Imperator AirDrop

// Overview

A macOS menu bar app that turns AirDrop into a drop target. Drag a file onto the menu bar icon and it goes straight to the AirDrop share sheet.

Hybrid SwiftUI and AppKit: SwiftUI owns the app lifecycle and the panel's content, AppKit owns everything else.

The menu bar panel is an NSPanel the app draws rather than an NSPopover, so it matches what macOS 27 draws for its own menu bar panels: a plain rounded rectangle with no arrow and no open or close animation.

// Install

Download the latest zip from Releases, unzip, and move Imperator AirDrop.app to /Applications.

The app is ad-hoc signed, with no Apple Developer ID, so Gatekeeper blocks the first launch. After moving it to /Applications, clear the quarantine flag once:

Or try to open it once, then allow it in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Open Anyway. Right-click and Open no longer gets past Gatekeeper on macOS 15 and later.

Requires macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon. Built and tested on macOS 27 only - older versions are expected to work but have not been verified.

Install at your own risk. The app is not notarized and carries no Apple Developer signature, so macOS cannot vouch for it. It is provided as is, with no warranty, under the MIT license.

// Use

Everything happens on the AirDrop icon in the menu bar.

Single click opens the panel — Open AirDrop, Open at Login, About, and Quit. It waits half a second before appearing, because the app has to know you are not on your way to a double click. That pause is deliberate, not a hang.

Double click skips the panel and opens the AirDrop window in Finder.

Drag files onto the icon to send them. Hold the drag still over the icon and after one second AirDrop fires on its own — a red badge follows the cursor while that timer runs. Drop the files instead of waiting and the share sheet opens immediately.

Right click opens the same panel as a single click, with no delay.

// Build from source

Cleans, builds, codesigns, installs to /Applications, and launches. Other targets:

// Release

Build a zip without touching git or the remote:

Cut a full release, which bumps Info.plist, commits, tags v1.0.0, pushes, and publishes a GitHub release with the zip attached:

Requires the GitHub CLI (brew install gh, then gh auth login). The working tree must be clean. Tags are plain semver (v1.0.0); the release title carries the app name.

// License

MIT © Goran Imperator