A Mac Scratchpad in Your Notch
Stop losing focus just to write down a phone number. Notchy provides a lightning-fast, beautifully simple quick notes area hidden right inside your MacBook notch. It's a lightweight Tot alternative.
Zero context switching
Don't open a heavy app like Apple Notes or Notion for a temporary thought. Drop the notch, type your note, and close it instantly without leaving your current workflow.
The SideNotes alternative in your notch
Paid scratchpad apps clutter your screen edges. Notchy uses the dead space of the camera notch to hold your temporary text.
Always accessible
Because Notchy lives in your menu bar and hardware notch, your scratchpad is never buried under other windows. It is always just one swipe or click away.
Combined with Clipboard History
Notchy doesn't just let you write notes; it also natively tracks your clipboard history in a separate tab, so temporary text always has somewhere to go.
Everything Notchy does, in one app
- 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
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- 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
- Custom islands through the local developer API (off by default)
- 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
Mac Quick Notes — FAQ
What happens to an unsaved note if Notchy quits?
Since 1.0.201, Recover Notes Drafts keeps unsaved notes on your Mac so they come back after a restart, and Capture Checklist Tasks copies unchecked checklist rows into Notchy Tasks without changing the note. Both start off.
How do I take quick notes on my Mac without opening an app?
Notchy includes a built-in scratchpad right in the Dynamic Island. Simply hover over your MacBook notch and start typing to instantly jot down fleeting thoughts, phone numbers, or quick ideas.
Is Notchy an alternative to Tot or SideNotes?
Yes. While apps like SideNotes or Tot are great for structuring lots of text, Notchy provides a frictionless scratchpad for temporary notes that you can access instantly from any screen.
Where are my notes saved?
Your quick notes are saved locally on your Mac. When you close the notch, they stay safely tucked away until the next time you open the island to retrieve them.