Our website says "macOS & Linux coming." Our support inbox gets the question daily. Our Product Hunt comments ask when. Here is the honest answer: we have not shipped macOS because macOS does not have WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE, and building an equivalent experience requires fundamentally different architecture.
This post explains why, what Mac users should do now, and what we are actually building.
Why Windows Was First
Windows 10 version 2004 introduced SetWindowDisplayAffinity with WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE. This API is clean, documented, and compositor-level. It allows a window to remain visible to the user while being excluded from the frame buffer sent to capture APIs. No kernel extension required. No private API required. No App Store rejection risk.
This is why Evanesco, CaptureGuard, WinHider, Cloakly, and NoCapture all exist on Windows. The API makes it possible.
Why macOS Is Harder
macOS has no direct equivalent. The closest mechanisms are:
ScreenCaptureKit filtering. Introduced in macOS 12.3, this allows apps to filter content from their own capture stream. But it is designed for the capturing app to filter itself, not for a third-party tool to filter arbitrary windows from other apps' capture streams.
CGWindowList and Quartz Window Services. These allow window enumeration and some manipulation, but not capture exclusion at the compositor level for arbitrary third-party windows.
Private APIs. macOS almost certainly has internal APIs that could achieve equivalent behavior. Using them means App Store rejection, system integrity protection conflicts, and breakage every macOS release.
Kernel extensions. Theoretically possible. Practically forbidden. Apple has been deprecating kexts for years and requires notarization that most privacy tools cannot pass.
The result: every macOS screen privacy tool uses a different strategy than Windows tools. Stealthly auto-detects sharing and hides desktop elements. ScreenVeil creates a sanitized mirror output. Hush blurs background content. None of them use the same capture-exclusion model as Windows because macOS does not expose it.
What Mac Users Should Use Now
We do not believe in leaving users waiting for a product that does not exist. If you are on macOS today, these are the strongest options:
Stealthly ($12.99 one-time). Auto-detects screen sharing and hides desktop clutter, Dock, menu bar, and selected apps. Best for automated privacy.
ScreenVeil. Creates a clean feed for sharing while excluding selected apps. Best for streamers and presenters who need granular control.
Hush. Menu bar app that blurs desktop clutter and background apps. Best for quick presentations.
Raybeam. Resizable region sharing with app exclusion. Best for selective demos.
We have no affiliate relationship with any of these tools. We recommend them because they solve the problem honestly, on the platform where we are not yet present.
What NoCapture for macOS Will Actually Do
We are not building a blur overlay. We are not building a mirrored output. We are building native per-window cloaking that matches the Windows experience: select a window, apply protection, verify in live preview, mask titles, suppress notifications.
This requires:
- Reverse engineering the correct macOS compositor hooks
- Building without private APIs or kernel extensions
- Passing App Store review
- Maintaining compatibility across macOS versions
We will not ship until all four are true. We would rather be absent from macOS than ship a half-measure that breaks every update.
The Timeline
We do not have a public ship date. What we have is an active engineering effort and a waitlist. If you want to be notified when macOS beta is available, join the waitlist here. We will not market a date until we have a build that passes our own quality bar.
The Bottom Line
Windows has a clean API for capture exclusion. macOS does not. The macOS tools that exist today use different, valid strategies. NoCapture will come to macOS when we can deliver the same deterministic, compositor-level protection we provide on Windows. Until then, we recommend the tools that are already solving the problem well.
See our full feature comparison between Windows and macOS approaches here.
NoCapture provides OS-level window cloaking, title masking, and notification shielding for Windows. Free for two windows. Because "being careful" isn't a strategy.
