A tiny Mac app, just for fun
A desktop that grows around your icons.
LivingWall puts a living plant wall behind your real Finder icons. Drag one and its little island tags along, the leaves scoot aside, and a butterfly pretends not to notice.
This page is a desktop. Go on, drag something.
- 3 themes, free
- macOS 13 or later
- Asks for Accessibility access, only to see where icons sit
- Finder: Sort By → None, Stacks off
Three steps. One of them is dragging.
- Open it. It lives in your menu bar, next to the clock. No Dock icon, no window to babysit.
- Let it peek. macOS asks for Accessibility access. LivingWall uses it for one thing: knowing where your icons sit, like a gardener who knows where the rocks are.
- Drag something. Finder still does all the real work. The wall just reacts, happily.
What's alive in there
- Little islands
Every icon gets its own little island. Park icons close and their islands hug. Pull one away and it stretches, then lets go. Pools, moss, felt and more: pick a look in the leaf menu.
- Shadows that sway
Leaves cast soft shadows that drift with a slow breeze. Calm, never busy.
- Winged visitors
Butterflies, a dragonfly and the odd ladybug drop by. Bigger screens get more visitors.
- Your call
Animation and Shadows switches live in the menu bar. Try the leaf up there — it also has some early island looks to play with.
Three walls, all free. Pick one.
Tap one and this whole page changes behind you. Your icons stay put. Each wall reacts to them in its own way.
- Plant WallLittle pools, leaves that scoot aside, winged visitors.
- BeachYour icons become sandy islands. Waves roll in, palms sway, kayaks paddle past.
- MeadowYour icons ride on clouds over a painted meadow. A kid with a kite. A cat.
More walls are growing.
The privacy bit, kept short
- It sees where your icons are. Not their names, not what's inside.
- No account. No analytics. No trackers. This site has none either.
- Finder stays in charge of every click, drag and drop.
Free. Coming soon.
The first build is off getting signed and notarized by Apple. When it's back, the download lands right here.
macOS 13 or later · Accessibility access · Every Space on your main display
Free to download. Licenses and credits
Questions, answered quickly
Why does it want Accessibility access?
It's the only way macOS lets an app see where desktop icons are. LivingWall reads their positions. No names, no contents, and it never clicks anything for you.
Will it eat my battery?
It's built to idle gently: about 30 frames a second when calm, 60 only while you drag, and it rests when it's hidden or when Animation is off. We'll share energy numbers from real Macs before launch.
My icons keep snapping back. Why?
Finder is tidying them. Right-click the desktop, choose Sort By → None, and turn off Use Stacks.
Spaces? More than one display?
It shows on every Space of your main display. Other monitors keep their normal wallpaper for now. Different themes per display or per Space are planned, and so is mixing a living wall with a regular wallpaper.
What happens when I quit?
Your normal wallpaper comes back. Nothing on your desktop moves.
How do I get rid of it?
Quit it from the leaf in the menu bar and drop the app in the Trash. You can switch off its access in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.
Is it open source?
The app and Plant Wall are not. The free Beach and Meadow themes are adapted from the open-source Deskland project, and their source is public under GPL-3.0. Licenses and credits.
Windows? iPhone?
Nope, Mac only. But this page works anywhere, so drag away.