Hush

What is Hush?

Hush is an essential privacy tool designed specifically for professionals who frequently present or share their screens during virtual meetings using platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, or Slack Huddles. Its core purpose is to eliminate the anxiety associated with accidentally exposing private information—such as personal messages, confidential documents, or messy desktop icons—to an audience. By providing instant, customizable screen obfuscation, Hush ensures that only the intended content is visible, allowing presenters to maintain focus and professionalism without constant worry.

Built with a strong emphasis on security and performance, Hush operates entirely on-device. It boasts a 100% offline architecture, meaning zero tracking and zero cloud reliance, offering peace of mind that your screen data remains private. This commitment to privacy is baked into its architecture, utilizing Screen Recording permissions solely to track window positions for blurring, never capturing or transmitting actual screen content. It is a lightweight, dependency-free menu bar application, ensuring minimal system impact while delivering maximum presentation control.

Key Features

• Two Distinct Modes: Choose between Desktop Mode, which hides all desktop elements (wallpaper, icons, widgets) behind a clean overlay while keeping application windows functional, or Focus Mode, which intelligently blurs everything except the active application window, automatically tracking focus changes via ⌘Tab.
• Instant Activation: Activate modes instantly using the global hotkey (⌘⇧H) or set it to auto-activate the moment screen sharing begins on supported platforms.
• Customizable Overlays: Tailor the visual masking with options for frosted blur, solid colors, or custom background images, offering 8 adjustable blur intensity levels.
• Multi-Display Support: Provides granular, per-screen control, seamlessly handling dynamic monitor setups and hot-plugging.
• Presentation Safeguards: Includes a feature to Prevent Sleep, ensuring the display remains active and does not dim or lock during critical presentations.
• Privacy First Architecture: 100% Offline, 0 Tracking, 0 Cloud. Fully sandboxed and built with approximately 5K lines of Swift code with zero external dependencies.
• Localization: Supports 24 languages, making it accessible to a global user base.

How to Use Hush

Getting started with Hush is designed to be quick and intuitive, allowing users to be presentation-ready in minutes.

1. Installation: Download Hush directly from the Mac App Store. The application is lightweight (approx. 5MB) and installs quickly.
2. Activation & Setup: Once installed, Hush resides in your menu bar. Press the global hotkey (⌘⇧H) to instantly toggle your preferred mode (Desktop or Focus). For maximum convenience, configure it to automatically detect when you start sharing your screen in applications like Zoom or Meet.
3. Mode Selection: Before presenting, decide on your approach. If you need to keep multiple application windows open but hidden from view, use Desktop Mode. If you only want the audience to see one specific application at a time, use Focus Mode and switch between apps using ⌘Tab.
4. Presentation: Begin your screen share. Hush ensures that any background applications, notifications (like Slack messages), or sensitive files visible on your desktop are instantly obscured according to your settings, allowing you to present confidently.

Use Cases

1. Software Developers & Engineers: When debugging or showing complex codebases in Visual Studio Code or IDEs, Hush ensures that local environment variables, configuration files, or private repository names are not accidentally broadcasted.
2. Financial & Legal Professionals: Presenting sensitive spreadsheets (e.g., salary data, tax documents) or confidential client reports where blurring specific cells or entire windows is critical for compliance and confidentiality.
3. Sales & Marketing Teams: Conducting product demos where the presenter needs to reference internal pricing sheets or draft documents in one window while presenting a polished marketing deck in another. Hush keeps the internal references hidden.
4. Remote Educators & Tutors: Teachers sharing educational materials can use Hush to block out personal desktop notifications, student roster lists, or administrative emails that pop up during live instruction.
5. General Office Workers: Anyone participating in impromptu meetings where the desktop might be cluttered with temporary files, screenshots, or personal browser tabs that are irrelevant and distracting to the meeting topic.

FAQ

Q: Which operating systems is Hush compatible with? A: Hush is exclusively designed for macOS and is available through the Mac App Store.

Q: Does Hush slow down my computer during screen sharing? A: No. Hush is engineered to be extremely lightweight, utilizing minimal system resources (~5K lines of Swift, zero dependencies). It is designed not to interfere with the performance of your primary applications or video conferencing software.

Q: How does Hush handle screen recording permissions? A: Hush requires Screen Recording permission only when Focus Mode is active. This permission is used strictly to read the coordinates and boundaries of active windows so it can apply the blur effect correctly. It never captures, stores, or transmits the visual content of your screen.

Q: Can I use Hush with multiple external monitors? A: Yes, Hush offers robust Multi-Display support, allowing you to configure the blurring or hiding effect independently on each connected screen.

Q: Is Hush a subscription service or a one-time purchase? A: Hush is available for purchase/download via the Mac App Store, typically involving a one-time purchase model for the application license.