In 2021, Apple revamped the Macbook Pro lineup with an all-new design. And though they’ve been well-received overall, perhaps one of the most controversial (and polarizing) characteristics that the new Macbooks bring with them is the iconic notch.
If you fall in the camp of “notch-haters”, and want to somehow get rid of the notch on the new Macbook Pro, this article is for you.
Here, we’ll explore a few workarounds to hide the notch on the new Macbook Pro (2021 or later) models.
How to hide the notch on Macbook Pro
There is more than one way to make the notch disappear on the Macbook Pro. You can:
- Run Mac apps in Full-Screen mode, or
- Use a third-party app to hide the Macbook Pro notch
Hide the Macbook Pro notch with full-screen apps
On an older Macbook, when you enter full-screen mode in an app, the menu bar is hidden and the app window is stretched edge-to-edge.
On the new Macbook Pros, the whole menu bar disappears and is replaced by a black bar. Thus the notch blends seamlessly into the black bar and the notch is hidden.
To enter full-screen mode in an app on macOS:
- Open any app that you want to use on your Mac.
- Click the green (Enter Full Screen) button from the top-left corner of the app window.
When you want to exit full-screen mode, just hover over the black bar from the top-left corner to reveal the menu bar, and press the green (Exit Full Screen) button.
Hide the Macbook Pro notch using third-party apps
Alternatively, you can hide the notch on your Macbook Pro using a third-party menu bar app. Below are a few popular apps to hide the notch on your Macbook Pro.
TopNotch (Free)
TopNotch is one of the OG apps that let you hide the Macbook notch when it first became a thing. It’s a free app that sits on the Mac menu bar and darkens the menu bar so that the notch blends with the darkened pixels.
As a consequence, you see a black bezel on top, but the menu items also appear on the bezel.
You can download TopNotch for free from the official website.
De-Notch-ifier (Paid)
If you want to try an alternative app, check out De-Notch-ifier. This app has a $10 price tag but has similar features to TopNotch. De-Notch-ifier does offer a free trial if you want to test the app before purchasing it.
If you know of any other apps or workarounds to hide the notch on Macbook Pro, let us know in the comments below.