MacUno — Desktop Transitions That Respond to Your Lid Angle

A transition that follows your hands.

No shortcut, no click — just the lid.

How the effect triggers

Three steps, all automatic once enabled.

Step 1

Open past 95°

Turn on Lid effect in the menu bar popover, then open your MacBook past its trigger angle.

Step 2

Gently close

As the lid angle decreases, the desktop gradually blurs, narrows in perspective, and dims.

Step 3

Reopen to restore

Opening the lid reverses the effect instantly, or press Esc anytime to stop it.

Effect strength, trigger angle, and transition style are all adjustable in Settings.

⚡ Included with every purchase

Everything MacUno does.

One purchase, the full feature set, no upsells later. Try the options below.

MacUno's real menu bar and Settings panel showing the live 112° lid-angle readout, trigger angle, animation, style, overlay theme, and trigger sound controls

📸 Real screenshot, not a mockup

Every control shown here ships in the app.

Trigger angle, animation variant, transition style, overlay theme, trigger sound, and the live lid-angle menu bar readout — all in one Settings popover, no separate unlock screen or in-app purchase after checkout.

🎚️

Fine-tuned trigger

✓Custom trigger angle — set your own threshold instead of the fixed default
✓Per-app strength profiles — different effect intensity per active app

🎞️

More transitions

✓Extra transition styles: film grain, vignette, color grade, glitch close
✓Animation variants: curtain, iris, and the original Duo-style fold

🖥️

Multi-monitor

✓Extend the effect to an external display, mirrored with the built-in lid gesture

✨

Extra polish

✓Custom trigger sound on close/open
✓Live lid-angle HUD in the menu bar
✓Themeable overlay color, gradient, or texture

Pay once. Download instantly.

One-time payment. No account, no subscription, no license key.

Similar menu bar utilities charge $5+ for a fraction of this feature set — MacUno packs custom triggers, extra transitions, multi-monitor, and more into one $4.50 purchase.

MacUno for macOS

$5+

$4.50

One-time purchase · more features, lower price

✓One-time payment, no subscription
✓More features than $5+ alternatives
✓Instant download after checkout
✓All future updates included

Get MacUno

Secure checkout by Polar, powered by Stripe. You'll be redirected to download immediately after payment.

Questions? Answers.

No. One-time payment. After checkout you're taken straight to the download — no account, no license key to keep track of. Lost the link? Retrieve it at polar.sh/purchases.

An Apple Silicon MacBook running macOS 15.2 or later, with hardware that exposes a readable lid-angle sensor. Physical-device testing has been done on a MacBook Pro M3 Pro; sensor access isn't guaranteed on every model.

No. Desktop images are processed only in local memory to build the transition. MacUno never saves screenshots or video, and never uploads anything. Disabling the effect clears the in-memory frames immediately.

MacUno ships ad-hoc signed, not notarized, so macOS blocks it on first launch. Drag MacUno into Applications, open it, and on the warning click Done — never Move to Bin. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom, and click Open Anyway next to the MacUno line. Authenticate, then launch MacUno again and click Open. If no Open Anyway button appears, run the Terminal command below.

Turn off the effect while meeting apps are running is on by default, covering Feishu/Lark, Tencent Meeting, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. It disables the effect whenever a selected app is running, not just when actively sharing — a conservative precaution rather than precise detection. Browser-based meetings aren't covered.

Close the lid. See it fold.

One payment, instant download — no free trial, no license key to lose.

Get MacUno · $4.50

Apple Silicon · macOS 15.2+ · Screen recording permission required

First launch: macOS will block it once

Drag MacUno into Applications, then open it.
On the warning, click Done — not Move to Bin.
Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, click Open Anyway.
Launch MacUno again and click Open. Only needed once.

No Open Anyway button? Paste this into Terminal, then open MacUno again:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/MacUno.app

MacUno is ad-hoc signed, not notarized, so macOS cannot verify it automatically. You approve it once, explicitly.

What is MacUno?

MacUno is a macOS menu bar app that turns your MacBook's lid angle into a live desktop transition. As you close the lid, MacUno reads the built-in lid-angle sensor and gradually blurs, narrows the perspective of, and dims an in-memory snapshot of your desktop — then restores it as you open the lid again. It's inspired by Apple's Duo folding-screen concept animation.

The effect is built natively in Swift, AppKit, SwiftUI, ScreenCaptureKit, Core Image, and Metal, with no third-party runtime dependencies. It uses an overlay rather than controlling the lock screen, and stops immediately when you press Esc or disable it in the menu bar popover.

MacUno is a one-time $4.50 purchase: a custom trigger angle instead of a fixed default, per-app strength profiles, extra transition styles like film grain and glitch, multi-monitor support, a live lid-angle HUD, and a themeable overlay — all included, no upsells later.

Nothing MacUno captures ever leaves your Mac. Desktop images exist only in local memory for the duration of the transition; the app doesn't save screenshots or video, upload images, or capture system audio or microphone input.