Reply to a text without leaving what you were doing
A message arrives, you switch to Messages, and twenty minutes later you are still there. Notchy puts the message on the notch with a reply field — type, send, carry on. Free.
No Full Disk Access, ever
Plenty of Mac message tools want Full Disk Access so they can open the Messages database and read everything you have said. Notchy reads the notification banner through Accessibility instead — it sees the message on screen and nothing else, and has no route to your history at all.
The context switch is the cost
Answering a text is ten seconds; opening Messages to do it is however long you end up scrolling. Keeping the reply on the notch means the app you were actually working in never loses focus.
One banner, not two
The system banner is hidden in place so only the island shows. Quit Notchy and normal banners come back the moment it stops running.
Calls work the same way
An incoming FaceTime or iPhone call becomes an island with the caller's name and Answer and Decline, from the same place.
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
Replying to messages on Mac — FAQ
Can I reply to a text without opening Messages?
Yes. When a message arrives, Notchy shows the sender and the body on the notch with a reply field. You type the answer and send it from there — Messages never comes to the front, so whatever you were doing stays where it was.
Does it need Full Disk Access?
No, and that is deliberate. Many Mac message tools ask for Full Disk Access so they can read the Messages database directly. Notchy reads the notification banner through Accessibility instead, which means it only ever sees messages that arrive while it is running — never your history.
Does it work for SMS as well as iMessage?
Both. If your iPhone forwards SMS to your Mac, those banners look the same to Notchy as blue-bubble iMessages, so replies work either way.
Can it read my old messages?
No. It has no access to the Messages database at all — only to the banner currently on screen. Once that banner is gone, Notchy has nothing.
What happens to the normal notification banner?
It is hidden in place so you get one message interface rather than the system banner and Notchy's island stacked together. Quit Notchy and standard banners return immediately.
What permissions does it need?
Accessibility, so it can read the banner and drive its reply action. Nothing is stored, and nothing about your messages leaves the Mac.
Do I need a notched MacBook?
No. On Macs with no cutout, Notchy draws a floating island at the top of the screen and messages arrive there — a Mac mini or Mac Studio on an external display behaves the same.