Music & Audio
Spotify, controlled from the notch
Notchyturns the space around your MacBook camera into a Spotify mini player — artwork, a scrubber, skip, and a ♥ that saves the track to your library. You never leave the app you're in.
Playback works instantly
Control goes through system media — the channel behind your keyboard's play/pause key — so the island appears the second Spotify starts. No login for the part you use every minute. See Now Playing for the full player.
A ♥ that actually saves
Connect Spotify once with your own Client ID and the heart on the notch reads and writes Liked Songs through Spotify's Web API. One tap, from any app, with no window in the way.
Swipe to skip
A sideways swipe on the collapsed island moves a track. Hover gives you the peek player. Everything else is a global hotkey away.
Lyrics and levels, in the same place
Time-synced lyrics sit under the notch, an audio visualizer reacts to what's playing, and the output switcher moves it to your speakers.
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
Spotify on the notch — FAQ
Does Notchy control Spotify without any setup?
Yes. Playback control reads system media, the same channel your keyboard's play/pause key uses, so artwork, scrubbing, skip and pause work the moment Spotify starts playing. Nothing to connect, no account needed.
How does the Liked Songs ♥ work?
That one action can't go through system media — saving a track is a Spotify Web API call. Turn on Spotify Integration in settings, paste your own Spotify app Client ID, and authorize once via OAuth. After that the ♥ on the notch reads and toggles Liked Songs on the track that's playing.
Why do I need my own Client ID?
So your Spotify session is between you and Spotify. Notchy ships no shared app credential and runs no server in the middle — the token lives in your Keychain on your Mac.
Does it work with Apple Music too?
Yes. The same island drives Apple Music, browser players and most other macOS media apps, because playback control is system-wide. Only the ♥ is Spotify-specific.
Can I skip tracks without opening the notch?
Swipe sideways on the collapsed media island to go to the next or previous track. Hovering shows the peek player with full transport controls, and everything is bindable to a global hotkey.