The menu bar on the OLED MacBook Pro: more room, still finite

Early hands-on reports say the menu bar on Apple's new OLED MacBook Pro no longer has "a large chunk missing from its middle". That chunk is the notch's gap, and on the new model the notch is replaced by a Dynamic Island. If the reports are right, there should be more room for menu bar icons than on a notched MacBook. But the room is still finite, and Apple has not said how icons fit around the island.

So the useful answer has two halves. First, what is known about the new Mac's menu bar, which is not much. Second, how to keep a menu bar tidy on any Mac, which is the part that will still matter after you have bought one.

What is known about the new menu bar

Apple calls the machine the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display. It comes as a 14-inch or a 16-inch model with M5 Pro or M5 Max, and the first ones reach buyers on Friday, 6 November 2026. In Apple's description, the Dynamic Island is where Spotlight, Live Activities and Siri AI now live. The menu bar itself is not what Apple talked about.

What there is comes from people who handled the Mac at the launch. Reports passed along by TidBITS say the camera moves into a hole-punch cutout and the menu bar runs without the big gap. Tom's Guide describes the notch as "replaced by a smaller Dynamic Island". Those are first impressions, not specifications, so take them as likely rather than certain.

What Apple hasn't said

Several questions that matter for icons have no official answer yet:

• Where the island sits, and how big it is.
• Whether the menu bar flows around it, or whether the island sits below or over the bar.
• Whether macOS still hides icons that do not fit, or does something else.
• What the island does when you open a full screen app.

Until Apple or a long-term reviewer answers those, anything more specific is a guess. If you are buying one, wait for reviews that test a crowded menu bar before you decide that icons will never be hidden again.

Why the menu bar fills up anyway

Even with no gap in the middle, the bar is a single row, and the space on the right is shared by everything. Every app that wants a status icon adds one. A clock, battery, Wi-Fi, a VPN, a calendar, a clipboard tool and a few helpers fill a row faster than people expect. On a notched MacBook the symptom is icons that vanish without warning, which menu bar icons hidden behind the notch explains. A wider usable bar gives you more icons before the problem starts. It does not remove the problem.

There is also a limit that has nothing to do with the screen. A bar with a dozen icons is hard to read, and you stop noticing the one that matters. A shorter bar is better even when everything fits.

Menu bar tidying that works on any Mac

This is the practical part, and none of it depends on which Mac you have. How to organize Mac menu bar icons has the long version. The short one:

1. Command-drag to reorder. Hold Command, then drag an icon sideways. Put the ones you click every day on the right, next to Control Center and the clock.
2. Command-drag to remove Apple's icons. Hold Command and drag an Apple icon, such as Wi-Fi or Sound, down off the bar. Other apps' icons usually only reorder, so use the app's own settings for those.
3. Pick Apple's items in System Settings. In macOS Sonoma and Sequoia the list is under Control Center. In macOS Tahoe, menu bar items have their own Menu Bar section in the sidebar. If your version shows a list with a switch beside each item, that is the simplest route.
4. Shorten the clock. The clock is often the widest item. Its options, in the same part of System Settings, let you show the date only when space allows, or switch to an analog style.
5. Stop apps opening at login. In System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions (just Login Items in macOS Sonoma), remove the ones you do not need running all day. Their icons then appear only when you open them.

Using an external display

If your bar is crowded, an external display is another way out. With the default setting, each display has its own menu bar, and an external one has no notch or island in it. Icons that have no room on the laptop screen often show up there. Apple has not said whether the new MacBook Pro changes that behavior, so check it on the day yours arrives.

Spotlight and Siri icons

Two menu bar items may change on the new Mac. Spotlight is meant to move into the island once Siri AI is on, and Apple has not said whether a separate Spotlight or Siri icon stays in the bar. On any Mac, you can already hide the Spotlight icon and still open Spotlight with Command-Space, so it is one icon you can drop today without losing anything.

Where Notchpals fits

Notchpals asks for one spot in the menu bar: a pair of eyes. The eyes close while the crew is quiet, and the menu behind them lets you pause reminders for an hour or until tomorrow morning, or change who is in your crew. The characters take no menu bar space at all. They slide down from the notch, or from an island Notchpals draws on a Mac without one, say their line and leave.

MapleI tried to bring you an apple but it rolled away. Can you get one?

That one is Maple, the red panda from the Meals area, on her late afternoon snack visit. Notchpals is not a menu bar organizer, though. It won't hide or sort anyone else's icons.

What to do now

If you have a notched MacBook, nothing changes, and a ten minute tidy will help more than any new hardware. If you are waiting on the new Mac, remember that hands-on notes are the opening word, not the last. Make the bar short first, and the extra room, whatever it turns out to be, is a bonus. For how the cutout itself differs, see MacBook notch vs Dynamic Island.