Roadmap

What we’re building.

Thaw has two lines in development: 3.0 for macOS 27 and 2.1 for macOS 26. This is the plan as it stands, not a promise, and your reports decide the order. It was last brought up to date with the 3.0.0-beta.2 notes of 6 October 2026.

Now 2

The two releases being finished.

macOS 27

  • Thaw 3.0.0. In beta. It is a rebuilt menu bar core for macOS 27, and the interface is being trimmed and tidied over the next betas.

macOS 26

Up next 8

Planned for the 3.0.0 betas.

Permissions

  • Minimal mode. Thaw without the Accessibility permission, for anyone who would rather not grant it. It is in the works.

Settings

  • Fewer switches. Every setting is being gone through: some become default behaviour, some move under Advanced, and some go away. Experiments either graduate or get removed. The first pass shipped in 3.0.0-beta.1.

Layout

  • Stand-ins without a switch. Dragging an Apple item Thaw can’t hide into Hidden should put a Thaw icon there for you. Today that takes a switch in Experiments.
  • Undo for drags. Command-Z will undo mouse moves in Layout, the way it already undoes keyboard moves.

Coming over from 2.1

  • Scripts. Script-driven bar modules, tested by macOS 26 users on 2.1.0, are the next thing coming to 3.0. The Scripts pane is already there as a preview.
  • The full trigger engine. In 2.1 an item can move on battery level, the frontmost app, a network, a Focus and more. 3.0 has part of it: 3.0.0-beta.2 added showing items while an app runs.
  • Widgets. The Widgets pane is a placeholder so the destination is discoverable. It holds no settings yet.
  • Rotating diagnostic logs. Keeping and cycling through diagnostic logs will appear in a later 3.0 build.

Blocked by macOS 27 4

These run into limits in macOS 27 itself. The team is looking for ways around them and can’t promise them for the beta.

Hiding

  • Separate items from the same app. macOS 27 hides and shows an app’s items together, so one of an app’s items can’t yet go in Hidden while another stays in Visible. #1125Closed
  • The Shortcuts item. macOS 27 can hide it at launch, and Thaw can’t bring it back yet. #1154Open

Layout

  • Even spacing. Each app adds its own padding around its items, so the same spacing setting can still leave uneven gaps. #1126Closed
  • A Timer stand-in. Thaw can’t remove Apple’s Timer, so it can’t put one of its own in its place.

Further out 10

These come after the beta is solid. The team intends to build them, and none has a date.

Integrations

  • An Alfred workflow. One you can install, on top of the thaw:// links that already work with Alfred.
  • Import from another menu bar manager. Bring your setup with you, so switching to Thaw doesn’t mean starting over.
  • More with Droppy and Floe. Both already drive Thaw through thaw:// links: they open menu bar items and apply profiles. The plan is to take that further.
  • OmniWM. Work alongside the OmniWM window manager on macOS 26 and 27, so Thaw stays out of the way of its workspaces. It came up on OmniWM’s issue tracker.
  • MCP support. A server for AI assistants, so one you already use can read your menu bar and rearrange it when you ask.

Installing

  • Modules. Download only the parts of Thaw you use, and add others when you want them, so the app you install is no bigger than what you need.
  • Nix support. A flake, so Thaw can be installed and pinned from a Nix configuration.

Across your Macs

  • iCloud sync. For profiles, appearance and preferences. Anything tied to one Mac’s displays stays local.

Menu bar items

  • Your own menus in the menu bar. Make an item yourself and fill its menu with actions: open a link, run a Shortcut, run a script. Thaw puts it in the menu bar and treats it like any other item.
  • Isolation mode. Show just one item for a while, with everything else out of the way. #970Open

Ideas 3

Things we have written up and not decided on. None is planned.

Integrations

  • Stream Deck and other controllers. Keys that hide and show sections, switch profiles and stay lit while a mode is on.
  • Items hosted by Thaw. Another app hands Thaw an icon and a menu, and Thaw shows it as a menu bar item that follows your sections and profiles like any other.

Displays

  • OLED saving mode. The menu bar sits on the same pixels all day. Thaw could turn it true black, shift the items a point or two now and then, and dim them when the Mac is idle.

Asked for 5

The feature requests open on GitHub. A thumbs-up on one tells the team it matters to you, and the ones with the most are looked at first. Ask for something that is missing.

  1. #1083Promote a revealed item to Visible by Command-drag
  2. #1086Show menu bar only in selected fullscreen apps
  3. #1160Why we just can't hide it again after scroll? just like v1.x version does
  4. #970"Isolation" ModeOn the roadmap
  5. #1301Full Arabic Language and RTL Support Across the Entire App

Shipped 83

Everything that has shipped, by release, newest first. The changelog has the detail.

3.0.0-beta.2

57 October 2026
  • Triggers can show items while an app runs
  • Launchers can open menu bar items and apply profiles through thaw:// URLs
  • Restore missing menu bar items, in Troubleshooting
  • Gradients at any angle
  • Layout shows when macOS won’t let an icon follow its section

3.0.0-beta.1

92 October 2026
  • Rounded screen corners, carried over from the 2.x roadmap
  • Open an item by letter, planned as “item hints”
  • Folders for item groups, each with its own icon and colour
  • The app’s own icon where Thaw has no picture of an item
  • Choose the icon Thaw shows for any item
  • One menu for every item in Layout, search and the Thaw Bar
  • Live Activities and the camera indicator stay visible while apps are hidden
  • Open hidden items in the menu bar, under their own icon
  • Replace Input Menu, with your keyboard layouts

3.0.0 alphas

9
  • A rebuilt menu bar core for macOS 27
  • Time Machine can be hidden
  • Focus, AirDrop, Now Playing and Fast User Switching stay reachable while hidden
  • The Layout editor works from the keyboard: Tab, Home and End, Option-arrows, Space
  • Swap bar
  • macOS 27’s limits shown in the Layout pane
  • App zoom
  • A separate appearance for the Thaw Bar
  • Reapply Spacing

Pre-3.0.0

7
  • Hiding, showing and reordering items on macOS 27
  • Hiding system items
  • Settings search
  • Reset layout
  • A new onboarding walkthrough
  • Deep links
  • Support for macOS 27’s own overflow icon

2.1.0

16
  • Item triggers: an item moves when something happens
  • Image-change triggers, with comparison modes and a preview
  • Menu bar item groups
  • Individual spacer items
  • Zen mode
  • Simple Mode
  • Per-Space profiles and per-Space appearance
  • Wallpaper changes re-tint the bar right away
  • Items that ask for attention surface themselves
  • A Thaw Bar with its own shape and tint
  • Hidden icons refresh at the slider rate
  • One Per display section in place of repeated blocks
  • App icons where captures can’t go, so Screen Recording is optional
  • A hotkey to enable and disable auto-rehide
  • Opened items can stay a while after their menu closes
  • Diagnostic logs that rotate by size and time

2.0.0

1630 August 2026
  • Built for macOS 26, with Liquid Glass throughout
  • Reading and writing settings through thaw:// URLs
  • Per-item hotkeys
  • Script hooks before and after a profile is applied
  • Adaptive background and tint, per screen
  • Configurable background and a glass effect
  • Notch shape, a notch margin slider and tint opacity
  • Per-display menu bar spacing
  • A reworked menu bar item spacing
  • Thaw Bar layout options, alignments, a grid and dynamic resizing
  • Hold to preview
  • Option-click for the always-hidden section
  • Double-click the Thaw icon
  • Restart Thaw, from the menu
  • Game Mode support
  • A refreshed Settings window and onboarding

1.3.0-beta.1

716 April 2026
  • Settings Profiles
  • Profiles that switch with the display
  • Focus mode integration
  • Profile hotkeys
  • A badge for new items
  • Icon overflow for notched displays
  • Keep the search panel open

1.2.0

913 April 2026
  • Icon positions saved and restored across restarts
  • Custom names for menu bar items
  • Menu bar item tooltips
  • The thaw:// URL scheme
  • A hotkey to toggle application menus
  • Hover highlight in the Thaw Bar
  • Conflicting apps detection
  • Per-display settings
  • A Reset Thaw button

1.1.0

417 February 2026
  • Localized in 12 languages
  • Double-click the menu bar to reveal the always-hidden section
  • The active menu bar detected on each screen
  • The Thaw Bar for displays with a notch only

1.0.0

15 February 2026
  • The first stable release of Thaw

Suggesting changes

Roadmap items are tracked as issues. To propose something, open a feature request or start with Ways to contribute.