A GIF from that clip, in two clicks
Screen recordings arrive as .mov and nothing pastes a .mov into a pull request. Drop the clip on the notch, choose GIF, and the loop lands back on the shelf ready to drag anywhere.
Drop, right-click, GIF
A video sitting on the drop shelf carries a GIF item in its menu. Pick it and the converted file appears on the shelf beside the original — drag it straight into Slack, a PR, or a message.
Sized for sharing, not for archiving
The render runs at 12 frames per second, caps the long edge at 480px and takes the first 8 seconds. Those are the numbers that keep a GIF under the size limit of the place you are pasting it, instead of producing a 40 MB file nobody can upload.
On-device, nothing uploaded
The frames are pulled with AVFoundation and written locally. No web converter, no account, no watermark, and the recording of your screen never leaves your Mac.
The rest of the shelf toolkit
The same menu converts images between PNG, JPEG, HEIC, TIFF and PDF, compresses to a target size, and zips or unzips a selection.
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
Video to GIF on Mac — FAQ
How do I turn a video into a GIF on a Mac?
Drag the video onto the notch so it lands on the drop shelf, right-click the tile and choose GIF. The converted loop appears on the shelf next to the source file, and you drag it out wherever you need it.
Which video formats work?
Anything AVFoundation reads — .mov, .mp4 and .m4v included. A QuickTime screen recording is the common case and works as-is.
How long can the GIF be?
The first 8 seconds of the clip. GIF is a poor container for anything longer: past that the file grows faster than it stays useful, and most places you would paste it cap the upload anyway.
Is the GIF watermarked or uploaded anywhere?
No to both. The conversion runs on your Mac with the system frameworks, so there is no server, no account and nothing stamped on the output.
What resolution does the GIF come out at?
The long edge is capped at 480 pixels and the aspect ratio is kept. A 4K recording is scaled down; a small clip is left alone.
Is it really free?
Yes. Every shelf tool ships in the free app — there is no paid tier holding the converter back.