Arby’s Is the Replacement Bartender I’ve Been Looking for for so Long.
For someone whose job involves testing and writing Mac applications, a crowded menu bar is an occupational hazard. Before the change of ownership last year, my recommendation for cleaning up the menu bar was “Bartender”. But once it became clear that we didn’t actually know who owned Bartender now, I tried several alternatives , and none of them had all the features I was looking for. So, I gave up on menu bar managers until recently when the apps in my menu bar started taking up more than half the screen and I was having a hard time even finding which app I was looking for.
That’s when I discovered Barbee , a powerful menu bar manager for Mac. It can do everything from hiding unnecessary icons in the menu bar to customizing the shape of the menu bar and even the appearance of the Apple logo in the top left corner of the screen.
The app is free to download and comes with a three-day free trial to try out all its features. Note that you won’t even be automatically charged after the trial period ends. You’ll simply lose access to the app’s features and can either pay $7 to unlock it or opt for a $3 annual subscription. This will allow you to try Barbie without any pressure and see if he is right for you.
Barbie requires accessibility and screen recording permissions in order for you to use all of its features. These permissions allow the app to display different menu bar layouts and also allow you to set up and run automations, which is an invaluable feature for me. However, if you’re worried, know that the app is sandboxed , so it’s limited in the amount of data it can access using these permissions.
Changing the menu bar layout in Barbee
The Menu Bar Layout Settings page is the best place to start in Barbee, as this is where you actually determine which menu bar icons will be hidden. Here you can choose which apps you want to always see, such as calendar or productivity apps, and move the rest to a hidden section. There’s also an Always Hidden section, which is great for apps that can’t be launched unless they’re in the menu bar. In my case, one of them is Unclack, which mutes the Mac’s microphone when I type. I need to run this app all the time, but I never want to see its icon in the menu bar. Difference? You can temporarily show hidden icons if needed, but not always hidden ones.
There are also a lot of settings available in the settings menu of this app and I highly recommend going through them all to get the most out of them. For example, in Barbee Settings > General > Mode, you can choose between Normal Mode and Advanced Mode . In normal mode, when you open hidden icons, the app displays them in the menu bar next to the visible icons. But in advanced mode they are displayed in a small floating menu. For those who have a lot of menu bar icons (pretty much the entire target audience for this type of app), this is a great feature.
You can also customize the appearance of the menu bar in the Menu Bar Appearance section. This allows you to change the shape of the menu bar, as well as choose whether you want it to have rounded corners, a different shade, and even whether you want to use a separate layout where app menus appear in their own menu bar on the left. I prefer a more unified look so this isn’t for me, but I couldn’t resist changing the Apple logo to the classic rainbow option, which is probably one of my favorite Barbie features.
Automation and other features
Barbee also has an automation section that allows you to show or hide certain menu bar icons based on triggers. The simplest example is the battery widget, which I really only want to see when the battery is low. So I went to Barbee Settings > Automations and quickly added a new automation to make this happen. You can set up similar triggers for almost every menu bar icon, so feel free to customize it to suit your needs.
I’ve also added a special keyboard shortcut for viewing hidden menu items, which speeds up my workflow significantly. You can do this by going to the Shortcuts section in the app settings. The General Settings page also has many other useful options. Be sure to turn on “Launch at login” so that the app starts every time you use your Mac, as well as the “Extend battery life” option to prevent Barbie from consuming excessive amounts of power. This page also has niche but useful features, such as the ability to show all menu bar icons when using an external display. This is nice to have because my MacBook Air’s screen has limited real estate, but when I connect it to my ultrawide monitor, I don’t have to hide the icons in the menu bar.