What's new

"Blur Stage Manager" toggle in Settings: for users who'd rather keep Stage Manager dimmed along with the rest of the background

Stage Manager strip fade now works correctly when Stage Manager is on the right side of the screen (left-aligned Dock)

Many more scripting commands: fine-grained control over blur, monochrome intensity, tint (presets and custom hex colors), grain, display mode, and app-wide focus, for use in Apple Shortcuts and other automation tools

App Groups: use two or more apps as one. Group related apps so they share focus

Stage Manager support: Monocle now detects Stage Manager automatically and keeps your window strip visible alongside the focused app

Multi-screen settings: pick between Per Screen and Global highlighting to control how Monocle behaves across displays

Monocle now detects the macOS "Displays have separate Spaces" setting and adjusts its settings

Corner Peek: flick the cursor to a screen corner for a quick peek under the overlay. Lives in a new Gestures tile

Reveal effects: choose how overlays appear and disappear, with a new Cursor reveal alongside the classic Fade

More scripting commands added in Settings, with more on the way

Blur-free mode: turn blur off completely while keeping tint, grain, and monochrome, for those who prefer the look of classic dimming apps

Each shake action (Toggle, Peek) can be disabled individually via a new "Off" option, without flipping the master shake toggle

License can now be activated on multiple user profiles on the same Mac

Rebuilt blur rendering for a leaner, more efficient pipeline

Idle CPU usage

Shake to peek now extends past its 2-second minimum as long as the modifier stays held

Menu bar and dock auto-hide improvements and fixes

Ignored Apps picker now supports multi-select (Cmd-click to add several at once)

Many Settings visual tweaks and layout improvements throughout

Interacting with other menu bar items now properly closes Monocle's settings

Settings content fades softly at the top and bottom while you scroll

Overlays rebuild cleanly when displays are docked, undocked, or hot-plugged

An annoying bug where multi-display setups often had only one monitor blurred

Sleep, wake, and screen lock no longer leave the app in a broken state

Plenty of other bug fixes, improvements, and code cleanup under the hood

Launch at login toggle now updates its state correctly

Updated links in the Contact tile in Settings

Experimental GIF before/after feature

Code cleanup and minor tweaks

Shake gesture sensitivity slider

Shake to toggle sensitivity and added optional modifiers

Automatically temporarily hide overlay when dragging files

Swipe naturally to dismiss Monocle settings with two-finger drag

Tiny copywriting tweaks in the onboarding settings tile

Completely revamped UI and UX for a more polished, native-feeling macOS experience

Custom Blur Radius! After a year, I finally cracked the code to allow adjustable intensity for native macOS materials

Shake cursor to toggle Monocle, or Shift + shake to peek (reimagines how you use Monocle)

Grayscale Mode (turn background windows black and white)

Custom Tint Colors (choose from a set of colors or match your system accent color)

Automation support via URL scheme (control Monocle with Shell, AppleScript, or Shortcuts)

Homebrew support (install via brew install --cask monocle-app)

Fresh app icon (letter ‘M’ combined with the iconic Finder smile to create an abstract relaxed face)

Customizable menu bar left-click action (open Settings or toggle overlay)

Global shortcut to quickly toggle Monocle Settings

Significant performance and memory optimizations (just the first round!)

Simplified license reset flow (remembers key on failure)

Excluded apps now respect screen bounds

Better behavior for “Highlight all windows of the same app”

Resolved overlay flash when closing popup windows like “Look Up”

Menu bar and Dock now reappear correctly when switching to excluded apps

Various other bug fixes and improvements

Rarely used “Global” multi-screen behavior to simplify the codebase

Smooth window-to-window transitions (Experimental)

Option to keep all windows of the same app unblurred when switching between them (Experimental)

Before/After GIF Preview generator for sharing desktop setups on social media (Experimental)

License reset feature to free up license seats from previous macOS installs or devices

Updated and simplified Settings UI with full macOS 26 Tahoe support

Monocle’s theme picker now affects all Monocle windows, not just the overlay

Auto-hide dock and menu bar permission check code greatly simplified

Revamped right-click menu with icons

Redesigned Menu bar icons for Excluded and Gradient modes

Added “Ideas / Issues?” button in Settings for easier bug reporting and feature suggestions

Enhanced onboarding tooltip

Various codebase fixes and cleaner implementation

Removing shortcuts using trash icon now properly updates shortcut state

Reset all settings button now properly updates shortcut default states

Clicking “Settings…” in menu bar while Settings window is open now brings it to front instead of closing

Monocle losing focus when dismissing “no updates available” dialog while other windows are open

Excluding/including apps now properly updates menu bar icon state

License checking bug that sometimes forced license disable on relaunch

Minimized Monocle windows can now be properly restored by clicking dock icon

Scrollbar no longer appears in Rules view when using a mouse

Added a "Trash" icon for removing shortcuts

You can now use CMD + W to close Monocle windows (Settings and License)

Simplified fade in/out transition code in preparation for smoother window-to-window transition

Improved grain function to eliminate repeating patterns and stripes

Resolved blur display issues when using external monitors

“Click wallpaper to reveal desktop” now properly allows interaction with desktop items

Blur now works correctly when desktop icons are hidden via System Settings or third-party apps

Added sliders to control overlay opacity (Experimental) and fade transition timing

Option to automatically hide Dock and/or menu bar when in focus mode (Experimental)

Replaced tooltip check icon with a clearer “Got it!” button

Added support for function keys (F1-F12) in keyboard shortcuts

Eliminated flickering when switching between Deep and Ambient modes

Removed 1px artifact that appeared in the center of the screen when focus was off

Resolved grain pattern rendering issues affecting some users

Improved interaction with menu bar items when Settings or License windows are open

Minimalistic app menu and dock icon when Settings or License window is open

License key input field placeholder dots appeared too cramped on some devices

Settings UI adjustments for clearer organization and controls

Simplified and refactored detection code for better performance

Various other bug fixes and improvements

Blur layer now displays correctly on macOS 14 (previously showing solid color)

New global shortcuts for switching focus mode and excluding/including apps

Dedicated Shortcuts tab in Settings

Finder is now excluded by default to allow desktop icon interaction (temporary solution while working on proper desktop click detection)

Redesigned onboarding tooltip with improved visuals

Added menu bar icon indicator for excluded apps

Simplified and restructured Settings interface

Streamlined right-click menu

Control + click now properly simulates right-click on menu bar icon

Various UI refinements and bug fixes

Added a simple tooltip guide when you first launch the app