Wi-Fi strength in real numbers
Four bars tells you nothing. Notchy shows the RSSI in dBm, the negotiated link rate, the channel and band, the security type and your IP — on a card in the notch, without Option-clicking anything.
dBm, not vibes
-50 and better is full, -60 good, -70 fair, -80 poor. The bars are drawn from the same thresholds as the number, so moving one room over shows up as a figure you can compare rather than an icon that shrugs.
Band, channel and link rate
2.4, 5 or 6 GHz with the channel number, plus the negotiated transmit rate in Mbps. This is how you catch a Mac that has silently drifted onto the crowded band.
Honest about Sonoma's SSID rule
Recent macOS withholds the network name unless Location Services is on. Notchy tells you that is what happened instead of rendering an empty row and letting you assume it is broken.
Both your IPs
Local IPv4 on the active interface, and the public one on request. The system monitor next to it carries throughput, and the network's password is one deliberate tap away.
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
Mac Wi-Fi signal — FAQ
How do I check Wi-Fi signal strength on a Mac?
macOS hides it: you Option-click the Wi-Fi menu, or open Wireless Diagnostics and find the monitor window. Notchy puts the RSSI in dBm, the bar reading, the negotiated link rate, the channel and band, and the security type on a card in the notch.
What is a good RSSI number?
RSSI is negative and closer to zero is better. Around -50 dBm and above is full strength, -60 is good, -70 fair, -80 poor, and below that is barely a link. Notchy maps the same ranges onto its bars, so the bars and the number never disagree.
Why does my network name not show up?
Since macOS Sonoma the SSID is gated behind Location Services even though the signal figures stay readable. Notchy says so plainly rather than showing a blank row — the strength, rate and channel keep working either way.
Does it show which band I'm on?
Yes — 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz or 6 GHz, derived from the channel number, along with the channel itself. Useful when you want to know whether your Mac quietly fell back to the slow band.
Can I see my IP address?
Both of them. The local IPv4 on the active interface is on the card, and the public IP is fetched on request and then kept, since it rarely changes.
Does it poll constantly?
No. The Wi-Fi readout only refreshes while the card is on screen; with nothing showing, nothing runs. Notchy's measured idle cost is published on the CPU and battery page.