YouTube Music, controlled from the notch

Every other Mac app shows a YouTube Music scrubber that cannot scrub — macOS reports the app's timing wrong and refuses its seeks. Notchy goes around the problem and speaks to the desktop app directly, so the bar moves, the seek lands, and shuffle, repeat and 👍 do what they say.

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A scrubber that actually seeks

Drag anywhere in the track and the song follows. Position and duration come from the YouTube Music desktop app's own companion server rather than the system media layer, which is why the number under your finger is the real one.

Shuffle, repeat and 👍

The queue modes are on the notch, showing their true state — not a guess that drifts out of sync with the app. Liking a track from the notch marks it in YouTube Music, so your Liked Songs stay yours.

Off by default, quiet by design

The companion poll runs once a second and only while YouTube Music is the source. Play something in Apple Music and it never starts. Notchy is built to stay off the CPU when it has nothing to do — see the measured CPU and battery numbers.

Artwork, lyrics and the rest

YouTube Music gets everything the other sources get: Now Playing artwork on the pill, time-synced lyrics, a live visualiser and lock-screen lyrics.

Turning it on takes a minute

In the YouTube Music desktop app, enable the API Server plugin. In Notchy, nothing to do — the moment the server answers, the notch switches to it. If you prefer not to run the plugin, YouTube Music still shows up in the notch through the standard media controls, and Spotify and Apple Music are unaffected either way.

At a glance

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

YouTube Music on Mac — FAQ

Why doesn't the YouTube Music scrubber work on macOS?

Because macOS's own media layer reports YouTube Music badly. It says the app is playing, but the elapsed time does not follow a seek, the duration is often missing entirely, and seek commands are ignored outright — so any Mac app that only reads that layer shows a scrubber that cannot scrub. Notchy works around it by talking to the YouTube Music desktop app itself.

How does Notchy control YouTube Music properly?

The YouTube Music desktop app ships an API Server plugin — a small companion server. Turn it on and Notchy prefers it over the system media layer whenever YouTube Music is the source: real position, real duration, real seeks, plus shuffle, repeat and the 👍. Leave the plugin off and Notchy falls back to the ordinary media controls, exactly as before.

Do I need the YouTube Music desktop app?

For the full scrubber and like button, yes — the companion server lives inside it. YouTube Music in a browser tab still shows artwork, title and play/pause in the notch through Notchy's browser support; it is the precise timing that needs the desktop app.

Is it free?

Yes. Notchy is free with no trial, licence key or subscription, and YouTube Music support is part of it. Development is funded only by optional donations.

Does it drain battery polling the app?

No. The companion poll runs at 1 Hz and only while the YouTube Music desktop app is the current source. For every Apple Music, Spotify or browser session it never starts at all, and it stops the moment the source changes.

Which other players does Notchy control?

Apple Music, Spotify, browser players and anything else that reports to macOS's media controls. Spotify gets its own extras — a ♥ that saves to your library — and every source gets artwork, a scrubber and lyrics.

Does it work on older macOS?

Yes. Notchy runs on macOS 13 Ventura and later, including Intel Macs, and YouTube Music control is not gated behind a newer release.