Icey
Icey: the maintained replacement for Ice
Hide, show and rearrange macOS menu bar icons. Icey continues Ice, the free and open-source menu bar manager, with support for macOS 26 Tahoe and macOS 27, lower CPU use, and Ice's bugs fixed.
Why Icey
Works on current macOS
Supports macOS 14 Sonoma, 15 Sequoia, 26 Tahoe, and macOS 27 (early support). Ice doesn't work on macOS 27.
Lighter than Ice
Less CPU, energy and WindowServer memory: no always-on mouse monitors, no tight polling, far fewer screen captures.
Ice's bugs fixed
Crashes, the stuck update prompt, empty layout panes and multi-display glitches that are still open in Ice.
Features
Hide menu bar icons
Keep the icons you use and hide the rest, with an always-hidden section for the ones you rarely need.
The Ice Bar
Show hidden items in a bar below the menu bar. Made for MacBooks with a notch, where icons disappear behind it.
Drag-and-drop layout
Rearrange menu bar items in Settings by dragging them between the visible, hidden and always-hidden sections.
Show on hover, click or scroll
Reveal hidden items by hovering, clicking an empty area or scrolling in the menu bar, then hide them again automatically.
Search
Find and click any menu bar item, visible or hidden, from a search panel with a hotkey.
Menu bar styling
Tint, shadow, border and rounded or split shapes for the menu bar.
Your displays, your rules
Use the Ice Bar only on the built-in display or on displays with a notch, and choose where new menu bar items appear.
Move your setup
Export your settings to a file and import them on another Mac.
Screenshots
Install
- Download the DMG, open it and drag
Icey.appto Applications. - If Ice is installed, quit it and move
Ice.appto the Trash. Icey keeps your settings. - Open Icey and grant Accessibility and Screen Recording when macOS asks.
- Optionally, turn on "Automatically check for updates" in Settings > About.
Coming from Ice? Your sections, item layout and hotkeys carry over. Read the upgrade notes for the few things that change.
257 Ice bugs fixed
Icey fixes bugs that are still open in Ice, including:
- Ice stops hiding menu bar items on macOS 27
- Menu Bar Layout shows empty sections on macOS 26 Tahoe
- Ice crashes when you click the menu bar
- Ice crashes when you enable the Ice Bar with the Dynamic location
- The update dialog stays open and can't be closed
- Ice gets stuck and the menu bar stays hidden when an app hangs
- The Ice Bar leaves an empty ghost bar when a video goes fullscreen on another display
- Ice uses a lot of CPU after switching apps
FAQ
Is Ice still maintained?
Ice (jordanbaird/Ice) has had no code changes since 2025. Its last version was a prerelease, 0.11.13-dev.2. Icey continues development from that code, and fixes the bugs left open in Ice.
Does Ice work on macOS 26 Tahoe?
Ice 0.11.12, the last stable release, doesn't support Tahoe: the layout settings, the Ice Bar and search show "Unable to display menu bar items". Ice 0.11.13-dev.2 improved Tahoe support but still has crashes and other bugs. Icey supports Tahoe and fixes those bugs.
Does Ice work on macOS 27?
No. On macOS 27, Ice can't hide items anymore. Icey includes early macOS 27 support, built from community work for Ice that was never merged.
Will I lose my Ice settings?
No. Icey is a drop-in replacement: it uses Ice's bundle identifier and reads Ice's settings, so your sections, layout and hotkeys carry over. Menu bar appearance settings reset once when you upgrade from Ice 0.11.12.
Why does Icey ask for permissions again?
macOS ties Accessibility and Screen Recording to the app's signature, and Icey is signed with a different Developer ID than Ice. Grant them once. Later Icey releases keep them.
How does Icey update?
Icey updates itself from its GitHub releases. Turn on "Automatically check for updates" in Settings > About. Every release is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple.
Is Icey a free Bartender alternative?
Yes. Icey is free and open source (GPL-3.0), with features close to Bartender's: hiding items, a separate bar for hidden items, drag-and-drop arrangement, search, hotkeys and menu bar styling.
Where do I report a bug or request a feature?
Open an issue on github.com/leonardovida/icey. Bug reports, feature requests and pull requests are welcome, including ones written with AI coding agents.