One Switch 1.35.4 — Mac version

Version 1.35.4 landed, and now the app speaks seven more languages, including German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. If you share a Mac or just prefer the menus in your own tongue, it's a welcome addition.

Hiding unused switches to clean up the menu bar

• Tidying the menu bar by hiding switches you never touch, leaving only the ones you actually use.
• Flipping between Light and Dark appearance at a set time of day—set it and forget it.
• Grabbing quick control over Do Not Disturb without digging through System Settings.
• Keeping the desktop clear for screenshots or screen sharing: one click hides all your icons, another brings them back.

Sleep scheduling works best on a deskbound Mac

• It needs macOS 10.15 or later, so older machines are out of luck.
• Automatic sleep and wake scheduling is handy, but it works best on a deskbound Mac—a laptop that lives in a bag won't see the benefit.
• The screen saver trigger is manual only; there's no timer tied to it.

Turning on too many switches at once

First day with it, most people tick every switch in the preferences. Then they stare at a menu bar dropdown that scrolls off the screen. Start with four or five. You can always add more once muscle memory settles in.

Another common one: forgetting that Do Not Disturb toggle overrides any scheduled Quiet Hours you set in System Settings. If notifications don't come back when you expect, check whether One Switch is still holding the line.

The desktop icon toggle catches people out too. Hide them, then drag a file to the desktop and wonder where it went. It's still there — just invisible. Toggle the switch off and your files reappear exactly where you left them.

A sound editor's little helper

Maya cuts dialogue and Foley in a home studio. Her desk has a 4 position rotary switch for monitor routing, but her Mac used to need four separate trips through System Settings to match. Now she keeps AirPods connection, Dark Mode, Do Not Disturb, and desktop icons in her seven-switch lineup. When a director calls from a timezone two hours ahead, she flips to Dark Mode early and hides the clutter on her desktop before screen sharing. No fumbling. No apology.

She tried the automatic Light-to-Dark schedule, but her sessions run irregular hours, so she sticks with manual control. The AirPods switch saves her the most clicks — one tap and she's off the monitors and into headphones for a QC pass.

Hiding yesterday’s desktop mess with one click

You sit down with coffee and wake the Mac. The screen lights up to yesterday's desktop mess: screenshots, a stray PDF, three folders you meant to file. You click the menu bar icon and flip Desktop Icons off. Clean slate.

Next, you're writing in a bright room. Dark Mode feels like a cave right now, so you toggle to Light appearance. Later, when the afternoon sun dips behind the building across the street, you'll click it back. No schedule needed — you just know when it feels right.

Mid-morning, a video call pings. You hit the Do Not Disturb switch before opening the link. Notifications silenced. Call ends, you toggle it off, and the pings pour back in.

Around three, you want fifteen minutes away from the screen. Click Screen Saver, push back from the desk, let the photos drift by. The Mac stays awake for the background render you left running — you're not sending it to sleep, just giving your eyes a break.

Before packing up, you plug in the AirPods and switch audio output in one click. Music for the tidy-up. You've touched System Settings exactly zero times all day.

Quick tip

If you grab the One Switch Mac app and find the menu bar icon competing for space with other utilities, hold Command and drag it left or right along the bar. It'll stay put between reboots.

• Added multilingual support: German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish are now included.

• macOS 10.15 or later
• Intel or Apple Silicon Mac