Unshown: keep selected Mac apps out of screen shares with a native protected window

Hi r/macapps, I'm the developer of Unshown.



Problem: When I share my screen during demos, support calls, or recordings, I still need apps like Slack, Mail, Terminal, private browser windows, and internal notes on my Mac.



Sharing one app window is restrictive. Sharing the entire display is flexible, but one wrong click can expose something private. I wanted a separate share target that could show my workspace while completely omitting apps I had marked as private, so I built Unshown.



What it does



\- Lets you choose which Mac apps should never appear in the protected output

\- Creates a dedicated window called Unshown Protected Share

\- Keeps excluded apps visible and interactive on your Mac while omitting them from that window

\- Includes pause, preview focus, and stop controls for live sessions

\- Can hide Finder desktop icons only from Protected Share

\- Includes a 90-second compatibility test for meeting and recording apps

\- Supports Apple silicon and Intel Macs running macOS 14 or later



How it works



1. Choose the apps you want to keep private.

2. Start Protected Share from the menu bar.

3. In Zoom, Meet, OBS, or another window-sharing app, select Unshown Protected Share instead of your original display.



Unshown is a native Swift macOS app, not Electron. It uses ScreenCaptureKit app-exclusion filters before frames reach the Protected Share window.



Screen frames remain on your Mac. The current beta does not upload screen content, save screenshots, run cloud OCR, or analyze the text on your screen. The DMG is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple.



Comparison: Sharing a single app window is simple, but limits you to one window. Sharing the full display preserves your workflow, but can expose private apps. OBS is much more configurable, but requires building and maintaining a scene.



Unshown sits between those options: it produces a normal macOS window that meeting and recording apps can share, while selected apps remain usable locally and absent from the output.



Current limitations



\- Unshown is not a system-wide privacy shield.

\- Sharing your original display bypasses Unshown completely.

\- Content inside an allowed app remains visible.

\- The current beta does not mask sensitive text or run OCR.

\- No meeting or recording host is certified yet, so I recommend running the built-in compatibility test before using it in a live session.



Pricing: The current build includes a free seven-day full beta. I'm testing a proposed $39 one-time founder license with one active Mac and 12 months of updates. Checkout is not live yet, and no payment is collected.



Transparency



\- Website: https://unshown.vercel.app

\- Download: https://unshown.vercel.app/download

\- Privacy: https://unshown.vercel.app/privacy

\- Security model: https://unshown.vercel.app/security

\- Beta terms: https://unshown.vercel.app/terms

\- Release notes: https://unshown.vercel.app/releases

\- Support: https://unshown.vercel.app/support

\- SHA-256: https://unshown.vercel.app/download/checksum

\- Release manifest: https://unshown.vercel.app/download/manifest

\- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%EC%B0%AC%EC%9A%B0-%EB%B0%95-7843a3212/

I'd especially appreciate feedback on two things: which meeting or recording apps work or fail for you, and whether the separate Protected Share window feels natural in a real workflow.



I'll be around in the comments to answer anything.

https://redd.it/1vf8ajh
@macappsbackup

Battery level of ALL devices

Hey all, I was hoping to find an app which will sit in my menu bar, and let me know the battery level of all my devices. I know there's an app called 'AirBuddy' but, as far as I'm aware this only really scrapes info for your bluetooth devices. I also have a wireless keyboard using 2.4Ghz.

Are there any apps out there, which will let me know the battery level of both bluetooth AND wireless?

Thanks in advance.

https://redd.it/1vo3izv
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Raybeam - A better way to screen share on macOS (v2 update)

https://redd.it/1voa2br
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OSThe Economics of Open-Source Software

Hi everyone,

I'm one of the developers of Thaw, a menu bar manager forked from Ice. Earlier this year I forked Ice since its development basically came to a standstill. Since then, we made many improvements and added new features. Thaw now supports 20 languages, due to the help of the community, and we are currently working on making Thaw macOS 27 ready. We also moved Thaw to a GitHub org, to make it easier to work on it as a team.

Our team has grown, and we are now 3 devs working on Thaw. René is currently driving the development, especially on getting macOS 27 support in shape and does tremendous work on doing basically 1:1 support to get all bugs reported by users fixed.

During the last couple of months we had to deal with copy-right-infringement (a commercial menubar manager took our code and sold a closed source fork for $10), and noticed that some commercial but also OSS menubar managers were waiting for us to figure things out (especially macOS 27 compatibility) to the take inspiration from our code. We are literally their free R&D department, and we noticed, the moment we stopped making the code for macOS 27 compatibility public (currently we have it in a private repo), advancements there also stopped.

We also noticed that many menu bar managers out there, simply scrape code from Ice, w/o giving Jordan Baird any credit. Probably one of the reasons why Ice's development came to a standstill. On that note, we have modified Thaw to a point where we could probably drop the mentioning that we are an Ice fork. But Ice is our heritage, and we want to give credit where credit is due.

TBH, seeing all this is quite demotivating. On the bright side, roughly 150k downloads of Thaw version 1.2 have happened -- so people out there deem Thaw to be useful.

Which brings me to the title of this post.

When I forked Ice, I stated that Thaw will always be free of charge and that stands true and will NEVER change. But seeing that many downloads, and on the other side our GitHub/Patreon "income" clocking in at $60/month is somewhat disheartening, when competitors with the same, or even less functionality charge $10 or more. Although we are very grateful to all the donations we received so far.

To be clear here. I don't want to beg for money or announce that we stop development or anything like this. I just want to make you aware, that if you use any kind of open source software that serves you well, consider donating (and even if it is just $1) to that project.

https://redd.it/1vod7l0
@macappsbackup

Gramola: your whole music library, at the edge of your screen!

https://redd.it/1vodrv8
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[OS] Remarc - your feedback layer for AI collaboration: comment on anything on your screen & instantly send to your coding agents

https://redd.it/1voc2oc
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[OS] Calyx: a free, open-source macOS terminal for supervising multiple coding agents

https://redd.it/1vordc2
@macappsbackup

Filtre browser extension by Jeffrey of Noir

#

[](/r/macapps/?f=flair_name%3A%22Review%22)

I love the Noir extension, how it 'just works' and is regularly updated.

I was so pleased to see that Jeffrey has a new extension out, Filtre, that filtres out links on websites based on keywords.

This has really allowed me to browse the web with less distractions.

I haven't seen much talk of it online, is anyone here using it?

I find the price model pretty steep, it's only subscription after a seven day free trial. It's £1 for a month, £8 a year or £25 for a lifetime.

To be completely honest, I don't know yet wether its worth it for me. I'll keep evaluating during my trial, but I really loved Noir for its fair one time payment method.

Just interested in the communities thoughts!

https://redd.it/1vopha2
@macappsbackup

[OS] Neon Vision Editor — a free native editor for Markdown, code, projects, and large files

https://redd.it/1vox2u9
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[OS] BetterCmdTab 26.7; a Cmd+Tab replacement with window previews, tab drill-in, no paid tier
https://redd.it/1voyhlr
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DEAL 60+% Off DeltaSnap Lifetime License - APFS Snapshot Manager and Version Control for macOS

To celebrate Independence Day 🇮🇳 [1\] I am running a special holiday sale on DeltaSnap, a powerful macOS APFS snapshot manager and filesystem version control tool launched last month.

Use coupon code VANDEMATARAM today and tomorrow to get DeltaSnap lifetime license, for 60+% discount for only $19 (instead of $49).

https://scaleninja.com/deltasnap/

[1\] Independence Day is celebrated on August 15 in India to mark its freedom from British rule in 1947. Many countries celebrate their own national independence days representing freedom from colonial rule, we will try to run such deals to celebrate such important occasions.

https://redd.it/1vp546n
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Lore: A Free App for YouTubeVideo Downloading, also Builds YouTube Playlists Without Signing In
https://redd.it/1vp7frj
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Tacque – Free mechanical keyboard sounds for Mac
https://redd.it/1vp99a6
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App Suggestions for a Global Hotkey to Launch a Quick-Ask AI Window

Hey! Recently, I've been finding myself needing to ask quick questions to AI, for example, what's the keyboard shortcut to print, or what's the terminal command to delete a tmux session, etc. I've been using [Kerlig](https://www.kerlig.com/), but it's not designed for a series questions that go more than a few responses long, since your history isn't visible while chatting. I was wondering if anyone here has some suggestions.

I have been looking at [Fluent](https://fluentmac.app/), [Alter](https://alterhq.com/), [BoltAI](https://boltai.com/), [Raycast](https://www.raycast.com/core-features/ai), [RewriteBar](https://rewritebar.com/), [Enconvo](https://www.enconvo.com/), and [Intellibar](https://intellibar.app/). I don't have enough time to test all of them, so I'd love to hear your experiences with any of them, or if you've had better luck with something else, let me know.

**A few features that I need:**

* Custom global shortcut assignment
* After I press the shortcut I should be able to immediately type
* Be able to view the entire conversation
* BYOK or at least multi-model/company support (bonus if it allows for OpenRouter/OpenAI-compatible API)
* Be able to copy or insert response
* Automatically add selected text to context
* Has the ability to quickly run a prompt on this text
* BONUS:
* allow for file attachment
* MCP support
* the ability to edit a past message or at least fork the conversation at an earlier point

**TL;DR: Need a quick-question AI tool with visible chat history. Any suggestions?**

https://redd.it/1vp7xuz
@macappsbackup

After 20 years of "Is it the Network?", I built Breakdown to answer if it's your Wi-Fi, ISP, or the app.

https://redd.it/1vpcmgh
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New C2M release - Click close or cancel buttons without hovering on them

https://redd.it/1vp6bab
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Just removed Logi Options in favor of Better Touch Tool

I've got a somewhat long history with LogiOptions. Had it installed now for 5-ish years. I tried LogiOptions+ (plus) at one point and it was a disaster. I was "lucky" to be able to find my download for regular LO and get it reinstalled.

Today I wanted to assign a second function to a mouse side button and I hoped I could do that with LO. Press side button for function 1. Press a modifier key (command) and click side button for function 2. That's not a feature in LO.

So I tried Better Touch Tool instead. After uninstalling LO, it took me about 5 minutes to figure out the basics and get those two things assigned. Holy shit. They both work! Then I got my other couple of buttons assigned and they all worked.

That's when I noticed the scrolling was WAY off. Fixing that took more like 15 or 20 minutes, but I got that figured out too. Now it behaves very much like LO did, but I think scrolling is smoother. I can't be totally sure, but it seems really liquid and buttery now.

I've been wondering when an OS update would make LO just not work at all on my machines. Now maybe that's not a worry for me.

I haven't purchased BTT just yet. It's been less than a day. But at this rate, it's looking like an easy buy for me.

https://redd.it/1vpe0o2
@macappsbackup

Dolfer—The last file manager you'll ever need

TLDR; Dolfer is an offline file management utility with powerful workflows and zero overwhelm.

# Problem

Your file manager is very good at showing you the chaos. It is spectacularly bad at doing anything about it.

Downloads becomes a digital landfill where `final_report_v2_FINAL_USE_THIS.pdf` lies next to `Screenshot 2026-08-16 at 14.32.11.png`, a meme from 2019, three half-finished ZIP files, and an installer you definitely needed once. Your Desktop looks like a conspiracy board. Your Screenshots folder is an archaeological dig.

So you promise yourself: “I’ll clean it up this weekend.”

You never do.

You try other tools. One is Mac-only. One looks like a spreadsheet had a baby with a command line. One wants a monthly subscription for the privilege of moving your own files. One will happily reorganize everything with zero preview and no undo, which is less “automation” and more “a very fast way to lose a tax return.”

And the file managers? They just keep giving you more ways to *look at* the mess. Tabs, panes, tags, dark mode. Beautiful, organized views of your own disorder.

Dolfer exists because “I’ll organize it later” is the most common lie we tell our computers and because the alternative shouldn’t be writing fragile scripts, paying rent for tidiness, or surrendering to the chaos.

You don’t need another window into the mess. You need something that actually files.

# Competitors

Dolfer isn’t really “just another file organizer.” It’s closer to a local, visual workflow engine for files with regex, templating in move/copy/rename/delete, event triggers, and live rule explanations. You type in a rule, you get a localized version of what happens (24 locales btw).

Most competitors stop at “when a file appears, move it.” Dolfer starts there and keeps going. You can move then rename the moved file, convert it into JPG, if it was an image, or uncompress it if it was a zip. Workflows.

**Hazel (macOS)**
Still the gold standard for Mac-only file automation. Polished, reliable, and $42 for a single user. Dolfer matches the core promise, visual rules, previews, undo, but adds cross-platform support, event detection beyond file changes (screenshot taken, disk connected, internet disconnected), and a price tag that doesn’t feel like a premium upgrade. Dolfer is multilingual, cross-platform (Linux/Windows/Mac)

**File Juggler (Windows)**
Does the basics. Has conditions. Also looks like it was designed during the Windows XP era and hasn’t emotionally recovered. It lacks Dolfer’s live English translation of rules, modern builder, and cross-platform reach. Functional, yes. Inspiring? Not so much.

There are many competitors in this field, most of them are one platform, others do the basic file moving, which is understandable, but why stop there?

# Pricing

Dolfer doesn't believe your tidiness should be rented.

* **$10**: one license (1 device)
* **$16**: two licenses (2 devices)
* **$25**: three licenses (3 devices)

You need an internet connection once, while claiming the license. Think of it as signing for a package. After that, Dolfer goes back to being a hermit: fully offline, files never leaving your machine.

And there's a free trial, so you can watch Dolfer tame your Downloads folder before committing. If it doesn't give you a small thrill when `final_report_v2_FINAL_USE_THIS.pdf` finally lands in the right place, you've lost nothing (and there's an undo feature).

[https://dolfer.app](https://dolfer.app)

# Disclaimer

Privacy Policy: [https://dolfer.app/privacy](https://dolfer.app/privacy)

Terms: [https://dolfer.app/terms](https://dolfer.app/terms)

Author: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/leondaz](https://www.linkedin.com/in/leondaz)

https://redd.it/1vpiev4
@macappsbackup

Five Free Apps

https://preview.redd.it/18g8844xzojh1.jpg?width=260&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a98a40b830aa62d503defcdc97b2ef663e7d5a38

Each one of these can replace a paid app

wBlock \- a next-generation ad/content blocker for Safari: 750,000 rule capacity across 5 Safari content-blocking extensions (150k each), \~40MB idle RAM by running Safari's native content-blocking API out-of-process, Protocol Buffers + LZ4 filter storage, HTTP conditional-request updates, and iCloud sync of filter selections/custom lists/userscripts/whitelist. It bundles an Element Zapper, "Tube Cleaner & Player Cleaner" userscripts that restore native Picture-in-Picture/background playback on media sites, a full Greasemonkey-API userscript engine, UserCSS support, custom AdGuard-syntax filter-list import, per-site controls, a blocked-request logger, and regional filters. Open source on GitHub

Wick \- Wick brings timers, stopwatches, and alarms to the Mac with menu bar and Lock Screen access, a fully custom Liquid Glass material on macOS 26+, and -- its standout claim -- the first app to integrate with Alcove. Positioned as the polished Clock app Apple never finished

Forel \- An open-source (GPLv3) folder-automation app for macOS, pitched explicitly as a free Hazel alternative: watch folders, match files by name, extension, kind, size, date, tags, or Finder color label, then move, rename, tag, or run a script automatically.

macCurrent \- finds updates across the App Store, Homebrew, Sparkle, vendor updaters, and direct downloads; then tells you what's safe to install, what needs review, and what changed before you click update.

ImageFuel is a lightweight Mac app for browsing images and videos without importing them into a library -- point it at any folder and get an instant scrollable grid, with filename/path search (Cmd+F), image/video/all filtering, sort by date or name, a fullscreen lightbox, in-app crop, metadata stripping, and move-to-trash from the grid.

# Previous Collections

[A Curated Collection of Free Apps](https://appaddict.app/post/a-curated-collection-of-free-apps)
Another Curated Collection of Free Software
[AppAddict Free App List Number 3](https://appaddict.app/post/2025-01-31)
Free App List Number 4 | AppAddict

Nodes \- (edit NO LONGER FREE) A local-first markdown note-taking and PKM (personal knowledge management) app: plain markdown files kept directly on-device (open the folder in Finder, nothing is locked in), double-bracket links with rename-safe link following, tag-based organization instead of folders, semantic + keyword search, a force-directed graph view, a growth timeline, and PDFs/images embedded as notes alongside writing. Its most distinctive claim is "the quiet part": tag/description/reminder suggestions from a local LLM that runs entirely on-device -- the developer states it works with Wi-Fi off.

https://redd.it/1vpqyjm
@macappsbackup

RewindClock - A floating, counter-clockwise desk clock for Mac [Free]

https://redd.it/1vpqh3f
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