Accent Pomodoro

macOS application to switch menu bar color and system accent color

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Accent Pomodoro is a menu bar application that features a repeating timer. When the current timer ends, Accent Pomodoro changes the menu bar color, the system color, and the lighting mode to the preferences selected in the primary macOS window. The menu bar color can be selected from any color possible using the color picker. The system accent and highlight color can be selected from a list of nine choices exposed by the macOS System Preferences pane. Accent Pomodoro will also switch between a light and dark appearance when the timer runs out if the user selects a light or dark appearance different from the current macOS appearance.

Benefits of using Accent Pomodoro

Accent Pomodoro offers the ability to provide a stark appearance shift, a subtle appearance shift, and any combination in between. When the user notices the appearance shift, they are reminded to either take a break from their current task or resume focusing on their task.

How should I use Accent Pomodoro?

When you first launch the application, the menu bar icon will be added to the menu bar and the primary window will be displayed. You can enter the number of minutes that you would like to focus or relax, and you can select the appearance changes that you would like to be applied during focusing and relaxing. These preferences can be changed as often as you like, and they will be applied during the next context shift.

In the image below, Accent Pomodoro can be seen with an original color scheme on the left, a focus configuration in the middle, and a relax appearance on the right. Although the light to dark mode shift may be one of the more noticeable differences, you can also notice that the Menu Bar color shifts from translucent, to a shade of magenta, to a shade of purple. Likewise, you can notice that the system accent colors have shifted from the default accent colors, to the pink selection colors, to the purple selection colors.

Supported Devices

Accent Pomodoro supports all macOS devices; however, the Menu Bar color shift is only available on macOS 11 Big Sur and above. This limitation is due to macOS Big Sur being the first version of the operating system to support a translucent Menu Bar. If your device is not running macOS 11 or greater, the other features should still function as intended.

Accent Pomodoro also supports changing the Menu Bar Color on multiple monitors. If you have different backgrounds on each display, Accent Pomodoro works exactly as you would expect and changes each background image to show the changed color everywhere.