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There's a messaging app I often use that includes both a menu bar icon (to hide/show the window, as well as indicate how many unread messages there are) as well as the app itself which resides in the dock/launchpad.

I want to know if there's a way to hide the app from my dock when the app is running so that I can simply use the menu bar to see if I have any new messages and thus save dock space. I know that this is possible as some of my other apps already do this (e.g. LastPass for Mac), but is there a way to do this manually, e.g. through the Terminal? I am currently on MacOS Catalina Beta (although I assume the solution should also work for earlier versions too).

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  • Just tried this (had to forcefully add write permission using sudo chmod) but now the app won't run. I think it's because it knows it's been modified so whatever validation MacOS does before it runs certified apps now fails. Thank you for the suggestion though! It'll be helpful when I hopefully get into MacOS development in the near future :D Update: I wouldn't suggest anyone else to try this because I don't know how to revert it back now—had to delete and reinstall the app!
    – Young
    Commented Jul 29, 2019 at 19:08

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I want to know if there's a way to hide the app from my dock when the app is running so that I can simply use the menu bar to see if I have any new messages and thus save dock space

An app can be configured to hide it's Dock icon, and show it only in the Menu bar, only if it is designed (programmed) to provide this functionality. If the app doesn't include this feature, it's not possible for user to achieve this by any other means (OS built-in or using any 3rd party tool).

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    Ah, I see, thank you very much for the quick response! I found a related question on how to do this as a developer (stackoverflow.com/questions/620841/how-to-hide-the-dock-icon), and it seems like that's the only way to do it (i.e. not user-changeable), like you said. Thanks again!
    – Young
    Commented Jul 29, 2019 at 6:26
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A couple months ago I was able achieve this by:

Opening Macintosh HD>Applications

Right click desired app

Click "show package contents"

Open "Info.plist"

Then add 

<key>LSUIElement</key>

<string>1</string>

in the middle of the document.

Save it and voila.

However, this randomly stopped working a couple months ago.. The Info.plist file just gets rewritten when I open the app. Maybe it'll still work for you.

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    This no longer works with signed apps in the last several release of macOS. This will only work on unsigned apps and ones created by the user. Additionally, in a now deleted comment to the OP, I suggested it and it didn't work for him as mentioned in his reply comment and had to reinstall the app after attempting this.
    – user3439894
    Commented Aug 16, 2019 at 17:07
  • I just tried this method on TopTracker app and it worked. Although it's info.plist was inside content folder.
    – Muhammad Awais
    Commented Apr 27, 2023 at 9:25

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