Monocle 2.0 for macOS

A modern take on window dimming for macOS. A sleek, minimalist app that removes distractions by elegantly blurring everything but your active window, giving you the focus you need. No window juggling—just the task at hand, with everything else calmly waiting.

Crafted by Dominik Kandravy (& Cursor).


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Beautiful noise-free workspace

Smooth transitions, soft blur, total focus—a workspace that's as calm as it's beautiful.

Always within reach

Monocle sits quietly in your menu bar. Click to focus, or Shift-click to toggle between gradient and fullscreen styles.

Fully customizable

Fine-tune visual style, transitions, and behavior to fit your focus needs, with full multi-display support.

and much more...

Full list of features: monocle.heyiam.dk
Follow on X: @heyiamdk
Ideas / Issues?: hello@heyiam.dk

⚠️ IMPORTANT:

If you see a gray overlay instead of the blur effect,
check your system’s transparency settings:

1. Open System Settings.
2. Go to Accessibility → Display.
3. Make sure Reduce Transparency is turned OFF.

Mentions:

YouTube (11 AWESOME Mac Apps I Can’t Live Without! by Brandon Butch • 9/5/25)

Lifehacker (This Mac Screen Blurring App Actually Helped Me Focus • 3/12/25)

TLDR.tech Newsletter (Launches & Tools • 3/3/25)

Product Hunt Newsletter (Daily Top Products • 27/2/25)

Designer Daily Report (Featured Products • 27/2/25)

Great Stuff (Curated projects • 3/6/25)

Mac Treasure (Rare gems • 3/6/25)

ifun (Kleine Mac-App will Fokus am Bildschirm verbessern • 3/5/25)

What's new in 2.0:

Major update with smoother window-to-window transitions, more customization options, and experimental tool for sharing desktop setups. Settings got a full refresh with macOS 26 Tahoe support, a new license reset feature, and polished interface elements for a cleaner, more intuitive experience. Many bugs have been fixed for better stability and reliability.

• New: Smooth window-to-window transitions with synced overlapping overlays (Experimental
• New: Option to keep all windows of the same app unblurred when switching between them (Experimental)
• New: Before/After GIF Preview generator for sharing desktop setups on social media (Experimental)
• New: License reset feature to free up license seats from previous macOS installs or devices
• Improved: Updated and simplified Settings UI with full macOS 26 Tahoe support
• Improved: Monocle’s theme picker now affects all Monocle windows, not just the overlay
• Improved: Auto-hide dock and menu bar permission check code greatly simplified
• Improved: Revamped right-click menu with icons
• Improved: Redesigned Menu bar icons for Excluded and Gradient modes
• Improved: Added “Ideas / Issues?” button in Settings for easier bug reporting and feature suggestions
• Improved: Enhanced onboarding tooltip
• Improved: Various codebase fixes and cleaner implementation
• Fixed: Removing shortcuts using trash icon now properly updates shortcut state
• Fixed: Reset all settings button now properly updates shortcut default states
• Fixed: Clicking “Settings…” in menu bar while Settings window is open now brings it to front instead of closing
• Fixed: Monocle losing focus when dismissing “no updates available” dialog while other windows are open
• Fixed: Excluding/including apps now properly updates menu bar icon state
• Fixed: License checking bug that sometimes forced license disable on relaunch
• Fixed: Minimized Monocle windows can now be properly restored by clicking dock icon

Full changelog