Productivity Toolkit
Guard Your Camera, Mute Your Mic
Notchy's Camera Guard warns you the instant any app opens your camera — or closes that app for you — while a one-click mic chip mutes every call at once. Free, and right where you're already looking.
Camera Guard, armed when you want it
Arm it and Notchy watches the camera device itself via CoreMediaIO, so any app that opens it — not just a preset list — triggers a loud alert. Choose Warn, or Block to quit the app that took it.
A green light you can see
The camera button in the open notch's header glows green whenever any app has the camera, matching the system's own dot — driven by property-listener callbacks, not a timer.
Mic mute with visible state
The mic chip mutes your input device through CoreAudio and stays lit red while muted — no guessing whether Zoom can still hear you. Quiet by default: no island every time a call starts.
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
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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
Mac Camera & Mic Indicator — FAQ
How does Notchy know when my camera is in use?
Notchy listens for macOS’s own device-activity signal — CoreMediaIO’s kCMIODevicePropertyDeviceIsRunningSomewhere — the same system-level property behind Apple’s green menu-bar dot. 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 sits alongside them. Since version 1.0.166 Notchy no longer pops an island every time a camera or mic starts — that was noisy on a Mac that is in calls all day. Instead the camera button in the open notch’s header turns green while any app has the camera, and Camera Guard, when you arm it, warns loudly the moment an app opens it.
What is Camera Guard, and can it block an app?
Camera Guard is an opt-in switch on the camera button. Armed, it alerts you the instant any app takes the camera. You can also set it to Block, which asks the app holding the camera to quit — macOS offers no way to mute a camera another app owns, so ending the capturing app is the only real lever, and Notchy says so rather than faking a mute.
Can I mute my microphone from the notch?
Yes. The mic chip in the notch header mutes the input device system-wide and stays lit red while you are muted, so Zoom, Meet and Teams all go silent at once.
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 camera protection into the notch for free, alongside 50+ other tools like AI usage tracking, clipboard history, and window snapping.