Calls arrive on the notch

macOS announces an incoming call with a grey box in the corner you half-notice and sometimes miss entirely. Notchy turns it into an island on the notch — who is calling, by name, with Answer and Decline where your eye already is.

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A name, not a number

Notchy resolves the caller against your Contacts, so you decide whether to pick up by reading a name rather than squinting at eleven digits and guessing.

One call interface, not two

The native picker is hidden in place while its Answer and Decline actions keep working underneath, so you never get Notchy's island and the system panel fighting for the same call. Quit Notchy and the standard panel returns immediately.

iPhone calls included

With Apple's Calls on Other Devices turned on, ordinary iPhone calls reach the Mac as FaceTime calls. Notchy treats them identically — the island does not care which device the call started on.

Messages too

The same island handles replying to a message without opening Messages, and notifications generally.

Paying for this elsewhere?

Calls in the notch is the headline feature of DynamicLake Pro's DynaCall. Notchy does it free — see the full DynamicLake comparison.

At a glance

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

Calls on the Mac notch — FAQ

Can I answer iPhone calls on my Mac?

Yes — macOS has done this for years through Apple's Calls on Other Devices setting, which forwards iPhone calls to your Mac over FaceTime. What Notchy changes is where the call appears: instead of a grey panel in the top-right corner, it becomes an island on the notch with the caller's name and Answer and Decline in reach.

Does it show who is calling?

Yes. Notchy looks the number up in your Contacts and shows the name, so you get real caller ID rather than a bare number you have to recognise on sight.

Does it replace the macOS call panel?

It hides the native picker in place while keeping its Answer and Decline actions working underneath, so you get one call interface rather than two stacked on top of each other. Quit Notchy and the standard panel comes straight back.

Does it work with regular phone calls or only FaceTime?

Both, because macOS routes them the same way. A normal call to your iPhone arrives on the Mac as a FaceTime call once Calls on Other Devices is on, and Notchy shows it exactly like any other.

What permissions does it need?

Accessibility, so it can read the incoming call and press Answer or Decline on your behalf, and Contacts if you want the caller's name resolved. No Full Disk Access, and nothing about your calls is stored or sent anywhere.

Is this the same as DynaCall?

It solves the same problem. DynaCall is a feature of DynamicLake Pro, which is a paid app; Notchy does calls on the notch as part of a free one. If you are comparing the two apps overall, our DynamicLake page covers the rest.

Do I need a MacBook with a notch?

No. On Macs without a cutout Notchy draws a floating island at the top of the screen and the call arrives there instead — a Mac mini or Mac Studio on an external display works the same way.