it doesn’t make much sense to buy an app that could be sherlocked at any moment (Apple just needs to put third party icons to control center) and if you add the fact that new owners wanted to keep the acquisition secret, it means they don’t have good intentions.
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PSA: Bartender Mac App Under New Ownership, But Lack of Transparency Raises Concerns
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I wrote my own very simple replacement as a Swiftbar plugin.
I mean, they haven't sherlocked it for well over a decade at this point, so I think it might just not be something they care all that much about adding to MacOS, along with decent window management, a better clipboard, etc.
Very bad news unless the new owner IS Apple as one earlier post suggested as one unconfirmed possibility. We'll know on Monday and if it's not Apple then trash the app on Tuesday.
If Apple did buy Bartender, they'd never reply to a topic on Reddit - unless someone is posing as the new owner. Having said that, you'd think Apple would buy it, or implement their own version of it since the notch does eat up a lot of menu bar icon space. The solve for this should be baked into macOS. Especially now that there are those awful orange and purple mic and camera icons that you cannot disable when those devices are in use.
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Any app that screws around with macOS internals is sketchy, no matter who makes it.
Long time Bartender user. Until today.
I would switch to a subscription. Recurring revenue makes business more predictable. People will complain but if the product provides value, they will pay.
If you use BetterTouchTool, there's an action to "Show/Hide Menu Bar Icons left of BTT icon".
Honestly, BTT does so much, it's an incredible tool. Just stopped using Alt-Tab because a similar-enough function is included with BTT.
Honestly, BTT does so much, it's an incredible tool. Just stopped using Alt-Tab because a similar-enough function is included with BTT.
h no way! I didn't know this. I'll check up on this when I get home and if you can't use BT without screen recording permission I'll revert to just BTT.
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Bartender is the kind of app that has been squeezed by restrictions introduced over time in MacOS. Another one is TotalFinder, which was great back 10 versions of OSX ago, but now requires SIP disabled to work (no way). Bartender needs screen recording so that it can place the drop-down menu correctly, after an OS update made their original method break. I stopped using it because of the annoying and repeating warnings from Sonoma. So now all my stupid icons are spaced out. Now I use Dozer to hide some, but it's not ideal.
This happens with iOS apps as well.
But at least on a Mac, it's easier to retain the current version, and downgrading to the last "safe" version is at least possible if one has stashed the installer somewhere.
On iOS, unwittingly upgrade (or worse, find that iOS automatically did it for you) to a newer version that has stripped previously paid-for features, changed business models, revoked "lifetime" status, or other shenanigans under new ownership, and there is no recourse except to delete the app.
(Yes, I'm looking at you, Camera+. And before it, Mercury browser.)
It's one of the worst aspects of the iDevice ecosystem lockdown.
But at least on a Mac, it's easier to retain the current version, and downgrading to the last "safe" version is at least possible if one has stashed the installer somewhere.
On iOS, unwittingly upgrade (or worse, find that iOS automatically did it for you) to a newer version that has stripped previously paid-for features, changed business models, revoked "lifetime" status, or other shenanigans under new ownership, and there is no recourse except to delete the app.
(Yes, I'm looking at you, Camera+. And before it, Mercury browser.)
It's one of the worst aspects of the iDevice ecosystem lockdown.
Been using bartender since 2018, so i'm pretty sad to hear this. Looks like i'm moving to Ice now.
I'm getting a little put off because this is the second app in the last week that i learned was acquired by some shady company. Raivo is now practically dead because of the new owners.
I'm getting a little put off because this is the second app in the last week that i learned was acquired by some shady company. Raivo is now practically dead because of the new owners.
Well that's all less than great... I really like Bartender but this is weird and concerning given the permissions it seems to need.
I ran the most recent update and it hasn't been able to run since - I keep getting the permissions request despite having given it permissions, restarted, etc. I was going to run the plist/terminal fix on their site but now... maybe I'll wait a bit until some transparency happens.
I ran the most recent update and it hasn't been able to run since - I keep getting the permissions request despite having given it permissions, restarted, etc. I was going to run the plist/terminal fix on their site but now... maybe I'll wait a bit until some transparency happens.
If Apple did buy Bartender, I don't think they'd be so cagey about it. As an example, think about the acquisition of Dark Sky. Apple was pretty clear that they bought the app, and that they did so to improve their own Weather app.
This seems to be a repeating story for macOS and iOS, you get really comfortable with an app and the developer is promising not to sell your information and to maintain privacy and the next thing you know it’s sold and under new ownership and the new developer doesn’t adhere to any of the previous owners promises. 
