BendMac

Download for Mac · Website · Full demo

Your desktop bends and blurs as you close your MacBook lid. BendMac runs in the menu bar and is free and open source.

Inspired by Bendy and the iPhone Duo folding animation. No affiliation with Bendy or Apple.

Install

Requires macOS 14+ and a MacBook with a lid-angle sensor. The download runs on Apple silicon and Intel. Tested hardware so far: M5 MacBook Air, and a 2019 16-inch Intel MacBook Pro (#5). Automatic lid tracking does not work on the 2020 M1 MacBook Air or the 13-inch M1 and M2 MacBook Pro. On those models, turn off Lid Behavior → Follow physical lid and set the Desktop angle by hand instead. If you try another model, please let us know.

1. Open the DMG and drag BendMac into Applications.
2. Open BendMac and turn on General → Enable BendMac.
3. When you first bend the desktop, grant access in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording.

Using it

Adjust the style, blur, perspective, and shadow in Appearance. The preview works without Screen Recording permission. Lid Behavior lets you change the angle at which the effect clears or control it manually.

Press Escape to pause the effect. Close the settings window to leave BendMac running, or quit from the menu bar. Only the built-in display is affected.

Turn on General → Open at login to start BendMac with your Mac. If the effect was on when you quit, it comes back on by itself with the same Follow lid setting and manual angle. Temporary capture failures are retried; missing sensor or display readiness can recover when the device becomes available.

Use Check for updates to install future versions in the app. If you're on 0.4.0 or earlier, download the current version manually first.

Screen capture runs only while the desktop is bending. Once the effect clears, BendMac releases capture and removes its overlay so it does not keep interfering with video playback or system panels. If your usual lid position still shows an effect, use Lid Behavior → Use current angle to set where it clears. Protected video cannot be included in the fold; pause BendMac while watching if needed.

Screen frames stay in memory. Nothing is recorded to disk or uploaded, and audio isn't captured. Update checks contact GitHub to look for new releases.

Build from source

Open BendMac.xcodeproj in Xcode and run the BendMac scheme. Xcode will download Sparkle; install the Metal compiler component if prompted.

With XcodeGen installed:

./scripts/build.sh

The universal app (Apple silicon and Intel) is written to build/Build/Products/Release/BendMac.app. Run ./scripts/dmg.sh to package a DMG.

./scripts/verify.sh checks lifecycle recovery, saved settings, idle animation timers, motion math, signature, sensor, and Metal rendering. It needs a Mac; FFmpeg is optional for exporting the preview video.

See the changelog for release details.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup and release instructions for packaging and update signing.

The app uses SwiftUI, AppKit, ScreenCaptureKit, and Metal. The lid sensor's HID report is undocumented, so compatibility can vary. Website source is in website/dist.

MIT license. Reference videos and Bendy's assets aren't included.