The Persistent Media Controller
Modern versions of macOS feature a dynamic Menu Bar that attempts to surface relevant controls based on your current activity. One of these dynamic features is the “Now Playing” icon (which looks like a small play button with sound waves). Whenever you start playing media—whether it’s a song in Apple Music, a podcast in the dedicated app, or even a video playing silently in a Safari tab—this icon appears in the top-right corner of your screen. Clicking it drops down a mini-player that lets you pause, skip, or change the volume of the active media.
While this is incredibly useful if you have music playing in the background while working in full-screen applications, it can become highly annoying if you constantly browse websites with auto-playing video ads. The Now Playing icon will constantly pop in and out of existence in your Menu Bar every time you scroll past an advertisement on a news site, creating a distracting flickering effect. Furthermore, if your keyboard already has dedicated physical media keys (Play/Pause, Next, Previous), the software icon is largely redundant. If you want a static Menu Bar, you should hide this dynamic icon.
How to Hide the Now Playing Icon
You can prevent the Now Playing controller from automatically appearing in your Menu Bar via the Control Center settings.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of the screen and select System Settings… (or System Preferences).
- In the left-hand sidebar, scroll down and click on Control Center.
- In the right-hand pane, look under the “Control Center Modules” or “Other Modules” section for Now Playing.
- Click the dropdown menu next to it.
- Change the setting from “Show when active” to Don’t Show.
The media controller icon will no longer dynamically appear at the top of your screen, though you can still access your playback controls by clicking the main Control Center icon itself.