Everything else
can wait.

Focus Up keeps the app you're using sharp and blurs the rest of your Mac. Switch apps and the focus follows you.

Latest release for macOS 27 · signed, notarised, MIT licensed

Click a window to focus it.

Three ways to hide the noise

Blur

Other windows stay where they are, softened behind a frosted layer. You can still see what's waiting.

Hide, show desktop

Everything else disappears behind your wallpaper, as if only one app were open.

Hide, blur desktop

The cleanest canvas: other windows hidden, your wallpaper blurred and dimmed.

Nothing is done to your other apps. Focus Up draws a single layer behind the app in focus, so window positions, minimised windows and Spaces stay exactly as you left them.

Focus for 25 minutes, then get your screen back

Start a session from the menu with a preset or any length. The countdown sits in the menu bar, and when time's up Focus Mode fades out and lets you know.

  • 15 min
  • 25 min
  • 45 min
  • 60 min
  • Custom…
  • +5 min

A whole app, or one window

App scope keeps every window of the app sharp. Window scope narrows it to the one you're typing in, and its sheets come along.

Pin the things you glance at

A video call or music player can stay visible while everything else blurs. Launchers and password managers can be told never to steal the focus.

One shortcut, plus Shortcuts

Toggle with ⌃⌥⌘F, or record your own. Actions for Shortcuts start sessions and switch styles, and a Focus filter turns Focus Up on with your Work focus and back off when it ends.

Install

brew install --cask bevanjkay/tap/focus-up
  1. Or download the DMG and drag Focus Up to Applications.
  2. Open it. It lives in the menu bar, with no Dock icon.
  3. Press ⌃⌥⌘F.

Updates arrive automatically through Sparkle.

Permissions, only when needed

Blurring a whole app needs none. Window scope asks for Accessibility so it can follow the focused window. The hide styles ask for Screen Recording only when your wallpaper comes from an app macOS won't let Focus Up read.