Hide an app from screen recording on Mac: what still works, and what doesn’t

Can you hide an app from screen recording on a Mac?

Not reliably. macOS has a window setting, NSWindow.sharingType = .none, that asks the system to leave a window out of captures, and some capture methods still honour it. Apple no longer supports it as a way to hide content, and on macOS 15.4 and later, apps that capture through ScreenCaptureKit have been reported to record the window anyway.

On a Mac, what is dependable is controlling what you share, not a flag on the window. Windows is different: there, capture exclusion is documented by Microsoft.

What does Apple say about hiding a window from screen capture?

Apple says there is no supported way. Apple’s documentation for NSWindow.SharingType.none describes the value as a legacy constant that macOS no longer uses, and tells developers not to use it to hide or omit content from capture.

• July 2024. An Apple Developer Technical Support (DTS) engineer explained that the setting only affects the older CoreGraphics window functions. Nearly all screen recorders work below that level, where it has no effect.
• December 2024. A developer reported that a window with the flag was left out of screenshots but not out of screen recordings. Apple’s engineer did not dispute it.
• July 2025. Asked about macOS 15.4 and later, Apple’s engineer replied: “At this time there are no public APIs for preventing screen capture.”

What did ScreenCaptureKit change?

ScreenCaptureKit is Apple’s current framework for capturing displays, windows and apps, and it does not reliably honour sharingType = .none. Electron’s documentation now states that newer Mac applications using ScreenCaptureKit will capture a window even when content protection is on.

Electron added that caveat in September 2025, after a bug report about protected windows on macOS. Its maintainers described an intentional, known macOS change: apps on the legacy CoreGraphics APIs leave the window out, apps on ScreenCaptureKit do not. One maintainer reproduced it with native macOS screen recording.

You usually cannot tell which API a recorder uses, and an update can change it. How screen capture exclusion works covers both operating systems’ APIs.

Which Mac captures show the window, and which leave it out?

As of September 2026, ScreenCaptureKit-based capture and built-in screen recording are reported to show a window that carries the flag, while older CoreGraphics-based capture and still screenshots are reported to leave it out. Only the first row rests on vendor documentation; the rest are Apple engineers’ statements or single developer reports.

How does Kopya handle this on macOS?

Kopya sets the same flag and nothing else. On macOS its screen-share privacy is Electron’s setContentProtection, which sets NSWindow.sharingType = .none on the panel, so everything on this page applies: recent macOS recorders and ScreenCaptureKit-based apps may show the panel.

Kopya is a desktop AI assistant for macOS and Windows that answers questions about what is on your screen when you press a hotkey; its panel is excluded from supported screen shares and recordings. Screen-share privacy is on by default on every plan, including the free plan; ⌘⇧P toggles it. The panel reads Hidden in screen shares or Visible in screen shares. On a Mac, that label states the setting, not what a recorder captures.

Only the panel carries the flag. The menu-bar icon and its menu, the sign-in window and the process in Activity Monitor stay visible. Kopya needs macOS 14 Sonoma or newer. See how Kopya stays out of supported screen recordings and what an invisible AI overlay is.

What works reliably on a Mac instead?

Control what you share instead of relying on a window flag. Keeping private windows on a display you are not sharing, recording only a selected portion, or quitting the app leaves them outside the captured area entirely. Sharing a single window usually does too, but confirm it once with a test recording.

• Share one window, not the entire screen. Meeting apps let you pick a single window or tab (Google Meet’s help page shows the options), which usually leaves a panel floating above it out of the picture. Kopya has not published test results for these tools, so verify it once with a test recording. Details in the Zoom, Meet and Teams guide.
• Use a second display. Kopya captures the primary display only, so keep your work there, share that display, and drag the panel to the other one.
• Record a selected portion. The built-in macOS recorder can record part of the screen. Drag the panel outside that area first.
• Quit Kopya. Press Esc to quit the app, not just the panel, before the take, and reopen it afterwards.

Five ways to hide a window from a screen share compares these methods in full. For specific jobs, see recording tutorials and presenting; a projector or mirrored display always shows the panel.

How do you test it on your Mac?

Record ten seconds with the exact tool and mode you plan to use, then play it back. For a call, join from a second device and look at what the other side sees. Judge the recording, not the panel’s label.

1. 1

   Turn screen-share privacy on

   The panel should read Hidden in screen shares; press ⌘⇧P if it does not. Note your macOS version: Apple menu → About This Mac.

2. 2

   Capture the way you really will

   Same app, same mode: entire screen, single window or selected portion. Keep the panel open.

3. 3

   Judge the result

   If the panel shows in the playback or on the second device, do not rely on the flag with this setup. Use an alternative above.

4. 4

   Test again after updates

   A macOS update or a capture-app update can change the outcome.

This is the Mac version of the canonical 60-second self-test on the compatibility page.

Common questions

Sources

1. Apple Developer — NSWindow.SharingType.none
2. Apple Developer Forums — window sharing state (July 2024)
3. Apple Developer Forums — screenshots vs recordings (December 2024)
4. Apple Developer Forums — no public capture-prevention API (July 2025)
5. Apple Developer Forums — inconsistent ScreenCaptureKit behaviour (November 2025)
6. Electron docs — BrowserWindow setContentProtection
7. Electron issue #48258 — protected windows on macOS
8. Electron PR #48290 — macOS docs caveat
9. Google Meet Help — present during a meeting
10. Microsoft Learn — SetWindowDisplayAffinity