An island on Intel Macs, running natively
Intel Macs have no notch and are usually the first machines a new utility drops. Notchy ships one universal download that runs natively on both architectures — and on a notchless screen the island is a floating pill instead.
One download, both architectures
The release is a universal build with an arm64 and an x86_64 slice, so an Intel Mac runs native code rather than translating through Rosetta, and there is no second file to pick on the download page.
macOS 13 Ventura and later
The floor is macOS 13 Ventura, which covers the Intel machines still on a supported release. Newer effects like Liquid Glass simply do not appear where the system cannot draw them.
No notch? A pill instead
On an iMac, a Mac mini or a pre-2021 MacBook, the island is a floating pill at the top of the display — same activities, same expansion. The external monitor page covers the same idea on a second screen.
Built to stay quiet on older silicon
Idle behaviour is event-driven rather than polled, and animations stop when the notch is closed — the measured numbers are on the CPU and battery page.
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)
- 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
- 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
- Open GitHub PR count in the notch (Keychain-stored token)
- iPhone-style call island — Answer/Decline FaceTime on the notch
- Notch Terminal — real VT100/xterm shell in a PTY, its own tab
- Privacy Indicator — pill when any app's camera or mic goes live
- 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
- 133 languages, fully localized
- Native SwiftUI, tuned for Apple Silicon
Dynamic Island on Intel Macs — FAQ
Does Notchy work on Intel Macs?
Yes. The download is a universal build containing both an Apple Silicon and an Intel slice, so it launches and runs natively on an Intel Mac with no Rosetta step.
Can I get a Dynamic Island on a Mac without a notch?
Yes. On any display without a notch the island renders as a floating pill at the top of the screen, with the same live activities, expansion and controls.
Which macOS versions are supported?
macOS 13 Ventura and later, on both architectures.
Do I need a separate Intel download?
No. There is one DMG and it contains both slices — the same file works on every supported Mac.
Does everything work on Intel?
The features work; a handful of purely visual effects that depend on newer macOS materials only appear where the system provides them.
Is it free on Intel too?
Yes — same free app, no architecture-based tier.