How to hide the notch on a MacBook
The notch disappears when the menu bar behind it is black. macOS can do that with the right wallpaper, and Notchy can do it for any wallpaper with one switch, as an alternative to TopNotch.
Without an app
- Use a wallpaper with a black top edge. The menu bar takes its look from the desktop picture behind it, so a wallpaper that is black along the top gives you a black menu bar, and the notch blends in. Set it in System Settings › Wallpaper.
- Move one app below the camera. If an app's menus are hidden behind the notch, quit it, select it in Applications, choose File › Get Info and tick Scale to fit below built-in camera. Apple's support article notes that while that app is open, other apps in the same space also appear below the camera, and the option disappears once the developer updates the app.
With Notchy
- Download Notchy (7-day free trial, macOS 13 Ventura or later).
- Open Notchy's Settings › Appearance and, under Hardware Notch, turn on Hide the Notch. The option only appears on Macs that have a notch.
- Turn it off whenever you like, and your original wallpaper comes back.
Keeps your wallpaper
Hide the Notch paints only the top strip of your current wallpaper black, to match the bezel. The rest of the picture stays as it was.
The TopNotch alternative
TopNotch is a single-purpose utility. Notchy hides the notch the same way, and adds a clipboard manager, a Pomodoro timer and music controls.
Reversible, on every Space
Each Space keeps its own wallpaper, so Notchy applies the black strip as you visit each one. It remembers your real wallpaper and restores it when you switch the setting off, even after a crash.
The notch still works
Hidden or not, the notch area still opens Notchy. Hover or click it to open the island.
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
Hide MacBook Notch — FAQ
How do I hide the notch on my MacBook Pro or Air?
Without an app, use a wallpaper whose top edge is black, so the menu bar turns black and the notch blends in. For a single app whose menus sit behind the notch, Apple’s Scale to fit below built-in camera option in Get Info moves it below the camera. Notchy’s Hide the Notch paints the top strip of your current wallpaper black for you and puts the original back when you turn it off.
Is Notchy an alternative to TopNotch?
Yes. TopNotch is a free app that only hides the notch. Notchy ($24.99 one-time, with a 7-day free trial) hides it too, and also puts a clipboard manager, timers and music controls in the notch.
Does hiding the notch affect my screen real estate?
No. Only the colour behind the menu bar changes. macOS draws the menu bar in its dark style over the black strip, so every menu and icon stays where it was and stays clickable.
Can I black out the rounded screen corners like TopNotch did?
Yes, and since the 1.0.220 update it happens automatically: with Hide the Notch on, the display’s rounded corners go black as well, so the top curves meet the black menu bar the way TopNotch did.