PGari Glowee: Mac brightness with window spotlight

An ADHD focus app for Mac: what a screen tool can and cannot do

Short answer: If you are looking for an ADHD focus app for the Mac, be clear about what this one is: PGari Glowee is a screen tool, not an ADHD aid. Its Spotlight feature dims everything on the screen except the window you are working in, on any Mac display, and one shortcut, ⌃ ⌥ ⌘ S, turns it on and off. That is the whole of what it does for focus. It does not block websites, run timers, plan your day or silence notifications, and it makes no claim about ADHD, its symptoms or its treatment. If what keeps pulling at you is the rest of the screen, Glowee turns that down, and macOS has built-in settings, listed below with their menu paths, that quiet a good deal more at no cost.

Illustration for this ADHD focus app guide: a Mac screen with one window at normal brightness and the rest dimmed by Glowee's Spotlight

This page is for people who searched for an ADHD focus app for the Mac and want a straight answer about what this one is.

What people usually mean by an ADHD focus app

The apps that come up for this search are of several kinds, and they solve different problems. The last row of the table, the window dimmer, is added because it is the kind of tool Glowee is.

Kind of tool	Example	How its maker describes it
Website and app blocker	Freedom	"App, Website & Internet Blocker"
Focus timer	Forest	"A mindful focus timer"
Body doubling	Focusmate	"Virtual body doubling for getting anything done"
Visual planner	Tiimo	"Visual Planner for Every Neurotype"
Task management	Todoist	"A To-Do List to Organize Your Work & Life"
Small single-purpose tools	Goblin Tools	"small, simple, single-task tools, mostly designed to help neurodivergent people with tasks they find overwhelming or difficult"
Window dimmer	HazeOver	"automatically highlights the front window by dimming background windows"

The descriptions are quoted from each maker's own site. Glowee belongs in the last row and in no other. Which kind of tool is useful depends on what gets in your way, and that is a question for you and for any clinician or coach you work with. An app's sales page, this one included, is the wrong place to settle it.

What on a Mac screen competes with the window you are working in

Leave ADHD aside for a moment and look at the screen itself. While you work in one window, these things move, change or sit in view around it. Each has a built-in macOS setting. The paths below are from Apple's Mac User Guide for macOS 27. Older versions of macOS name or place some settings differently; the differences Apple's guide shows for the menu bar and the motion settings are noted in the table.

On the screen	macOS setting	Where
Notification banners in the top-right corner	A Focus, such as Do Not Disturb	Control Center → Focus. For Do Not Disturb, you can also Option-click the date and time in the menu bar
One app that notifies too often	Allow notifications (off)	System Settings → Notifications → Application Notifications
Number badges on Dock icons	Badge application icon (off)	System Settings → Notifications → Application Notifications
Notification sounds	Play sound for notification (off)	System Settings → Notifications → Application Notifications
The Dock, bouncing icons, recent apps	Automatically hide and show the Dock; Animate opening applications (off); Show suggested and recent apps in Dock (off; in the macOS 13 guide, Show recent applications in Dock)	System Settings → Desktop & Dock
The menu bar	Automatically hide and show the menu bar	System Settings → Menu Bar (macOS 26 and 27); Control Center (macOS 14 and 15); Desktop & Dock (macOS 13)
Files scattered on the desktop	Show Items: On Desktop (off)	System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Desktop & Stage Manager
Desktop widgets	Show Widgets: On Desktop (off)	System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Widgets
Interface animation	Reduce motion	System Settings → Accessibility → Motion (macOS 26 and 27); Accessibility → Display (macOS 13 to 15)
Animated GIFs in Messages and Safari	Auto-play animated images (off)	Same place as Reduce motion; Apple's guide lists it for macOS 14, 15, 26 and 27
The blinking insertion point	Prefer non-blinking cursor	Same place as Reduce motion; Apple's guide lists it for macOS 15, 26 and 27
Transparent backgrounds in macOS	Reduce transparency	System Settings → Accessibility → Display
Everything around a web article	Safari Reader	Smart Search field → Show Reader

Three of these are worth a closer look.

Focus can start itself. In System Settings → Focus, add a Focus and give it an app-based schedule. Apple's description: the Focus turns on when you open the app, and turns off when you close it or switch to another app. You do not have to remember to switch it on. A Focus can also run on a time schedule, and you choose which people and apps are still allowed through.

Full screen removes everything else. Click the green button in the top-left corner of a window. Apple's own wording is that full screen lets you "work without desktop distractions." In full screen, the menu bar and the Dock appear when you move the pointer to them.

Hide the other apps without closing them. Press Option-Command-H to keep the front app and hide all others. Stage Manager (System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Desktop & Stage Manager) does something similar continuously: it keeps the app you are working with in the center and arranges your recently used apps along the left side of the screen.

Where Glowee fits

Full screen and Hide Others take the other windows away. That does not suit every task. Writing from a source, coding against documentation or filling in a form from an email needs two or three windows open at once, and only one of them is the one you are working in at any moment.

This is the case Glowee's Spotlight is made for. It leaves every window where it is and dims everything except the one you are in.

Three settings: Off, Soft and Strong. Choose Soft or Strong depending on how busy the screen is.
It follows you. Click another window and the light follows.
One shortcut. Press ⌃ ⌥ ⌘ S in any app to switch Spotlight on or off. It comes back at the level you last used.
No need to turn Glowee on first. Choosing Soft or Strong turns Glowee on if it was off.
The whole screen, on every display. The dimming layer sits above the menu bar and the Dock, so they are dimmed too wherever they lie outside your window. With more than one display connected, every display is dimmed.
Any Mac display. Spotlight is plain dimming and needs no special panel, so it works on a MacBook Air or an external monitor as well.
Nothing to set up. Glowee is a sun in the menu bar with one menu. There is no window, no preferences pane and nothing else to configure.

On a MacBook Pro with a Liquid Retina XDR display, or another EDR display, Glowee can also raise the brightness of only the window you are in (Boost Area → Active Window), so the lit window gets brighter while the rest steps back. That part needs an XDR or EDR panel and cannot work on a MacBook Air. Spotlight needs a window to light, so switching it on while Boost Area is set to Whole Screen moves Boost Area to Active Window; on an XDR or EDR display that window then also gets the extra brightness, at the level you last chose. Running a display brighter uses more power and generates more heat, as raising the built-in brightness slider does.

One thing to know before a video call: Spotlight is an on-screen layer, so it is captured in screen recordings and shared screens. The people you share with see the dimming too. Press ⌃ ⌥ ⌘ S first if you would rather they did not.

What Glowee does not do

It does not block websites or apps.
It does not silence notifications. Use a Focus for that.
It has no timer, no task list and no planner.
It is not a medical device, not a treatment and not an ADHD aid. Nothing on this page is medical advice.

Questions people ask about ADHD focus apps

What are the best focus apps for people with ADHD?

That depends on what gets in the way, and a page that sells one app should not rank them. The kinds of tools are in the table above: blockers, focus timers, body doubling, planners, task management and window dimmers. Glowee is only a candidate if what gets in your way is a crowded screen.

Do any ADHD apps actually work?

This page cannot answer that, and Glowee makes no claim about ADHD. What can be said is what the app does: with Spotlight on, everything except your window is dimmed. Whether a quieter screen is useful to you is something you can see for yourself during the free trial.

Does it remove competing things from the screen?

It dims them; it does not remove them. The other windows stay open and reachable, turned down to Soft or Strong. To remove them, use full screen or Option-Command-H.

Is there a free, built-in way to do this?

For most of it, yes. Focus, the Notifications settings, Reduce motion, hiding the Dock and the menu bar, full screen, Stage Manager and Safari Reader are all part of macOS and are listed above. Start there.

How do I make a Mac better for getting work done?

Work down the table above: silence notifications with a Focus, switch off badges and sounds for the apps that do not matter, hide the Dock and desktop items, and reduce motion. Then decide whether you still want the background windows turned down.

Does Glowee work on a MacBook Air?

Spotlight does, on any Mac display. The extra brightness does not; it needs an XDR or EDR display.

Can I try it before paying?

Yes. Glowee is free for 7 days with every feature unlocked, no account and no card. After that it is a one-time purchase — one Mac, or three Macs on one key, with a 30-day refund.

Try it on your own screen

PGari Glowee is one menu bar app, under 2 MB, for macOS 13 or later on Apple silicon and Intel. It installs no kernel extensions and no background helpers; quit it and the display returns to normal. More on the same feature: dimming inactive windows on a Mac, keeping one window in focus and highlighting the active window.

Download the 7-day trial See how Glowee works