Scan QR Codes on Your Mac Screen
A link on a slide, a Wi-Fi code on a web page, a payment code in a PDF — reaching for your phone to read something already on your Mac is backwards. Notchy reads it where it is.
Click, drag, done
Press Scan QR Code in the panel header — or run it from the ⌃⌥K command palette — and drag around the code with the familiar screenshot crosshair. Long-press to read the whole display instead.
Copied, with Open for links
The contents land on your clipboard. Web, email, phone, FaceTime and SMS links get an Open button; anything else — Wi-Fi strings, vCards, plain text — is copied, never launched.
QR codes and barcodes
Apple's Vision framework decodes any barcode it knows, not just QR. If one capture holds several codes, Notchy tells you how many more it found.
Stays on your Mac
Decoding happens on-device and the temporary capture is deleted straight away. Nothing is uploaded.
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
- Camera Guard — alert (or block) when any app opens your camera
- 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
- 134 languages, fully localized
- Native SwiftUI, tuned for Apple Silicon
QR Code Scanner for Mac — FAQ
How do I scan a QR code on my Mac screen?
In Notchy, switch on the Scan QR Code Button in Settings. Click it in the panel header, drag around the code, and the result is copied.
Can a Mac scan QR codes without an app?
Partly: Preview and Live Text can sometimes recognise a code in an image, but there's no one-step way to read a code anywhere on screen. Notchy's button does it in one drag.
What permission does it need?
Screen Recording — the same grant Notchy's screenshots use. It asks the first time you scan.
Can it scan with my webcam?
No. It reads codes already on your screen. QR Capture does camera scanning.
Why doesn't a Wi-Fi code open automatically?
On purpose. Handing an arbitrary scheme to macOS would launch whatever app claims it, straight from a code on someone else's screen. Notchy only offers Open for web, mail, phone, FaceTime and SMS links.
Is it free?
Yes. The scanner arrived in Notchy 1.0.186 and costs nothing.