A calmer Desktop Goose Alternative for Mac
Desktop Goose, by samperson, is a gloriously annoying pet: it nabs your mouse, tracks mud across the screen and drags in notes and memes. It's name-your-own-price on itch.io and runs on macOS 10.10 or later — though the Mac build is v0.22, behind Windows' v0.31, and has no mod support. Notchy's desktop pet, new in 1.0.178, is the opposite temperament: it never takes the cursor, and its job is to tell you something useful about your Mac.
Looking for Desktop Goose itself? It lives at samperson.itch.io/desktop-goose.
- Desktop Goose price
- Name your own price
- Desktop Goose requires
- macOS 10.10 or later (Mac build v0.22)
- Notchy price
- $24.99 one-time, 7-day free trial
Why use Notchy instead of Desktop Goose?
- Never grabs your cursor
It wanders, sits, naps and follows the cursor with its eyes — but it never moves the pointer or opens windows on you.
- It means something
Sweating means the CPU is hot, shivering means the battery is nearly flat, dancing means music is on. Hover it and it says what's going on.
- Tilt to play
On Apple silicon MacBooks, tilt the Mac and the pet slides to the low side. Turn it off in Settings if you'd rather it stayed put.
- Where Desktop Goose is better
Chaos. If the point is a prank or a laugh, nothing beats a goose dragging memes across a colleague's screen.
Everything Notchy does, in one app
- 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)
- Searchable clipboard — filter by text, file name, or OCR'd words
- On-device OCR — copy a screenshot, get its text (Apple Vision)
- Window snapping — drag a window to the notch to tile it
- App Launcher — pin apps to the notch, open with one tap
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- Text snippets — TextExpander-style pastes from the ⌘K palette
- One-tap screen capture to clipboard + shelf
- Color eyedropper — sample any pixel, hex auto-copied
- System-wide mic mute for every meeting app at once
- Keystroke HUD for demos & screencasts (secure-input safe)
- Keyboard cleaning lock with countdown island (⌘⎋ unlocks)
- Menu-bar icon hiding — Bartender-style separator & chevron
- Live CPU / memory / network stats flyout
- Custom islands through the local developer API (off by default)
- iPhone-style call island — Answer/Decline FaceTime on the notch
- Notch Terminal — real VT100/xterm shell in a PTY, its own tab
- Camera Guard — alert (or block) when any app opens your camera
- Caps Lock HUD — brief island on every toggle
- Full Charge island with adjustable threshold + low-battery sound
- Alt HUD styles — edge-pinned bar or circular gauge off the notch
- Audio-reactive Now Playing visualizer (real FFT of system audio)
- Custom closed-notch idle animation — drop in your own Lottie JSON
- 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
- 134 languages, fully localized
- Native SwiftUI, tuned for Apple silicon
The honest verdict on Desktop Goose
Desktop Goose is a joke, and a great one. Notchy's pet is a companion you'd leave on all day — cute, informative, and never between you and your cursor.
Desktop Goose alternative — FAQ
Does Desktop Goose work on Mac?
Yes. The itch.io page offers a Mac build for macOS 10.10 or later, currently v0.22 — behind the Windows version and without mods.
Is Desktop Goose free?
It's name-your-own-price on itch.io, so you can pay nothing or tip the developer.
Is Notchy's pet as chaotic as the goose?
No. It has a mischievous streak — potty breaks, zoomies, cursor stalking — but it never takes control of the mouse. Potty breaks can be switched off.
Can I hide the pet during meetings?
Yes — turn it off in Notchy's settings, or pin it in a corner so it stops wandering.
Is Notchy free?
No. Notchy is a one-time $24.99 purchase for one Mac, with a 7-day free trial and updates included — no subscription or in-app purchase.