It’s all too easy to clutter up a Mac’s menu bar. This can be a problem on modern MacBooks, which have a notch in the middle of the menu bar for the webcam: install too many apps and you’ll run out of space. That’s why, along with the universal aversion to clutter, there are plenty of apps to clean up your menu bar, but these apps can also cause problems. Some apps won’t always launch if you enable them, and they’re also another piece of software that’s constantly running on your device.
A free app called Menu bar spacing by developer Sindre Sorhus avoids all of this by changing the spacing between menu bar icons. Even better: you don’t need the app to quit running applications for the change to be permanent: it changes the spacing at the system level, so you can launch it once and never have to open it again.
To get started, simply download and install the app. You can drag the slider to adjust the number of pixels between icons.
Credits: Justin Pot
The change will happen instantly, although it’s worth noting that all your apps will need to close and reload (in theory, they all reload automatically, but I had to manually restart a few).
Credits: Justin Pot
To be clear, you don’t need this app to change the spacing between your icons: there is a obscure terminal command you can use for the job. The app keeps things simple: you can adjust the spacing using a slider, and you don’t need to restart your computer to see the change in action. It also offers a button, to the right of the slider, that reverts your menu bar to the default spacing. It’s worth keeping the app for that alone.