I use Mountain Lion (10.8.3) Messages exclusively to monitor text messages sent to my cell phone. When I first start my computer or login Messages is hidden (I don't want it in my dock) and if I receive a text message I get a banner alert from notification center. If I open the message I enter the Messages application and the running application shows up in my dock.
What I would like to do is have Messages behave as it does when I first start the computer (receiving notifications but not visible in the dock as running) all of the time (I assume it's running in the background somehow).
If I click 'Hide' on the Messages icon in the doc it remains visible, and if I quit messages entirely after reading a message I stop receiving notifications.
I have tried editing its Info.plist to include
<key>LSUIElement</key>
<string>1</string>
as suggested in the Hide a running app from dock thread, but the behavior remains the same.
Thanks!
Best Answer
10.8 is a bit more strict than previous versions, with respect to what should be a boolean value. If you change as below, it should work like you want.
Note that in this mode, not only is an app hidden from the dock, but the menu bar does not display either when the program is active.