A Glance Alternative for older and Intel Macs
Glance brings Face ID-style unlocking to Macs through the webcam, with on-device Core ML and Vision recognition, face data encrypted in the Keychain, and a liveness check that watches for small head movements over about a second. It is open source and needs an Apple silicon Mac on macOS 15 Sequoia or later. Notchy's Face Unlock works the same way in spirit — on-device, Keychain-backed, liveness-checked — and runs on the Macs Glance leaves out.
Looking for Glance itself? It lives at tryglance.app.
- Glance price
- Not listed on the vendor site (open source)
- Glance requires
- macOS 15 Sequoia or later, Apple silicon
- Notchy price
- $24.99 one-time, 7-day free trial
Why use Notchy instead of Glance?
- Intel Macs and macOS 13–14
Glance requires Apple silicon and macOS 15. Notchy is a universal app from macOS 13 Ventura, so Face Unlock reaches Intel MacBooks and Macs that haven't moved to Sequoia.
- Guided nine-pose enrolment
Notchy's setup walks you through straight-on plus eight head angles, so a glance from a slightly different posture still matches, and calibrates its threshold from your own scan.
- Part of a bigger app
Face Unlock sits alongside lock screen widgets, Now Playing, clipboard history and 50+ notch tools in one $24.99 app.
- Where Glance wins
Glance is open source, so you can read exactly what it does with your face. Notchy is a paid app and not open source.
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 Glance
On a recent Apple silicon Mac where open source matters to you, Glance is a great choice. On an Intel Mac or anything older than Sequoia, Notchy is the face unlock that actually installs.
Glance alternative — FAQ
Is Glance open source?
Yes. Its site describes it as completely open-source, with a GitHub repository linked.
Does Glance work on Intel Macs?
No. Glance requires an Apple silicon Mac on macOS 15 Sequoia or later. Notchy's Face Unlock runs on Intel and Apple silicon from macOS 13.
How do Glance and Notchy check it's a live face?
Glance watches for small natural head movements over about a second. Notchy requires frames that both match your face and show a live face, read from eye openness. Both vendors say a video can be harder to stop than a photo.
Is webcam face unlock secure?
Neither is Face ID-grade: Macs lack the depth sensor Face ID relies on. Glance says so, and so does Notchy. Use it as a convenience.
Is Notchy free?
No. Notchy is a one-time $24.99 purchase for one Mac with a 7-day free trial — no subscription or in-app purchase.