Redundant Menu Bar Icons
By default, macOS prominently displays a magnifying glass icon in the top-right corner of the menu bar. Clicking this icon opens Spotlight, Apple’s powerful system-wide search tool. Spotlight is an incredible feature for quickly finding files, launching applications, or doing quick calculations.
However, almost every experienced Mac user summons Spotlight using the Command + Space keyboard shortcut. It is significantly faster to tap two keys than to drag the mouse cursor all the way to the corner of the screen. If you exclusively use the keyboard shortcut, the magnifying glass icon serves absolutely no purpose and simply takes up valuable space in your menu bar. If you want a cleaner interface, you can remove the icon while keeping the search functionality intact.
How to Hide the Spotlight Icon
You can remove the magnifying glass via the Control Center settings.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of the menu bar and select System Settings… (or System Preferences).
- Scroll down the left-hand sidebar and click on Control Center (On older macOS versions, this is located under “Dock & Menu Bar”).
- Scroll down the right-hand pane to the “Menu Bar Only” section.
- Look for the section labelled Spotlight.
- Next to Spotlight, you will see a toggle switch labelled Show in Menu Bar.
- Toggle the switch to the Off position.
The magnifying glass will instantly vanish from your menu bar, giving you a slightly cleaner desktop. Rest assured, you can still instantly access Spotlight search at any time by pressing Command + Space on your keyboard.