Feature Narrative
Live Activities for macOS
Love the convenience of tracking active timers, music playback, or delivery statuses on your iPhone screen? Now you can bring that exact utility to your desktop. Notchy adds fully interactive, native Live Activities directly inside the dead space of your MacBook notch. 100% Free.
How to get Live Activities on Mac
- 1Download Notchy for Mac
Get the free Notchy DMG or install it using Homebrew. Requires macOS 13 Ventura or newer, running on Intel or Apple Silicon.
- 2Enable Menu Bar overlays
Launch the app and grant the required screen-drawing accessibility permissions so Notchy can overlay rich widgets right around your screen notch.
- 3Pin your active timers & tracks
Open Spotify/Apple Music or start a Pomodoro focus timer. The widget instantly snaps to the notch, updating its progress bar in real time like an iOS Live Activity.
Real-Time Indicators, Directly in the Notch
iOS Live Activities keep high-frequency updates on your screen without hijacking your active workflow. When you track a focus timer or adjust a Spotify song on your Mac, opening massive browser windows or heavy control panels breaks your creative concentration.
Notchy fits active widgets right in the menu bar. The countdown timer ticks down silently inside the notch pill. Hover over it to scrub music tracks, or drop a file in it. It expands gracefully and gets out of your way instantly, maintaining absolute performance efficiency.
Everything Notchy does, for free
- Fluid Dynamic Island animations on the Mac notch
- Now Playing music controls (Apple Music & Spotify)
- Time-synced karaoke lyrics under the notch
- Mac clipboard history shelf (password-manager safe)
- 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
- 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
macOS Live Activities FAQ
Does macOS have built-in Live Activities?
No. Apple includes Live Activities on iOS and iPadOS, but they are absent from macOS. Notchy brings this feature to Mac, adding beautifully animated, real-time widgets around your camera notch or as a floating pill.
Which activities can I track in real time?
Notchy supports tracking live music playback (active song duration, scrubbing bars, and media controls for Apple Music/Spotify), active Pomodoro session countdowns, system indicators (AirPods connection battery, volume/brightness levels), and scrollable clipboard history drawers.
Is there any charge for Mac Live Activities?
No. Notchy is 100% free with no licenses, trials, or hidden subscriptions. It is supported entirely by optional developer donations.