Would you to make the top bar in Ubuntu hide whenever you place a window next to it?

If so, you can install a GNOME Shell extension to enable that behaviour. A separate extension is needed as Ubuntu doesn’t support this feature out of the box.

Here’s a demo of the top panel hiding in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS when a window is placed near it:

autohide the panel in Ubuntu desktop
Autohide the top bar

Ubuntu allows you to auto-hide the Ubuntu dock (the icon bar on the left-hand side of the screen) when a window touches it. This behaviour can be enabled using the toggle in Settings > Ubuntu Desktop

But a similar option to auto-hide the top bar (the panel stripped across the top of the screen) is not available out-of-the-box.

If you want to auto-hide the top bar in Ubuntu when a window touches it you need to install a GNOME Shell extension instead.

Install Hide Top Bar Extension on Ubuntu

Extension Manager makes installing any extension easier
Extension Manager makes installing any extension easier

The extension we’ll use is called Hide Top Bar. It works with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and all versions above, and does exactly what it says: hides the top bar.

To install the Hide Top Bar GNOME extension in Ubuntu you should first install the Extension Manager desktop app.

You can can find this in the Ubuntu Software (or App Center, if you filter by DEB) or run sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager to get it.

Once done:

  1. Open the Extension Manager app
  2. Search for “Hide Top Bar”
  3. Select the result from the list
  4. Click on the ‘Install’ button

That’s it; you don’t need to do anything else. GNOME extensions you install using this app are activated instantly and start working right away.

Now, when you maximise an app window or drag an app window to the top of your screen the top bar will slide out of view.

When hidden you can continue access applets and indicators on it by moving your mouse cursor against the top of the screen until it slides into view, or by moving the window that’s touching it.

Settings allow you to fine-tune behaviour

The extension has a small set of configuration options so you can adjust the behaviour (such as only hiding the top bar if an active window touches it and not a window left in the background), fine-tune the animation timings, and tweak the ‘intellihide sensitivity’.

In all, handy — but it’s not flawless.

Quirks? There are a few…

The main bug (that’s hard not to notice) is this: when this extension is enabled the top of the Ubuntu Dock tucks-under the top bar. It looks strange but it’s purely visual. Workarounds include moving the Ubuntu Dock to the bottom or disabling panel mode in Settings > Ubuntu Desktop.

Secondly (this quirk affects all Linux distros with this extension installed) is if a desktop notification appears (and auto-hide is enabled) the top bar will hide. A workaround (assuming it annoys you) is to change notification position using — you guessed it — another GNOME Shell extension.

Wrapping Up

So that’s the Hide Top Bar extension, a nifty add-on perfect for those looking to maximise every pixel of their display, or hide unneeded distractions. Intellihide makes this add-on especially agile in use without making the top bar difficult to access when you need it.

Let me know what you think of the extension down in the comments.