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Question

Is there any way to pin an application on to the screen in macOS?

Description

I am looking for a way to pin an application to the screen. I mostly work on two external displays and I would like to have my browser always open on one of these and prevent any other applications hovering on top.

Known solutions

I have a Linux setup; such thing can be easily achieved with awesomewm rules; KWin does it as well.

Notes

It is not about "full-screening" application. This is completely not sufficient, because it will make a "Space" and you can easily loose focus from another "Space" on same "Screen". I would like to enforce a visible application (at my case - browser) and do not loose focus on this browser at any circumstances.

limakzi
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  • The 'on top' part is difficult - but you can set an app to always 'follow' you around - see https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/179376/what-is-an-efficient-way-for-developers-power-users-to-use-osx-window-manageme for some ideas. – Tetsujin Feb 02 '20 at 09:31

1 Answers1

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The answer to this very much depends on what you are trying to achieve.

Window on top, not full screen

If you want to keep a window on top, but not fullscreen that is only possible if the application developer has implemented it, usually in macOS applications this is called something like 'stay on top'.

The recent few releases of macOS have really locked down the ability of each application to control others for security reasons, which means it's not possible to get a third party app to do this.

Full screen

One solution would simply be to make it fullscreen on the display, as the main display will remain usable. Some applications use a legacy fullscreen mode in macOS but that is pretty rare in 2020 as this was deprecated years ago.

If you want more than one application on the display is is partially possible by switching into Mission Control and making one applciation full screen, then dragging a second onto that full screen application creating a split screen view which adjustable widths.

Picture in picture feature

Some web browsers such as Firefox and Safari now have an integrated picture in picture mode for video play back, if you are specifically trying to keep a video running and visible while working you can do this and this window can be set to stay afloat.

benwiggy
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unknowndomain
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  • Comments removed. It helps to keep in mind that sometimes an answer helps an OP to better describe their intention and to make the question more focused. – nohillside Feb 02 '20 at 07:51