Want to hide the top bar in Ubuntu when a window is placed near it?
With a nifty GNOME extension you can!
It works like this:
Simple, huh?
Ubuntu makes it easy to auto-hide the Ubuntu dock (the icon bar that sits on the left-hand side of the screen by default) out-of-the-box. You just open the Settings app, go to the Ubuntu Desktop section, and flick a switch.
Alas, there’s not a similar option to hide the top bar (this is the panel stripped across the top of the screen).
So if you want to the top bar to hide in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or above you will need to install a GNOME Shell extension to do it.
Installing the Hide Top Bar Extension on Ubuntu
You can install the Hide Top Bar extension using the (ace) Extension Manager desktop app that’s available in the Ubuntu repos and on Flathub. Just search for “Hide Top Bar”, hit the Install button, and you’re done.
Once installed, you don’t need to do anything else: it gets activated on install, and begins working instantly.
When you maximise an app window, or drag an app window to the top of the screen, the top bar elegantly slides out of view. While it’s hiding you can still access it. To make the top bar just move your mouse cursor against the top of the screen, or move or minimise any window touching it.
Configuration options let you adjust the behaviour (such as only hiding the top bar when an active window touches it), fine-tune the animation timing, and adjust he inllihide sensitive (i.e.
Quirks
The main one (that’s hard not to notice) is this: when this extension is enabled the top of the Ubuntu Dock tucks-under the top bar. It looks strange but, hey, maybe you’re fine with it. Workarounds are to move the Ubuntu Dock to the bottom or turn-off panel mode in Ubuntu Desktop settings.
Secondly, and this quirk affects any Linux distro this extension is used on, is that when you get a desktop notification (and auto-hide is enabled) the top bar will hide. A workaround (assuming this bugs you to a great extent) is to change notification position using — you guessed it — a GNOME extension.
Wrapping Up
So that’s the Hide Top Bar extension – a nifty add-on for those looking to maximise every pixel of their display, and hide any unneeded distractions. Intellihide makes this adaptable add-on especially agile in use, without making the top bar difficult to access when you need it.
Let me know what you think of the extension down in the comments.
