LISTEN TO ME.
The menu bar should be used for Pro applications, such as Word, Pages, Keynote, Final Cut, Logic, but it should not be integrated into applications created from iPadOS. It makes things much less consistent and more difficult to use.
Many apps that also appear on iPhone and iPad (Messages, Safari, Weather, Freeform) (which don’t have a menu bar) are very easy to use. Apple moving them to the menu bar is a very bad decision and makes macOS less user-friendly than iPadOS.
Example 1 – Freeform:
I use Freeform a lot on my iPad, and I turned off the grid,
To disable this, you must click on the name and then press “Hide Grid”
Now let’s look at macOS:
Clicking on the name only renames it.
The other options are hidden elsewhere:
THE MENU BAR.
Freeform (a brand new application) that uses Mac Catalyst technology shouldn’t suffer from this inconsistency. It’s based on an iPad app, and changing things to use the menu bar rather than its original location may make users think the feature doesn’t exist if they first used the app on their iPad or iPhone.
Now, I’m not saying that Apple should remove the menu bar, but they can keep the actions in the menu bar AND have the actions where they are on iPadOS. That would make the most sense.
Example 2 – Weather:
Weather is also based on Mac Catlyst technology and suffers from the same inconsistency and relies on the macOS version’s menu bar.
You can see that on iPadOS there is a … button to change from Celcius to Fahrenheit.
On macOS, you need to go to the menu bar to switch between Celcius and Fahrenheit.
It would make a lot more sense to use the iPad layout with the menu bar to make apps much more user-friendly for the average user.
Example 3 – Music:
Well, it’s even worse with non-Mac Catalyst-based apps.
Music app on iPadOS to access full-screen player requires 1 touch
On macOS, I thought the full screen player was non-existent on macOS until I discovered it was in the menu bar. (Window > Full Screen Reader)
This gets even worse for Windows users who use the Apple Music web client and upgrade to macOS.
On the web client, you have a fullscreen button right there, and it’s very easy to enter the fullscreen player from there:
On macOS, this button is simply not present despite the Apple Music web player trying to mimic the macOS version:
But what if a new macOS user (used to this web app and also iOS/iPadOS) is looking for the fullscreen player on macOS?
By the way, here’s what I’m talking about per full-screen player:
Well, they may think it’s non-existent until they look at the menu bar.
Personally, I think the web client is a better EXPERIENCE than the native macOS app.
Same with Spotify, Spotify is a great example of using both the menu bar and the app.
What do I want Apple to do?
Well, I want Apple to make the above mentioned apps the same as the iPadOS version to fix the consistency. The new apps based on the iPad version shouldn’t be that different…
Now, I’m not saying that Apple should ditch the menu bar altogether, because that would cause a lot of compatibility issues for apps, and for business apps, the menu bar makes sense.
I just want macOS to be much more accessible for iPadOS and Windows users.
I also know a lot of average macOS users who never TOUCH the menu bar. It would make macOS easier to use.
The menu bar should be reserved for business apps, the macOS apps you would see on iPhone don’t make sense for using the menu bar.
Bonus example – Safari:
Imagine if this was the default view in Safari and you had to use the menu bar to create a new tab.
Tell me what you think of this inconsistency.
