Vercel Open Source Program.

New: folders, letters and corners

• Folders. Right-click an item group and choose Show as a Folder. Each folder can have its own icon and color.
• Open an item by letter with a shortcut from Settings > Shortcuts.
• Rounded screen corners in Settings > Appearance.

New: icons and menus

• Thaw uses the app's own icon where it has no picture of an item. Reported by @mrleblanc101 in #1087.
• Choose Icon… picks any image the app ships, or a file of your own. Requested by @Snowman833 in #912.
• One menu for every item in Layout, search and the Thaw Bar.

New: show Live Activities and the camera indicator

• A new option in Settings > General keeps Live Activities and the camera and microphone indicators on the menu bar while apps are hidden, and stops hidden items from flashing when Notification Center opens.
• It's in beta and off by default. Thaw offers it once at launch and asks for access to one file.
• The camera and microphone indicator stays in Visible. It could land among hidden items and stay out of sight.
• An app Control Center doesn't know stays on the bar instead of switching the option back to the usual hiding, which hid the indicators again.

New: open hidden items in the menu bar

• Open hidden items in the menu bar, in Settings > Thaw Bar, shows a hidden item in the menu bar and opens its menu under the icon, from the Thaw Bar, search or a shortcut. Off, the menu opens without the icon, as before.
• An app that ignores the click still opens without its icon.

Apple's items Thaw can't hide

Switches in Settings > Experiments swap these for Thaw icons you can move or hide.

• New: Replace Input Menu, with your keyboard layouts.
• Fast User Switching, AirDrop, Focus and Now Playing are replaced wherever they sit. Reported by @joaofrgomes in #1196.
• Replacement icons look right and survive a relaunch.

Settings

• Update channels. Choose Beta or Nightly in About Thaw, from the ⋯ menu in Settings.
• An update's notes open in What's New before you install.
• Item arrangement says what Automatic and Manual do. Reported by @KyNorthstar in #1212.
• Dashed and dotted borders in Appearance.
• Fewer settings. Anything you changed still applies.
• Tidier pages, buttons and sidebar: one shorter list, a subtitle under each pane title, and Swap, Zen Mode and About in the toolbar's menu.
• Roomier Layout pane. Each section's bar gets its own card at full width, with its name above it.

Fixed

• Settings no longer crashes on notched MacBooks or at 110% zoom. Reported by @ifangxiang and @NickBenthem in #1194.
• Thaw no longer reorders the menu bar around its own icons.
• Unplugging a display no longer quits menu bar apps. A different spacing on each display used to relaunch every app with a menu bar item, Chrome included. The new spacing now applies the next time those apps launch, or at once with Reapply Spacing. #1215
• A full menu bar stays in order. When macOS has no room to draw some Visible items, Thaw moves the extra ones to Hidden instead of rearranging the bar again and again.
• Apps with more than one icon stay where you put them.
• Items keep their section when you reorder Hidden or Always Hidden in Layout.
• The menu bar is no longer covered while Thaw updates item pictures.
• Thaw waits while the screen is locked instead of updating pictures and positions against the lock screen.
• Apple's items keep their pictures on taller notched menu bars.
• The menu bar background follows reveals at once, on the right display.
• The Thaw Bar stays put when the Thaw icon is turned off.
• A divider you ⌘-drag stays where you put it, and the items it passes change section with it.
• Manual arrangement keeps sections in step with the menu bar. Drag an item past a divider to change its section; Layout no longer moves items Thaw can't.
• Hover reveals close again a second after the pointer leaves the menu bar, instead of waiting for a click.
• The Thaw Bar captures only missing pictures when it opens, instead of revealing the whole section.
• Hidden items open reliably, and open in the Thaw Bar when the menu bar is full. Reported by @Kodiak-01 in #1115.
• macOS's » button works on notched MacBooks. Reported by @joaofrgomes in #1195.
• Passwords' menu bar key can move to Hidden. #1205
• Siri stays put when you move other items.
• An app's items stay together, and Layout says when one is hidden with its app.
• Items hidden beside the notch come back on a wider display. Reported by @shaneoreilly in #1106.
• Wide items keep their picture. Reported by @thomast8 in #1204.
• Item pictures survive a relaunch and no longer pick up specks from busy wallpapers.
• Other apps stay in the background while Settings is open. Reported by @joaofrgomes in #1197.
• Clicks near the clock in full-screen apps no longer open Notification Center. Reported by @apaeffgen in #1191.
• Thaw is faster: the accessibility helper starts, and swaps and reveals do less work.

Known issues

• "Broadcast Message … NSAccessibilityException" in every Terminal window. An older app whose menu bar item uses AppKit's legacy status-item API throws when Thaw reads the item, and macOS broadcasts the error to all terminals. To find the app, run log show --last 10m --style compact --predicate 'eventMessage CONTAINS "NSAccessibilityException"' while it happens; the process name in each line is the app. Quitting or updating that app stops the messages. #1214

Still under investigation

• Thaw may not stay the frontmost app. Tell us if it still happens. #1167
• Uneven gaps after a spacing change. #1126
• Webcam and microphone controls can be hard to reach. #1174
• Item positions with a right-to-left language. #1063

Thank you

• @KyNorthstar, the Item arrangement wording (#1212)
• @ifangxiang and @NickBenthem, the Settings crash (#1194)
• @joaofrgomes, the » button, Typeface and Fast User Switching (#1195, #1196, #1197)
• @shaneoreilly, @Kodiak-01 and @thomast8, hidden and wide items (#1106, #1115, #1204)
• @mrleblanc101 and @Snowman833, item icons (#1087, #912)
• @apaeffgen, Notification Center (#1191)
• lyly and influx on Discord, missing items and live wallpapers
• Andrew, ꩜ツ iamnotacat ツ꩜, xX-Mordran-Xx, Kristian Kruse, katlaland and Fofer on Discord, testing, logs and reports across many issues