HazeOver • Distraction Dimmer™ App Reviews

Other similar apps hide the other active applications, but leave all the windows of the foremost app showing. I want to eliminate that clutter, as well, and HazeOver does that. Exactly what I need, and for a very reasonable price.

This is a great concept! Dimming all the background windows/applications makes the current window brighter and “grabs my attention” which keeps me on task. The amount of dimming is customizable and switching windows is smooth and quick.

I’m not even sure what I was looking for when I found this, but man am I glad I found it! I use my 27” cinema display in two halves and it’s SUPER helpful to have the half that’s not active go dim. And also, my laptop serves as secondary display (chat and music) and I have that stay dim until I mouse over there. I suffer from A.D.D. and can get distracted easily, so this is an amazing app to help keep me focused. Thanks so much for this!

Its perfect for minimalists who don’t want to get distracted by other apps on the screen. Works smoothly and prefect for what it needs to do. Great job!!

This is a useful tool to help your concentration when you switch between tasks. I frequently am switching between writing, debugging, and administrative tasks, and this makes it easy to be free of distractions on each job while keeping all of them only a click away.

Very configurable, stays out of the way (no app icons or menu bar icons if you don’t want them. Very quickly becemes an essential utility. Worth every penny.

This app is fantastic, I have trouble with maintaining focus and this helps a lot for apps that have awkward fullscreen modes.

I love an app that does just one simple thing that makes my life easier. I have zero discipline when it comes to closing apps and windows, so HazeOver lets me keep my bad habits and yet create a distraction free(ish) environment for myself. Really like all the different ways to change the dimming and being able to invoke with a keystroke of my choosing. Great app.

I’ve been using Hazeover for some time now and really enjoy the reduction in distractions when focusing on something important. It’s really effective for isolating a window! Keyboard shortcut makes it effortless to use

All I need to say is that this app is very useful

I’m a mystery writer and will have a half dozen different programs running at one time, all of which I may use at one point or another. Distractions are a killer for me. They not only hurt productivity, but also can throw off creativity. HazeOver lets me keep all of those programs and apps open, but focus only on the one I’m using in the moment. I can easily ignore everything else because I’ve set the background to really dark. This is perfect for me and I can’t believe how well it works with apps like DevonThink and Yoink that hang out in the sidebars and allow me to drop information and files where I need them when I need to. My compliments to the developer! Job well done!

The developer offers a free trial from their website. I tried it for a day, then bought it the next day. It has really improved my Mac experience! I have my shading set to be pretty subtle, but it is enough to focus my eyes on what is active (I work on two large, high-res monitors). Do yourself a favor, go get the trial app and give it a test spin. If you are like me, you’ll find yourself buying the app fairly soon after. Great job to the developer(s)!

Anyone who frequently uses hotkeys knows the feeling of accidentally activating a command in the wrong application because the focus wasn’t where you thought it was. This app eliminates that problem by making it clear what the active window is. Performance is excellent in this version, no noticable lag at all. A well made software to be sure. My only complaint is the silly animations in the preferences window. Reminds me of a fifth grader’s power point presentation….

This app is very useful when you want to just focus in on one app, while having other windows dimmed (but still visible). One might argue that it is more useful to just fullscreen an app (which it is for some circumstances), however I have found some situations in which I prefer using HazeOver. * You would like to clearly see which of your current windows is active. Some people like to juggle many windows on a single workspace at once, and I could see this being useful to quickly identify which window you are currently focused on (to avoid mistakes like entering data in another window besides the one you are looking at) * You would like to work with multiple windows side by side, but focus on one at a time. This is very useful when you have another document open for referencing while you are working on something else primarily. You just set the dim transparency to be at a reasonable level so that you can still see the reference documents, but at the same time focus on your primary window. * You don’t like working with apps in fullscreen, but still want to isolate your working window. I personally don’t like working with certain apps while I’m fullscreen, such as an internet browser. On my 27” display, there is too much empty space when viewing a lot of webpages. I prefer to instead size the internet browser window to a resonable size for most webpages, and use HazeOver to dim everything else in the background. Another app that is free that offers the same functionality (Isolator), however it doesn’t seem to be updated any more. (It should be noted that Isolator is under the MIT License and source code is on GitHub if you’re interested) Since I bought HazeOver, I’ve had no complaints and it’s been a step up from Isolator in the smoothness and user experience department. It is one of the more polished and frequently updated apps I have purchased on the Mac App store.

I love the utility and focus this app provides. Incredibly useful when you’re feeling distractable. The configuration options are exactly what you’d expect. I use two monitors–while this app is more configurable than all the other apps in this category, there seems to be an occasional flickering on my out-of-focus monitor. It’s a small enough bug to continue use, but will be annoying if not fixed soon.

HazeOver is one of those utilities that does one thing, allowing you to focus on your primary open window, and does it very well. It’s quite configurable, including setting your own hot key and setting just how dimmed the non-primary windows are. Very useful.

I was skeptical of paying $5 for this but it’s absolutely worth it. Keeps all an app’s windows bright or just the one you’re using. I like to have lots of windows and apps open while I work, and this helps me stay focused on what I’m doing. Can’t think of how it could be better.

I’ve always appreciated having a dimmed workspace, going back to OS X Leopard. At the time there were only really hacky ways to accomplish this, but when HazeOver came out, it did everything I wanted and used legit components of the OS X framework to do so. I really appreciate that continued development of this application, as it is truly one of the first things I install when I set up a new Mac.

Ever since Isolator stopped working (and yes, Isolator has been abandoned by the developer and totally broken for at least 2 years at this point), I’ve been searching for a replacement and finally, HazeOver is it. Transitions are buttery smooth, and the developer is very actively maintaining it. I’m quite pleased and recommend this highly.

This App is perfect it does exactly what it says beautiful & easy to use. Also see TouchSwitche. 2 great must have apps for your New MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. I had a question on a Holiday & the Dev got back to me same day with an answer. Great customer support. Thanx