MacBook Neo · macOS Tahoe
A Dynamic Island for MacBook Neo
MacBook Neo has a flat display with no camera notch, so there is nothing for a notch-only app to wrap around. Notchy doesn't need one: on a Mac without a notch it draws the island as a floating pill at the top of the screen, with the same music player, timers, clipboard and live activities.
No notch, same island
On notchless displays Notchy runs as a pill centred under the menu bar. Hover it and it opens into the full panel — Now Playing, the file shelf, clipboard history, calendar, timers — exactly as it would on a MacBook Pro.
Made for macOS Tahoe
MacBook Neo ships with macOS 26 Tahoe, and Notchy renders in Tahoe's Liquid Glass. It runs natively on Apple silicon and on every macOS from 13 Ventura up, so there is no special build to find.
A volume HUD you'll notice
Tahoe shrank the volume and brightness overlay into a small corner popover. Notchy shows them in the island instead, and its opt-in Replace System HUD setting stops Tahoe's popover from appearing when you press the keys.
Nothing to fight with the menu bar
Without a notch, menu bar icons never disappear behind a cutout — so the island just adds what the menu bar can't: live activities, a drop shelf and quick controls you reach without opening an app.
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
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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
- 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
- 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
MacBook Neo Dynamic Island — FAQ
Does MacBook Neo have a notch?
No. MacBook Neo's display is flat across the top with no camera cutout — unlike MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models since 2021, which have a notch.
Does MacBook Neo have a Dynamic Island?
Not built in — no Mac has one. The Dynamic Island is an iPhone feature. On a Mac, an app like Notchy adds one; on MacBook Neo it appears as a floating pill at the top of the screen.
Does Notchy work on MacBook Neo?
Notchy runs on any Mac with macOS 13 Ventura or later, Apple silicon or Intel, with or without a notch. MacBook Neo runs macOS Tahoe on Apple silicon, so it's covered.
Do notch-only features work without a notch?
Almost everything works the same. The exception is the “HUDs Beside the Notch” layout, which needs a display with a camera notch — on MacBook Neo the volume and brightness HUDs show in the pill instead.
Does MacBook Neo have Face ID?
No Mac has Face ID. Notchy's free Face Unlock uses the built-in camera to unlock your Mac when you look at it — a convenience feature, not Face ID-grade security.
Is it free?
Yes — Notchy has no trial, licence key, subscription or in-app purchase.