New in 1.0.166
Face Unlock for Your Mac
Come back to a locked Mac, look at it, and you're in. Notchy brings face unlock to any Mac with a camera — guided setup in a minute, and your face and password never leave the machine.
Look, and you're in
When the screen is locked, the first sign you're back — the display waking, the screen saver stopping, a key or the trackpad touched — starts a short camera scan. Once enough frames match your face, Notchy types your login password into the lock screen for you. The notch shows it happening — “Looking for your face”, then “Face recognised”.
A live face, not a photo
A match alone is not enough. Every scan also has to see a live face, read from how open your eyes are, before anything is typed. Enrolment captures you from nine head poses, so a glance from a slightly different angle still counts.
Nothing leaves this Mac
Recognition is built entirely on Apple's Vision framework — no third-party model, nothing downloaded, no cloud. Your face prints and your password live in the macOS Keychain, never in a file on disk.
The camera light tells the truth
The camera only runs during a scan or during setup, so the green light is your cue that Notchy is looking — it never lingers. It works with the built-in camera, an external webcam in clamshell mode, or a desktop Mac's webcam.
Set up in about a minute
- Step 1
Turn on Face Unlock
Open Notchy's Settings → Lock Screen and start Face Unlock setup. A guided window walks you through the rest.
- Step 2
Enter your login password
Notchy checks it against your account right away, so a typo is caught now rather than at the lock screen, then stores it in the Keychain.
- Step 3
Scan your face from nine angles
Look straight at the camera, then follow the prompts to turn your head in eight directions. It takes about a minute.
- Step 4
Lock your Mac and look at it
Wake the screen, look at the camera, and Notchy unlocks the Mac once enough frames match a live face.
How it compares
Notchy's Face Unlock is free and runs from macOS 13 on Intel or Apple silicon. See the full comparison →
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
- 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
- 133 languages, fully localized
- Native SwiftUI, tuned for Apple Silicon
Face Unlock for Mac — FAQ
Can a Mac unlock with Face ID?
Apple does not ship Face ID on any Mac — only Touch ID and Apple Watch unlock. Notchy adds Face Unlock: set it up once in about a minute, and a locked Mac unlocks when you look at it through its camera.
Is Notchy Face Unlock as secure as Face ID?
No, and it would be dishonest to claim it. Face ID uses a dedicated infrared depth camera; a Mac webcam sees a normal colour image. Notchy adds a liveness check and an adaptive match threshold, but treat it as a convenience on a Mac in a trusted place, not as protection against a determined attacker. Your password still works, and you can turn Face Unlock off at any time.
Where is my password stored?
In the macOS Keychain, alongside your face prints — never on disk. Notchy checks the password against your account at setup so a typo is caught then, not at the lock screen. Removing Face Unlock deletes both together.
Does Face Unlock work with the lid closed or on a Mac mini?
Yes, with an external webcam. Notchy re-chooses the camera on every scan, so a laptop in clamshell mode uses the external webcam and a desktop Mac uses whatever camera is attached — no relaunch needed when you plug one in.
Does Face Unlock work on Intel Macs?
Yes. Notchy is a universal app from macOS 13 Ventura, so Face Unlock runs on Intel and Apple silicon. Most other webcam face-unlock apps for Mac — MacGaze, Glance and FaceUnlock — require Apple silicon.
Is it free?
Yes. Face Unlock ships in Notchy 1.0.166 and later, free like everything else in the app, with no subscription or in-app purchase.