Tidy up the GNOME top bar: keep the icons you need in view and tuck the rest behind an arrow that slides them out when you want them.
Status: early development. There is no release yet. Follow the changelog for progress.
Tray icons pile up: chat apps, game launchers, sync clients, plus the icons other extensions add. TrayBuddy lets you decide, icon by icon, what happens to each one:
- Shown: always in the top bar, like today.
- Collapsible: tucked away behind a small arrow. Click the arrow and they slide out in a soft pill; leave them alone for a few seconds and they slide back.
- Hidden: never shown.
You also choose the order, by dragging icons in the settings.
- A calmer top bar. Most tray icons are only needed now and then. They don't need to be on screen all day.
- Up to date with GNOME. TrayBuddy is built for GNOME Shell 51 and later, so you don't have to wait for older extensions to catch up with each GNOME release.
- Inspired by Lilypad, with a few things it can't do: icons that are never shown, icons remembered while their app isn't running, a live preview, and a gentler animation.
- Three states per icon: Shown, Collapsible or Hidden.
- Drag to reorder icons in the settings, with a live preview of how the top bar will look.
- Animated arrow. It turns when the drawer opens or closes, and the icons slide out one after another inside a pill.
- Auto-collapse after a number of seconds you choose (1–120). The timer waits while the pointer is on the icons or one of their menus is open, so the drawer never closes under you.
- Open on hover (optional) and Keep Open from the arrow's right-click menu.
- Pill background: none, subtle, or your accent colour.
- Arrow position: next to the system menu (after your shown icons) or before them.
- Works with app tray icons (Discord, Steam, Nextcloud…, through the AppIndicator extension) and with icons from other extensions. System menus and the screen recording and sharing indicators are never touched.
- Remembers icons of apps that aren't running, so you can set them up before you start the app, or forget them.
- Real app names and icons, read from each app's
.desktopfile, with Rename for anything you'd rather call something else. - Works with Dash to Panel.
- Helpful About page. Release notes, links to the docs, settings export/import and a Copy Debug Info button for bug reports.
- GNOME Shell 51 or later. Older versions are not supported.
- Optional: the AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support extension, to get application tray icons into the top bar in the first place.
Coming soon. Once the extension has been reviewed, it will be installable with one click from extensions.gnome.org or the Extension Manager app.
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Download
traybuddy@svashta.com.shell-extension.zipfrom the latest release. -
Install it:
gnome-extensions install --force traybuddy@svashta.com.shell-extension.zip
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Log out and back in (on Wayland GNOME Shell can't be restarted in place).
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Enable it:
gnome-extensions enable traybuddy@svashta.com
You need git, make and glib-compile-schemas (from the GLib development tools, usually already installed).
git clone https://github.com/Svashtar/traybuddy-gnome.git
cd traybuddy-gnome
make installmake install symlinks src/ into ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/traybuddy@svashta.com. Log out and back in, then run gnome-extensions enable traybuddy@svashta.com. To remove it again, run make uninstall.
Using Lilypad or another top-bar organiser? Turn it off first. Two extensions moving the same icons around will fight each other.
- Open the settings (Extensions app → TrayBuddy → Settings, or right-click the arrow → Settings). Every icon currently in the top bar is listed on the Icons page.
- Pick a state for each icon: Shown, Collapsible or Hidden. The arrow appears in the top bar as soon as one icon is collapsible.
- Drag the handle next to an icon to change the order. The preview at the top shows the result.
- Optional: on the Behaviour page, change how long the drawer stays open, turn on Open on Hover or pick a different background.
The full walk-through is in Getting started.
| Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Getting started | First run, icon states, ordering, behaviour settings |
| Troubleshooting | Missing icons, icons that won't hide, conflicts with other extensions, collecting logs |
| Privacy | What TrayBuddy stores and what the debug info contains |
| Architecture | How the extension is built (for contributors) |
Why isn't my app's icon listed? TrayBuddy manages icons that are already in the top bar. Most apps need the AppIndicator extension to show a tray icon on GNOME. Icons in the left or centre of the top bar (for example when AppIndicator's Tray position is set to left) are not managed.
An app's icon is listed twice.
Two icons with the same name get a number (#2). This happens with apps that create more than one tray icon.
Can I hide the clock or the system menu? No. TrayBuddy only manages extension and app icons. System menus and the screen recording and sharing indicators always stay visible.
Does it work with Dash to Panel? Yes, on the primary panel, where Dash to Panel shows tray icons.
TrayBuddy makes no network connections and has no telemetry. It stores the names and icons of the top-bar icons it has seen in your GNOME settings, so the settings window can list them. Debug info counts app icons but never names them. Details are in Privacy.
Bug reports and pull requests are welcome. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md first. When reporting a bug, open Settings → About → Copy Debug Info and paste the result into the bug report form.
TrayBuddy is in English only. Every string is ready for gettext (po/traybuddy.pot), so if you'd like it in your language, see CONTRIBUTING.md → Translations.
TrayBuddy is free software, released under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later (GPL-2.0-or-later).
Made by Svashta