A Mechanical Keyboard Click, On Your MacBook
A MacBook keyboard is nearly silent, and some people type faster when they can hear each key land. Notchy's Typing Sounds play a short click on every key press — mechanical, typewriter, soft or your own sound — without touching what you type.
Five built-in styles, or your own
Mechanical, Typewriter, Soft, Blip and Beep, each with slight pitch variation so it doesn't sound like one sample on repeat. Space and Return land with a bigger sound, and Typewriter rings a bell on Return. Or pick any audio file as My Sound.
Everywhere, or only where you want it
Play in All Apps, Only in Chosen Apps — say your writing app — or in every app Except Chosen Apps, like Zoom and FaceTime where the click would reach the call.
A shortcut to pause
Set your own keyboard shortcut to pause and resume the clicks without turning the feature off — handy for a quiet room or a screen recording.
Listens, never intercepts
Notchy watches key presses with a listen-only event tap, so no key is delayed, held or changed. Password fields are protected by macOS secure input and stay silent, and held-down keys don't machine-gun.
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
Typing Sounds for Mac — FAQ
How do I make my Mac keyboard sound like a mechanical keyboard?
Install Notchy, open Settings → Capture and switch on Typing Sounds, then choose Mechanical. Every key press now plays a click through your speakers or headphones.
Is there a free alternative to Klack for Mac?
Yes — Notchy's Typing Sounds are free. Klack has more recorded switch types; Notchy covers the core job with five synthesised styles, your own sound file and per-app rules, alongside everything else the notch does.
Can I use my own sound?
Yes. Choose My Sound in Settings → Capture and pick an audio file from your Mac. It plays on every key press at the volume you set.
Will other people on a call hear the clicks?
They can if your microphone picks up your speakers. Use Except Chosen Apps to keep Zoom, Meet or FaceTime silent, or wear headphones.
What permission does it need?
Input Monitoring, which macOS asks for the first time you switch Typing Sounds on. It's the permission any app needs to notice key presses made in other apps.
Does it record or log what I type?
No. Notchy only checks which kind of key was pressed — a normal key, Space, Return or Delete — to pick a sound. Nothing about the keystroke is stored or sent anywhere.
Does it use battery while I'm not typing?
No. The sounds are synthesised once and kept in memory, and the audio engine stops a few seconds after you stop typing, so the audio hardware can sleep.
When did Typing Sounds arrive?
In Notchy 1.0.200. Like every new option, it starts off.