Productivity Toolkit
Know When Your Camera or Mic Is Live
Notchy's Privacy Indicator lights up a notch pill the instant any app's camera or microphone goes active — system-wide, free, and right where you're already looking.
System-wide, not per-app
Notchy watches the device itself via CoreMediaIO and CoreAudio, so it catches any app using your camera or mic — not just a preset list. If a device is running, you'll see it.
No polling, no delay
Both signals fire property-listener callbacks the moment a device starts or stops — Notchy isn't checking on a timer, so there's no lag between a camera turning on and the pill appearing.
Where your eyes already are
macOS's own indicator dot lives in a menu bar most people don't scan. Notchy mirrors that same state onto the notch, the one spot on screen you check constantly.
No extra permission, no cost
Notchy reads a device state flag, never the camera or mic feed itself — no permission prompt beyond what's already needed. Free, alongside a real terminal and AI usage tracking.
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
Mac Camera & Mic Indicator — FAQ
How does Notchy know when my camera or mic is in use?
Notchy listens for macOS's own device-activity signals — CoreMediaIO's kCMIODevicePropertyDeviceIsRunningSomewhere for cameras and CoreAudio's kAudioDevicePropertyDeviceIsRunningSomewhere for microphones — the same system-level property Apple's own green and orange menu-bar dots read. Detection is passive, event-driven, and covers every app, not just ones Notchy knows about.
Does this replace the built-in macOS camera/mic dots?
It surfaces the same information somewhere harder to miss. macOS already shows a small green or orange dot in the menu bar, but it's easy to overlook in a crowded menu bar. Notchy mirrors that state as a pill right on the notch, where your eyes already go.
Does it need camera or microphone permission itself?
No. Notchy only reads the device-running property — it never accesses the camera or mic feed itself, so no camera/microphone permission prompt is required for the indicator to work.
Is this a free alternative to apps like OverSight?
Yes. Dedicated privacy-indicator utilities exist as standalone menu-bar apps; Notchy folds the same protection into the notch for free, alongside 50+ other tools like AI usage tracking, clipboard history, and window snapping.