A music widget in your Mac notch
Notchy puts Now Playing on the MacBook notch — album art, a scrubbable timeline, and play/pause controls for Apple Music and Spotify, collapsed into a fluid Dynamic Island. Native and ad-free.
Looking for a Now Playing widget on Mac? Notchy doesn't add one to the desktop or Notification Center. It puts the music widget in the notch instead, and can show a Now Playing card with play/pause and skip on the lock screen.
Now Playing music controls collapsed onto the Mac notch.
How to show Now Playing on the Mac notch
- 1Install Notchy
Download the Notchy DMG (7-day free trial), drag it to Applications, and launch it. Runs on macOS 13 Ventura or later, Apple silicon and Intel.
- 2Play something
Start a track in Apple Music or Spotify. Notchy detects it and collapses Now Playing onto the notch automatically — no setup.
- 3Control from the notch
Hover the pill to expand album art, scrub the timeline, skip tracks, and play/pause — right where the MacBook notch used to be empty.
The Tuneful & Sleeve alternative
While apps like Tuneful put controls in your already-crowded menu bar and Sleeve clutters your desktop, Notchy brings Now Playing front and center in the notch: the moment a track plays, the notch morphs into a compact island showing album art and progress. Hover to expand into full controls — scrub the timeline, skip tracks, and play or pause — then it collapses back out of the way. It reads system media, so the same island drives Apple Music, Spotify, and other macOS players without switching apps.
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
Music widget for Mac — FAQ
Can I get a Now Playing widget on Mac?
Yes, in the notch rather than on the desktop. Notchy is not a desktop or Notification Center widget. It shows the current track in the notch with album art and controls, and can also show a Now Playing card with play/pause and skip on the lock screen.
Can the closed notch show square album art like iPhone?
Yes, since 1.0.200. Turn on Square Album Art in Settings → Now Playing and the closed notch shows the cover as a rounded square instead of a circle with a progress ring. It starts off.
Does Notchy keep a history of what I've listened to?
Since 1.0.201, Local Listening History keeps your 500 most recent recordings on your Mac, and Local Music Bookmarks saves songs to a separate list without touching Likes in Spotify or Apple Music. Nothing is uploaded, both start off, and you can clear the list in Settings → Now Playing.
Can the notch show the song title when a new track starts?
Yes, since 1.0.199. Turn on Announce New Tracks in Settings → Now Playing and the notch briefly shows each new song's title and artist. Stop Title Scrolling shrinks long titles to fit instead of scrolling them across the notch. Both start off.
How do I show Now Playing on my Mac notch?
Install Notchy and start playing music in Apple Music or Spotify. Notchy automatically collapses the Now Playing controls — album art, scrubbing, and play/pause — onto the MacBook notch. It’s native and needs no configuration.
Does it work with both Apple Music and Spotify?
Yes. Notchy reads system media so it controls Apple Music, Spotify, and most other macOS media players from the same Now Playing island on the notch.
Can I scrub and skip tracks from the notch?
Yes. Expand the pill to drag the timeline, skip forward and back, and play or pause — without switching to the music app.
How much does the Now Playing notch widget cost?
It’s part of Notchy, $24.99 one-time for one Mac with updates included and no subscription. The 7-day free trial includes it.