AirBuddy Alternative: iOS-Style AirPods, Without the Price Tag
AirBuddy made AirPods feel native on the Mac — for a price. Notchy detects a nearby case, slides an iOS-style card out of the notch with per-bud and case battery, and connects with one tap. It also tracks your Magic Mouse, Keyboard, Trackpad, and third-party Bluetooth headphones — free.
Why use Notchy instead of AirBuddy?
- The iPhone pairing moment, free
Open your AirPods case and a beautiful battery card drops from the notch — per-bud levels, case level, one-tap connect.
- Every wireless device at a glance
Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard, Trackpad, plus Soundcore/Sony-style Bluetooth headphones that report battery — with low-battery alerts at ~10%.
- Part of a full notch suite
Audio output switching, Now Playing, HUD replacement, clipboard, shelf, timers — all in the same free, native app.
At a glance
Everything Notchy does, for free
- Fluid Dynamic Island animations on the Mac notch
- Command palette (⌃⌥K) — every action one keystroke away
- Knock — double-tap a modifier key to open the notch
- AI usage tracker (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot)
- Detach any tab into a menu-bar popover
- Now Playing music controls (Apple Music & Spotify)
- Time-synced karaoke lyrics under the notch
- Mac clipboard history shelf (password-manager safe)
- Drag-and-drop file drop shelf — persists across relaunches
- Zip & unzip files right from the shelf
- Image converter (HEIC, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PDF) + video → GIF
- Run Apple Shortcuts with one tap
- Screenshots auto-staged on the shelf, ready to drag
- Download finished alerts with Reveal in Finder
- USB drive mount island with one-tap Eject
- Apple Reminders quick capture & due list
- macOS Pomodoro notch timer & stopwatch — streaks + 7-day chart
- Resizable expanded panel (width & height, live preview)
- System HUDs (volume, brightness, battery)
- Audio output switcher (speakers, AirPods, monitor)
- AirPods connection manager & battery
- Magic Mouse, Keyboard & Trackpad battery + low-battery alerts
- Quick notes & Calendar widgets
- Camera Mirror (check your appearance)
- Keep Awake (caffeine toggle)
- Teleprompter (Cuely) for Zoom calls
- Focus-aware alerts & native haptic feedback
- Lock screen widgets & hide-the-notch mode
- 133 languages, fully localized
- Native SwiftUI, tuned for Apple Silicon