How to hide theMacBook notch.

Click the green button at the top left of a window, or press Control-Command-F. macOS moves the app below the notch and fills the strip above it with black, so the notch blends in. This is built in and needs no setup, but it only works while that app is in full screen.

Some apps draw their own content near the top of the screen and clash with the notch. For those, macOS has a per-app setting:

1. Quit the app.
2. In Finder, open Applications, select the app, and choose File > Get Info.
3. Tick Scale to fit below built-in camera.
4. Open the app again.

The app now uses only the area below the notch while it's open. The checkbox only appears on MacBooks with a notch, and only for some apps.

The notch is black, so a wallpaper that's black along the top edge hides it. With the menu bar set to match, the notch becomes invisible. This works everywhere, all the time, and costs nothing. The downside is that you're limited to wallpapers with a dark top edge.

Free apps like TopNotch and Forehead do the wallpaper trick for you. They add a black strip to whatever wallpaper you already use, and some round the screen corners to match. They're the easiest permanent fix if the notch simply bothers you.

Many people who want to hide the notch really want it to stop being dead space. A notch app turns it into a Dynamic Island for your Mac: album art while music plays, a drop zone for files, a focus timer, today's meetings. The notch stays black and quiet until you hover over it.

NotchPop does this for $3.99 once, with a 7-day free trial. It also works alongside a black wallpaper, so you can hide the notch and still use it.

If the real problem is that your menu bar icons disappear behind the notch, hiding it won't help. See how to fix menu bar icons hidden by the notch.