Summary

Gruber reviews HazeOver, a $5 Mac utility that dims background windows to make the active window visually distinct. He frames it as a genuine solution to a real and worsening macOS design problem — the near-indistinguishable active vs. background window state. Unlike Alan.app, which he previously covered and found too crude to live with, HazeOver solves the same problem elegantly. He tested it by deliberately not auto-launching it so he could evaluate whether he'd miss it — he did, every time. After months of daily use, he gives it a strong recommendation.

Key Insight

HazeOver proves that the right solution to a bad platform design decision can be elegant enough to actually live with — dimming what's behind beats crudely highlighting what's in front.

Spicy Quotes (click to share)

• 6

  What makes Alan.app interesting to me is its effectiveness as a protest app.

• 7

  The absurdity of Alan.app's crude solution highlights the absurdity of the underlying problem.

• 6

  Ultimately I'd rather suffer from barely distinguishable active window state than look at Alan.app's crude active-window frame all day every day.

• 3

  It does this simple task with aplomb, and it makes a significant difference in the day-to-day usability of MacOS.

• 3

  Each time I restarted or logged out, I'd go back to the default MacOS 15 Sequoia interface, where background windows aren't dimmed. I wanted to see if I'd miss HazeOver when it wasn't running. Each time, I did notice, and I missed it.

• 4

  I want switching windows to feel fast fast fast.

• 3

  Highly recommended, and a veritable bargain at just $5.

Tone

opinionated, practical, recommendatory