HiddenMe

I use hidden me on my work/personal laptops. Like anyone else, my Desktop is garbage. Having the feature to hide all your garbage prior to a presentation is really applaudable. I hide my desktop all the time. All I have to do is a double-click on desktop to unhide. Fair and simple to use.

The bigger question is: why doesn’t Mac allow you to do this on its own???!!!

So, it hides icons. That works just fine. The pro version works with multiple desktops, also works fine. The implementation probably needs some work or explanation. I'm not a developer, but I'm reminded of John Siracusa talking about his app SwitchGlass (which is awesome btw), and the implementation of grabbing the desktop background for use in the app Preferences window. One of the options was to use Quartz Display Services which can grab an image of your desktop background, but it requires screen recording to do so. It's a messy implementation and the easy way out and without proper notification, causes freak outs and 1-star reviews. I haven't done a deep dive to see if it's sending data out, but it's something worth considering. So, I assume the developer is using screen recording to grab the current desktop backgorund and then display that image on top of everything, hiding your icons. I'm willing to give the developer the benefit of the doubt, but this is conjecture because as a non-developer, this is how I would do this. I think the developer needs to respond to this and listen to the Accidental Tech Podcast episode 356 starting at 1:32:17, John Siracusa describes this exact problem.

This app does exactly what I expected it to do, but it has some glitches on the status bar when I have the wallpaper set to change every 5 seconds. It also glitches out when it reaches a certain amount icons inside the hidden folder. Other than that its done more good than harm and I use it daily. :)

Upon loading this you're asked if the app can have permission to record your screen.... why on earth would an app like this need permission to record my screen remotely? I can only think of one reason. I emailed the developer asking about the issue and never heard from them. Beware!

Super simple and everything appears/disappears with the press of a button.

I love the fact that I can see a clean home screen, but when my desktop icons are in hidden mode, it also stops changing my desktop pictures, which I have set to change every 5 seconds. Now it stays on the last picture that I was showing, beefore I put my icons in hidden mode. If you can fix that, I would give it five stars.

The app works but it also screen records your desktop. If you're on Cataina, you'll receive a security prompt that you can deny. But on prior versions of macOS, it appears that this app is recording your screen without the customer's knowledge. This seems to be a security risk for all apps: Get approved and then add spyware after approval that Apple apparently wont test for again. Apple doesn't test updates? The app developers have an UNSECURED website that appears to be based somewhere in the Middle East and it has several scripts that run on the website. I've reported this app to Apple. I didnt realize it was this easy to get spyware on the app store.

All I can say is 1) As technical developers we are incedibly demanding about software quality. This is perfect 2) We bought this for every single computer everywhere 3) Every single person I know, who has ever seen it on my Mac, has bought it. It's that good! Enjoy and thanks, devs of this!

It does its job for the most part, but if you ever change your wallpaper, it doesn't change with it. It's the same case for when you have a background that transitions normally. Because of this I do not use this app anymore.