Calendar category
Calendar menu bar apps
Calendar menu bar apps for macOS. 1 listed: 1 paid. Prices and trials as the developers state them.
1 app
- About Sidebar Calendar
Sidebar Calendar , also on the App Store , opens the developer's site in a new tab Always-Visible Calendar for macOS Menu Bar
View your calendar from the menu bar! Sidebar Calendar brings your schedule to your screen's edge and menu bar, so you always know what's next.
$2.99
What calendar menu bar apps do
A calendar in the menu bar answers one question without opening anything: what is next, and when. Usually the date, the day's events, and a way into the meeting you are late for.
macOS shows the clock up there and the date beside it, and clicking through opens Notification Centre, where a calendar widget can be added. What it does not give is the next event as a glance, which is the whole reason people install one of these.
1 listed: 1 paid.
What to compare
- Which calendars it can read. Most work through the Mac's own Calendar app, which means anything you have added there. A few talk to a service directly, which is a different permission and a different set of accounts.
- What it shows without a click. The difference between these is mostly what fits in the menu bar itself: nothing, the date, or the next event and how long until it starts.
- Whether it joins the meeting. For anyone in calls all day, the useful feature is a link that opens the call from the drop down rather than from the invitation.
Questions
- Does macOS not already show a calendar in the menu bar?
- It shows the date and time, and clicking them opens Notification Centre, where a calendar widget can sit. What it does not do is show your next event in the menu bar itself. That is the gap these fill.
- What is a menu bar app?
- An app that lives in the strip along the top of the screen instead of the Dock. It has an icon there, and clicking it drops down a small window. Most have no main window at all, so they stay out of the way until you want them and never appear when you switch apps.
- Do menu bar apps slow a Mac down?
- Each one is a running process, so a dozen of them is a dozen processes. Most sit idle and cost close to nothing. The ones worth watching are those doing work when you are not looking: reading the screen, polling a server, or watching every file you save. Activity Monitor will tell you which is which on your own machine.
- My menu bar is full. What then?
- macOS drops icons that no longer fit, and on a Mac with a notch there is less room than there looks. Holding Command and dragging rearranges them, so the ones you use can be kept to the left of the crowd. There are also apps whose whole job is hiding and grouping the rest, listed here under Utilities.