MonitorControl

MonitorControl puts brightness, contrast, volume and input switching for every external monitor in your menu bar. It drives them over DDC/CI - the same channel the display's own on-screen buttons use - so there is no extra hardware, no driver, and nothing leaves your Mac.

Your Mac's built-in panel sits in the same list as the external ones, so a single popover covers every screen on the desk. Click the menu-bar icon, drag a slider, done.

Highlights

1. One popover, every display - each connected monitor gets its own card with brightness, contrast and volume sliders, plus a mute toggle where the panel supports it.
2. Global hotkeys - ⌃⌥] and ⌃⌥[ for brightness, ⌃⌥= and ⌃⌥- for volume, on every monitor at once, without opening anything.
3. Input switching - move a display between DisplayPort, HDMI 1, HDMI 2 and USB-C from the popover instead of hunting through its on-screen menu.
4. Per-display power - the button on a display's name puts that panel to sleep on its own, while everything plugged into it stays connected.
5. Sync Mode or Manual Mode - Sync makes any brightness slider drive every display together; Manual keeps them independent and adds an All Displays master on top.
6. FaceLight - one click pushes brightness and contrast to maximum, so your face is lit on a video call in a dark room.
7. BlackOut - ⌃⌥B powers the panels down and back up, for stepping away without unplugging or logging out.
8. The built-in panel too - the MacBook display is controlled alongside the external ones, on both Apple Silicon and Intel.
9. Tells you if a monitor won't play - a compatibility check on first run reports, per display, whether it answers DDC/CI at all, and what to change if it doesn't.
10. Light and dark - follows the macOS appearance, or pin it either way.

How it works

MonitorControl lives in the menu bar - there is no window to keep around. Click the icon and the panel drops under it with one card per connected display. Drag a slider and the monitor responds immediately; the value written is the monitor's own, so it survives sleep, cable swaps and other apps.

DDC/CI is a standard feature of the display itself, not a macOS one, so nothing needs to be installed on the monitor side. A panel connected through a passive HDMI adapter or a dock that drops the data lines cannot be reached - the first-run check tells you which of yours are affected before you go looking. Settings live in ~/Library/Application Support/cafe.getapps.monitorcontrol/ and nowhere else.

Perfect for

1. Multi-monitor desks - matching two or three panels at once instead of poking at three different sets of buttons under the bezel.
2. Working past sunset - dropping every screen a few notches with a keystroke as the room gets dark.
3. Anyone on calls all day - FaceLight for the meeting, BlackOut for the break in between.
4. Machines that share a monitor - switching the input between your Mac and a second computer without reaching behind the display.