# Introducing Levers, a clean Mac screen the moment you share it By Atta Ur Rehman Shah (https://attacomsian.com/about). Published Oct 28, 2026. Topics: Product Launch. Canonical URL: https://attacomsian.com/blog/levers > Levers is out: a Mac app that hides your desktop, Dock, other apps and menu bar clutter the moment you share or record your screen, and puts it all back when you stop. Sixteen switches, one payment. **[Levers](https://leversmac.com)** is out. It is the third Mac app I have shipped, after [Flit](https://attacomsian.com/blog/flit) and [Vitals](https://attacomsian.com/blog/vitals), and the first one that is about what other people see. You are about to share your screen. On it: the files on your desktop, a Dock full of apps, a Finder window from this morning, a message from your mom sliding in at the top right. Levers hides all of that the moment a call or a recorder starts capturing your screen, and puts every bit of it back when you stop. ## Why another menu bar app I record my screen a lot. Demos of my own apps, walkthroughs for customers, the odd call where someone wants to see a thing rather than hear about it. Before each one, the same routine: turn off desktop icons in System Settings, hide the apps I am not showing, hide the Dock, close the Finder windows, turn on Do Not Disturb, and hope the Mac does not go to sleep halfway through. Then, after, do all of it in reverse, and forget one. Do Not Disturb is still on the next morning. There are apps for pieces of this. Some clean the desktop. Some hide menu bar icons. Some keep the Mac awake. None of them noticed that I had started sharing, and none of them put things back. I wanted one app that does the whole routine, starts on its own, and undoes itself. ## How it works Install Levers and forget it. When Zoom, Meet, Teams, Screen Studio, QuickTime or any other app starts capturing your screen, Recording Mode starts. It hides your desktop icons, every app but the one you are showing, the Dock and the menu bar icons you chose, puts a backdrop behind the window in front, turns on Do Not Disturb, keeps the Mac awake and mutes the alert sounds. Each of those is a choice in Settings. When the capture ends, it all goes back. A screenshot does not start it. ![Recording Mode in Levers: the list of what it changes in Settings, and the dropdown with its timer and Start button](https://attacomsian.com/assets/img/blog/levers/recording.jpg) Putting things back is the part I spent the most time on. Levers writes down how each thing was before it changes it, and undoes the changes in reverse when you stop. Only what it changed is touched; anything you changed back yourself in the meantime stays as you left it. If Levers quits or the Mac restarts while Recording Mode is on, the next launch puts everything back. Your recorder and your call app stay on screen, and so does the app you were working in. Screen Studio, CleanShot X, Loom, OBS, QuickTime, Zoom, Teams and FaceTime are on that list from the start, and you can add any app to it. Prefer to start it yourself? Click Start in the dropdown, ⌥-click the menu bar icon, press ⌃⌥⌘R in any app, or ask Siri. Recording Mode and every switch are actions in the Shortcuts app too. ## The backdrop Hide Other Apps leaves one window on a wallpaper, and a wallpaper is still a wallpaper. The Backdrop switch fills the screen behind the window in front with something plainer: a color, a gradient, a soft mesh, a picture of your own, or your wallpaper blurred. The people watching see your work and nothing else. ![The Backdrop switch in Levers, with its color, gradient, mesh and picture looks and an off timer](https://attacomsian.com/assets/img/blog/levers/backdrop.jpg) ## A quiet menu bar The menu bar gets its own treatment, because it is in every recording and nobody needs to see your VPN, your clipboard manager and your battery percentage. You sort your menu bar icons onto three shelves: visible, hidden, and always hidden. The hidden ones leave the bar, with a small mark where they were, and come back when you point at the top of the screen, or at the mark, or click it, whichever you choose. If you would rather have nothing at all, Levers can draw a clean bar over the real one, black with only the clock, or hide the whole bar the way macOS does. Point at the top of the screen and the real bar is there to use. ![The Menu Bar page in Levers Settings, with icons on the Visible, Hidden and Always Hidden shelves, and the Hide Menu Bar switch beside it](https://attacomsian.com/assets/img/blog/levers/menubar.jpg) ## Sixteen switches Recording Mode is made of switches, and the switches are useful on their own. The dropdown has sixteen of them, the things you change on a Mac every day without wanting a trip to System Settings: - **Hide Desktop Icons**, **Hide Other Apps**, **Hide Dock** and **Hide Menu Bar**, the four that clean the screen. - **Backdrop**, as above. - **Dark Mode**, **Night Shift** and **True Tone**, for the screen. - **Do Not Disturb**, **Mute Alert Sounds** and **Mute Microphone**, for the noise. - **Keep Awake**, for a build, an export or an agent that is still working. The Mac sleeps as usual after. - **Lock Keyboard**, which holds every key back while you wipe the keyboard. Esc five times unlocks it, or it lets go on its own after five minutes. - **Pointer Spotlight**, new in 1.2, which dims the screen except a soft circle around the pointer so viewers follow it. A square, a wide rectangle or a band across the screen if you prefer. - **Screen Saver** and **AirPods**. Every switch has a Turn off timer, from five minutes to four hours or tomorrow morning, so Keep Awake does not keep the Mac up all night. Every switch can have a hotkey of its own, and every one is a step in Shortcuts. You pick the few the dropdown shows; the rest wait under Show all. Levers asks only for the permissions a switch needs, and only when you first use it. There is no account and no analytics. It goes online to check your license and for updates, and the privacy page lists exactly what those send. It needs macOS 15 Sequoia or later, on Apple silicon or Intel, and it comes in sixteen languages. It is notarized by Apple. If you use Homebrew, `brew install --cask foredotstudio/tap/levers` gets you the same app. ## Pricing Levers is a one-time purchase. One payment, every update for life, no subscription. The regular price is $29 a Mac. For the launch it is $5 for one Mac, $9 for three and $29 for ten, and the site shows how many are left at $5, counted from real sales. What you pay now is what you pay; the updates stay free. There is no free trial. I tried one for a day, took it out the same day, and wrote both into [the changelog](https://leversmac.com/changelog). At $5, a trial only puts off the decision. There is a 14-day refund instead, no reason needed. Students and teachers pay half. And if you already own Flit Lifetime, Levers comes with it: claim it at [leversmac.com/flit](https://leversmac.com/flit) with your Flit key. ## The first days Levers 1.0 shipped on October 24. Since then: 1.0.1 kept your recorder and call apps on screen the same day. 1.1 made Recording Mode start by itself when your screen is captured, and let it set the screen to a resolution made for recording. 1.2 added Pointer Spotlight. Three days, six releases, which is about the pace Vitals set. ## Try it **[Get Levers for Mac](https://leversmac.com/#pricing)** If Recording Mode hides something it should not, or leaves something it should hide, [tell me](mailto:hi@attacomsian.com). There is a diagnostic report one right-click away on the menu bar icon, made for pasting into that email.