The Distracting Dock Dots
In macOS, the Dock at the bottom (or side) of your screen serves as both a quick launcher for your favorite apps and a task manager for currently running software. By default, macOS places a small black dot (or a glowing white dot, depending on your theme) underneath the icon of any application that is currently open and running in the background. This provides a quick visual cue as to what software is consuming your system’s memory.
However, some users prefer a minimalist, distraction-free aesthetic. If you rely entirely on the Cmd + Tab switcher or Mission Control to manage your running applications, those little indicator dots are redundant. Furthermore, if you never actually quit your applications and just leave them running for months, almost every icon on your Dock will have a dot, rendering the visual cue meaningless. If you prefer a completely clean Dock, you can disable the running indicators.
How to Hide the Open Application Indicators
You can remove the dots from beneath your Dock icons in the Desktop & Dock settings.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of the menu bar and select System Settings… (or System Preferences).
- In the left-hand sidebar, click on Desktop & Dock (In older macOS versions, just click on “Dock”).
- In the right-hand pane, look at the very first section of settings, which controls the behavior of the Dock.
- Locate the setting labelled Show indicators for open applications.
- Toggle the switch to the Off position (or uncheck the box).
The small dots beneath your running applications will instantly vanish. Your Dock will now function purely as a visual launcher, looking completely uniform regardless of which programs are actually active in the background.