Your Mac's display holds brightness in reserve. Highbeam spends it.
Get in touch. Email [email protected] and we will get back to you.
Highbeam needs a display that holds brightness in reserve for HDR. That means the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with the Liquid Retina XDR display (M1 Pro or M1 Max and later), and the Pro Display XDR.
It does not work on the MacBook Air, the 13-inch MacBook Pro, the Studio Display, the iMac, or most external monitors - those screens have no extra brightness to unlock. Highbeam checks your displays when you first open it and tells you plainly, before you pay. The free demo also works on any Mac, so you can see for yourself.
Highbeam lives in the menu bar and has no Dock icon. Look for the ringed lens along the top of your screen and click it. The icon dims when nothing is being brightened.
Highbeam stays within the brightness Apple rates your display to sustain, using public system APIs. It does not overdrive anything, and macOS remains in control - it reduces the available range when your Mac gets warm or the battery runs low, and Highbeam follows.
Being honest about the costs: a brighter screen uses more power and runs warmer, and running at high brightness for long periods will age the backlight faster than the occasional HDR video it was designed around. That is why the battery rules exist. There is no risk of burn-in - the display is LCD, not OLED.
Highbeam works by spending the range your display normally saves for HDR highlights. While it is on, that range is in use, so HDR video has less room to stand out. Turn Highbeam off for films or colour-critical work - the keyboard shortcut makes it quick.
The slider normally stops at the brightest level Apple rates your display to hold across the whole screen. Extend opens the range above that. Your screen may not actually get much brighter - the display limits itself - but it will use more power and run warmer. It is off by default.
The battery rules paused it. By default Highbeam stands down below 30% battery and in Low Power Mode; you can also pause on battery entirely or after a set time. It pauses rather than switching off, so it comes back on its own once conditions allow. The reason is always shown in the panel.
No. The overlay Highbeam draws is excluded from screenshots, screen recordings and screen sharing, so your captures look normal.
Open Highbeam, click Settings, and choose Restore Purchase. The unlock is tied to your Apple Account, so use the same one you bought it with. In most cases it restores on its own the first time you launch.
Quit Highbeam from its menu and drag it to the Trash. Your screen returns to normal the moment it quits - nothing is left behind and no system settings are changed.