Lyrics on the lock screen

A locked Mac is usually a black rectangle with a password field. Notchy puts the track, the artwork and time-synced lyrics there instead — a card, a column beside it, or the whole screen.

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Full screen, properly

Artwork and words flank the login group instead of crowding into a quarter-height band with the cover cut off. On a narrow display it falls back to a band on purpose, rather than squeezing the lyric column down to a word per line.

Your password still works

The layout keeps the lyrics clear of the login field, and clicks fall through to the field beneath. Only the transport buttons take a click of their own.

Opt-in and self-cleaning

With lock-screen widgets off, nothing is created at all. When they are on, the window exists while the screen is locked and is torn down the moment you unlock.

The same lyrics engine

Synced lyrics also scroll under the notch and one line at a time on the pill itself, for anything playing — Apple Music, Spotify or YouTube Music.

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

Lock screen lyrics — FAQ

Can macOS show lyrics on the lock screen?

Not on its own — the lock screen is a system space that ordinary windows cannot reach. Notchy renders a widget there while the screen is locked and tears it down on unlock: artwork, the track, transport controls and time-synced lyrics.

How big can the lyrics get?

Three sizes. A compact card, a lyrics column opened beside the player the way iPhone does it, and a full-screen takeover in the style of Apple Music's own. The takeover flanks the login field with artwork on one side and words on the other when the display is wide enough, and falls back to a band when it is not.

Can I still type my password?

Yes. The layout is built so the lyric column and the login field never overlap, and every click passes straight through to the password field — except the transport buttons themselves.

Is it on by default?

Lock-screen lyrics are on; lock-screen widgets as a whole are a setting. With widgets off, nothing is ever created and the system's lock space is never touched.

Which players work?

Anything Notchy shows in Now Playing — Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music and browser players. Lyrics are time-synced line by line where a synced source exists.

Is it free?

Yes. Lyrics are free in Notchy, on the notch and on the lock screen, with no trial or subscription.