HIG for menu bar extras windows and notifications and Liquid Glass icons Icon Composer
Parent: macOS Menu-Bar App Design · Published reference · snapshot 2026-10-02
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Source-anchored research for HIG for menu bar extras windows and notifications and Liquid Glass icons Icon Composer. Run status: COMPLETED.
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Structure and components
- On macOS 26, iOS 26 and watchOS 26 app icons are layered (one background plus foreground layers) and gain Liquid Glass effects (specular highlight, refraction, translucency) applied by the system; authors import square, unmasked layers into Icon Composer, which also defines default/dark/mono variants, previews across system versions and exports to Xcode. HIG icon page last changed 'Refined guidance for Liquid Glass' on June 8, 2026. (medium confidence) (verified as of 2026-06-08) [source]
- Do not bake glass effects (highlights, inter-layer shadows, bevels, blur, glow) or masking into layers; prefer vector layers with crisp edges, vary layer opacity for depth, use solid/gradient backgrounds from Icon Composer or a full-bleed opaque image, and keep core features consistent across default, dark, clear and tinted appearances. Template is 1024x1024 px, Display P3. (low confidence) [source]
How it works
- HIG: when people click a menu bar extra, display a menu, not a popover; use a popover only if the functionality is too complex for a menu. (medium confidence) [source]
- HIG: let the user, not the app, decide whether the menu bar extra is shown (typically a Settings toggle; consider offering it during setup). Do not rely on its presence, because the system hides extras to make room for app menus or when too many exist; also expose functionality through a Dock menu. (low confidence) [source]
- HIG notification actions: up to four buttons, short title-case labels, no app name, prefer nondestructive actions, and never an action that merely opens the app. Provide generic body text for when users hide previews. (low confidence) [source]
- Popover-based status item UIs are common despite HIG's menu preference, and macOS 26 introduced a positioning bug: SwiftUI popover content opens roughly 110 pt below the menu bar because AppKit sizes for the initial taller content; fix by laying out content and setting contentSize before showing. (low confidence) (verified as of 2026-09-18) [source]
Measurements and reference values
- Bjango advises a working area of at most 22 pt tall, about 16x16 pt for a circular glyph to match system item weight, with formats SVG, PDF, or 1x/2x PNG; and notes Reduce Transparency turns the menu bar solid grey, so test the icon there. (low confidence) [source]
Problems, failure modes and limitations
- HIG: use an alert, not a notification, to display an error message. Notifications do not appear when the app is frontmost (the app still receives the data and should surface it unobtrusively). (low confidence) [source]
Facts and statements
- HIG recommends a symbol or interface icon for the extra; both are black-and-clear shapes that the system recolors for light/dark menu bars and the selected state. HIG states menu bar height is 24 pt. (low confidence) (verified as of 2026-10-02) [source]
- Menu bar extra images should be template (alpha-only) artwork; macOS ignores colour and uses only alpha, giving automatic light/dark adaptation. On the translucent macOS 26 menu bar, a shipped app fixed low-contrast status icons by preparing them as template images. (medium confidence) [source]
- HIG notifications: be concise and informative; do not send multiple notifications for the same thing; do not tell people to perform tasks in-app (use notification actions instead); do not include sensitive or personal info; do not include the app name or icon (system shows it). (low confidence) [source]
- HIG badges: use a badge only for the count of unread notifications, never for other numeric data (e.g. throughput numbers), do not make it the only channel for essential info, and do not mimic a badge with a custom image. The notifications page lists no additional macOS-specific considerations. (low confidence) [source]
- Build pipeline: the .icon bundle (a folder) compiles to Assets.car via xcrun actool, which needs Xcode 26 and the macOS 26 SDK; Info.plist needs CFBundleIconName naming the icon; keep the legacy .icns in Resources for pre-26 macOS; a .icon with more than 4 groups reportedly fails to compile. Apps shipping only .icns are shown shrunk inside a rounded-square container ('icon jail') on Tahoe. (medium confidence) (verified as of 2025-09-26) [source]
Children
- No children recorded.