Notchy

Presenter Toolkit

A Keystroke Visualizerin Your Mac's Notch

Teaching a shortcut? Recording a tutorial? Notchy shows every keypress as an island in the notch — where your audience is already looking. A free KeyCastr alternative.

Where eyes already are

Floating bezels drift over content and get cropped in recordings. The notch is a fixed landmark at the top-center of the screen — your keystrokes appear exactly where viewers naturally glance.

Passwords can't leak

macOS secure input withholds password-field keystrokes from event taps at the OS level — the HUD physically cannot see them. Listen-only means typing is never delayed either.

A mode, not chrome

Off by default. Flip it on for the demo, off after — no overlay cluttering your screen the rest of the day.

Free presenter stack

Combine it with the notch teleprompter and system-wide mic mute — a complete demo kit, $0.

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

Keystroke Visualizer — FAQ

How does Notchy's keystroke HUD work?

Switch it on when you present or record, and every shortcut you press surfaces as a compact island in the notch — right where your audience is already looking. Switch it off and it's gone; it's a presentation mode, not ambient chrome.

Is it a good KeyCastr alternative?

Yes — with a twist. KeyCastr floats a bezel somewhere on screen; Notchy's HUD lives in the notch, a fixed, natural focal point in demos and screen recordings. And it's free, maintained, and part of an app you already run.

Can it capture my passwords?

No. Notchy listens with a listen-only event tap, and macOS secure input withholds keystrokes from taps entirely whenever you're in a password field — so credentials can never appear in the HUD, by OS design.

Does it slow down my typing?

No. A listen-only tap observes events without consuming or delaying them — your keystrokes reach apps exactly as fast as before.