Make the Mac Dock Show Active Apps Only

A minimalist desktop usually stops at the Dock — a solid strip of colourful icons anchored to the bottom of an otherwise clean screen. You can take the minimalism all the way down. One hidden setting makes the Dock show active apps only, so it's empty when you're not working and shows just the handful of apps you're actually using when you are.

The look you're after

The appeal is calm. Instead of a permanent shelf of shortcuts competing for attention, the Dock becomes proportional to your focus: two apps open means two icons, and a quiet afternoon with everything closed means a Dock that's essentially just Finder. Nothing is asking to be clicked. Combined with a clean wallpaper, it makes the whole machine feel lighter.

The setting behind it is static-only. It tells the Dock to skip pinned shortcuts and draw only apps that are open right now.

Turn it on

Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities → Terminal) and run:

# Dock shows active apps only
defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool true
killall Dock

The Dock redraws with only your active apps. If the minimalist look isn't for you, or you want your shortcuts back for a busy day, reverse it:

# Restore the full Dock
defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool false
killall Dock

Nothing is deleted — your pinned apps are hidden while the setting is on and reappear when it's off. It works the same way on macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia.

Finish the minimalist Dock

Showing active apps only is the biggest step, but a few companion settings complete the look:

1. Open System Settings → Desktop & Dock and turn on Automatically hide and show the Dock, so even the active apps stay tucked away until you reach for them.
2. Drag Size smaller and turn Magnification off for a quieter strip with no bouncing zoom.
3. If the running-app indicator dots bother you, you can hide those too — see the note below.

With those in place, the Dock all but disappears from daily view: nothing pinned, nothing hovering, nothing until you actually open an app. To launch anything, press Cmd+Space for Spotlight and type the app's name — it opens and briefly joins the Dock, then leaves when you quit it. It's the most restrained the Dock gets while still being a real, working Dock, and it's a single command away from normal whenever you want it back.

Hide the indicator dots too

For the cleanest possible strip, remove the little lights under running apps. See how to hide the Dock indicator lights on Mac to finish the minimalist look.