BlurBox
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System requirements

What you need to run BlurBox, and which apps it works best with.

Last updated: April 2026

Supported configurations

macOS
macOS 14 Sonoma or later (also tested on Sequoia and the macOS 26 beta cycle)
Architecture
Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4 and later) and Intel Macs both supported via a universal binary
RAM
4 GB minimum (BlurBox itself uses ~30 MB at rest)
Disk space
~25 MB
Display
Single or multiple displays. Sidecar and external monitors supported.
Permissions
Accessibility (required to glue overlays to windows)
Internet
Not required for normal operation

App compatibility

BlurBox tracks windows using the macOS Accessibility API. That works well for the vast majority of apps, but a handful render their own window surfaces or do non-standard things during animations. Here's what we've verified so far:

●Finder
Full support, including all view modes.
●Safari
Window drag, resize, and tab management all tracked correctly.
●Mail, Notes, Calendar, Reminders
All native Apple apps work flawlessly.
●Console, Activity Monitor, Terminal, Xcode
Standard tracking applies.
●VS Code, Cursor, Notion, Figma, Slack, Discord
Most Electron-based apps work well.
●Google Chrome
Mostly works, but tearing off or merging tabs can cause an overlay to lose its glue connection. Re-glue after the operation.
●Native full-screen apps
macOS native full-screen mode puts apps in their own Space. A glued overlay may detach during the transition.
●Apps with custom window servers
Some screen-recording tools, VNC clients, and remote-desktop apps render their own window surfaces that BlurBox can't track.
App not on this list?It probably works. Most well-behaved macOS apps are compatible — we're only listing the ones that need a note. If you find a notable exception, please let us know so we can document it.

Performance notes

  • Frosted Glassuses macOS's native blur and is essentially free. You can stack many of them without a CPU impact.
  • Lava Lamp animates color blobs continuously and uses meaningful CPU (a few percent per overlay on Apple Silicon). Use it for showcasing, not for keeping a dozen overlays at once.
  • BlurBox itself stays at zero CPU when no overlays are present and you're not interacting with the menu bar icon.