PGari Glowee: Mac brightness with window spotlight

Dim inactive windows on a Mac and leave the layout alone

Short answer: Nothing in Apple's documentation will dim inactive windows on a Mac. I read the full settings tables for Desktop & Dock and for Accessibility → Display: the only entry with "dim" in it is Dim widgets on desktop, which picks a style for widgets. Apple's own window tools all work by shifting the other windows out of sight instead — full screen gives one app the entire display, Stage Manager parks the rest down the left-hand side, and Option-Command-H hides every app but the front one. Two third-party apps do the dimming properly. HazeOver, the name most people search for, "automatically highlights the front window by dimming background windows". PGari Glowee does it from one menu entry called Spotlight — Off, Soft or Strong, switched with ⌃ ⌥ ⌘ S, on any Mac screen, and visible to anyone watching a recording or a shared screen.

One window held at normal brightness while the surrounding screen is turned down — what it looks like to dim inactive windows on a Mac with Glowee's Spotlight

Windows that distract, or a screen that fades on its own

This phrase brings in two quite different complaints, and most of Google's related questions here are the second kind. Sort yourself first:

Other windows pull your eye while you work. That is what people mean when they want to dim inactive windows on a Mac, and it runs from here to the comparison table.
The whole display fades or blacks out after a few minutes of not typing. That is three macOS settings, and they are listed near the bottom.

What Apple's own settings lists actually contain

The tools Apple documents move windows; they do not turn them down.

Full screen. The green button in the top-left of any window, or Control-Command-F where the app supports it. Apple's own sales pitch names the trade exactly: an app "fills the entire screen — so you can take advantage of every inch of the screen and work without desktop distractions". Every inch, and nothing else beside it.
Stage Manager. Meant to "keep the app you're working with front and centre, and your desktop clutter-free", with recent apps lined up on the left and the current window in the middle. Switch it on in System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Desktop & Stage Manager.
Hiding the rest. Apple's shortcut list puts it this way — "To view the front app but hide all other apps, press Option-Command-H" — and nothing is closed in the process.

Every one of those is the right call when a single window is genuinely all you need. None of them helps when the other windows have to stay visible — the reference you are quoting, the ticket queue you keep half an eye on, the terminal beneath the editor. Dimming is the answer for that case, because it changes nothing about where anything sits.

Two apps that dim inactive windows on a Mac without moving them

HazeOver

The best-known of the pair, and the one whose name people type instead of a description. It "automatically highlights the front window by dimming background windows", and its site lists a fair amount you can tune:

Dimming intensity and animation speed, from "a soft shade to guide your attention" up to "a bold dark background for total immersion"
A dimming colour, and separate settings for the Dark and Light appearance
Hold the Fn key to drop the dimming momentarily while you drag between apps
Using the desktop reveals it automatically
Control through the Shortcuts app, Focus filters and AppleScript, including a Focus filter that changes the dimming depending on which Focus you have switched on
Multiple monitors are covered, with the option to highlight windows on each one

It needs macOS 12 Monterey or later. A free trial is offered, and the app is carried by the Mac App Store and by Setapp as well. The app calls itself a Distraction Dimmer, which is a trademark of its developer, Maxim Ananov.

PGari Glowee

A sun in the menu bar, and one entry on that menu called Spotlight. The product page describes it in a single line — "Spotlight dims everything except the window you are in" — and that really is the whole feature.

Three positions — Off, Soft, Strong — chosen by how busy the screen happens to be.
⌃ ⌥ ⌘ S flips it from inside any app, and it returns at the level you last used.
Click a different window and the light goes with you.
It needs no particular panel, so it runs on a MacBook Air or a cheap external monitor as happily as on an XDR display.
Choosing Soft or Strong starts Glowee if it was switched off, so there is no two-step setup.
There is no preferences window to open. The whole app is that one menu.

Feature by feature

	HazeOver	PGari Glowee (Spotlight)
Its own description	Highlights the front window by dimming background windows	Dims everything except the window you are in
Amount of dimming	Intensity, colour and animation speed, all adjustable	Three fixed positions: Off, Soft, Strong
Switching it	Keyboard shortcut, a gesture for intensity, Fn while dragging	⌃ ⌥ ⌘ S, or the menu bar
Dark and Light appearance	Separate settings for each	Nothing to set beyond the menu
Automation	Shortcuts app, Focus filters, AppleScript	None; you switch it yourself
Monitors	"See which screen is active, or highlight windows on each monitor"	Any display, built in or external
Minimum macOS	macOS 12 Monterey or later	macOS 13 or later, Apple silicon and Intel
Trying and buying	Free trial; Mac App Store; Setapp	Free for 7 days; a one-off purchase — one Mac, or three Macs on one key; 30-day refund

Every cell above is quoted from the relevant maker's own site.

Both apps dim inactive windows on a Mac; the difference is how much of it you are expected to configure. Pick HazeOver if you want to tune the shade, tint it, or have it change automatically with a Focus or with Dark Mode. Pick Glowee if you want one chord and no configuration at all. Glowee then does a second thing HazeOver's page does not describe, and it only matters on certain screens.

On an XDR panel: the background drops while the window climbs

Dimming darkens the surroundings. It does not add a single nit to the window you are reading. On a MacBook Pro 14″ or 16″ from 2021 onwards, on a Pro Display XDR or on another EDR display, Glowee can work both ends at once. Set Boost Area to Active Window and the gamma table for that window is scaled by 1.20, 1.38 or 1.50 — Low, Medium and Max — as far past the macOS slider as the panel's headroom allows at that moment. Add Spotlight and, in the words of Glowee's page, "the lit window gets brighter while the rest steps back".

The lifting half depends entirely on the panel — a MacBook Air and ordinary monitors have no headroom to open. The dimming half still works on them. Why that is so is set out in the MacBook Pro brightness guide.

What a recording sees, and what it does not

Because Spotlight is painted onto the screen itself, screenshots and screen recordings carry it along with everything else. Present from an ordinary window, or record a walkthrough, and your audience sees exactly what you see: one window lit, the rest pulled back, and nothing to paint out afterwards. The brightness boost is the reverse case. Captures leave it out altogether, which is why footage shot on a boosted panel comes back looking like footage shot on any other.

There is more on both in Spotlight for screen recordings and in marking out the active window.

If your Mac screen dims itself after a few minutes

Different problem, three documented settings.

The display goes dark too early. Look in System Settings → Lock Screen, where Turn display off on battery when inactive and Turn display off on power adapter when inactive each set "how long your Mac can be inactive … before the screen saver starts". Give them a longer interval.
It is duller on battery than on mains. System Settings → Battery hides Slightly dim the display on battery away under Additional Options. Apple's stated purpose for it: "Conserve energy by dimming the display when your Mac is not plugged in."
Brightness drifts by itself. Macs fitted with an ambient light sensor get Automatically adjust brightness in System Settings → Displays, and Apple warns that turning it off "may affect battery life, energy consumption and long-term display performance".

Questions that come with this search

Why does my Mac dim so quickly, and how do I stop it?

Two places. System Settings → Lock Screen holds the two inactivity timers; raise them. System Settings → Battery, under Additional Options, holds Slightly dim the display on battery; switch it off if you want the same brightness unplugged.

How do I keep the screen on for longer when I am not typing?

Same two inactivity settings in Lock Screen — one for battery, one for the power adapter. Apple ties both to when the screen saver starts.

How do I stop the brightness changing by itself?

Turn Automatically adjust brightness off in System Settings → Displays; the option is only present on Macs fitted with an ambient light sensor.

Is this software, or something to do with a light dimmer at home?

Software. Everything here happens on the screen; no hardware is involved.

Free or paid?

The macOS settings above cost nothing and should be your first move. HazeOver has a free trial and is sold outright. Glowee runs free for 7 days with everything unlocked, then is a one-off purchase — one Mac, or three Macs on one key — with 30 days to change your mind.

Does it work on a MacBook Air or a plain external monitor?

Spotlight does, on every display. It is only the added brightness that depends on an XDR or other EDR panel.

What if I only want the notifications to stop, not the windows?

That is Apple's Focus, and it is a separate job entirely. Where the two part company is set out in focusing on one window on a Mac.

Try it on your own desktop

PGari Glowee is a menu bar app and nothing more: under 2 MB on disk, macOS 13 or later, the same binary for Apple silicon and Intel. It puts no kernel extensions and no background helpers into your system, and the instant you quit, the display is back exactly as it was.

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