v1.0 For every MacBook with a notch — and every one without

The notch, finally worth something.

NotchIsland grows sideways out of the notch — never down over your work. Music, weather, timers, your shelf, and the whole system’s noise, in one shallow band pinned to the top of the display.
Download for macOS — Free Pay what you want · macOS 14+ · 6 MB · Apple Silicon
FinderFileEditView
61%Sat 14:22
78%
West End Blues
24:18 focus
West End Blues Louis Armstrong
Shelf
Weather
Calendar
Notes
Focus
168 PT TALL, NEVER MORE 0.4% CPU IDLE NO ACCOUNT NOTHING LEAVES YOUR MAC
THE ONE RULE

Width, not depth.

Every other notch utility drops a panel down over your document. NotchIsland stretches left and right instead, staying a shallow band flush with the top edge of the display. Square top corners, rounded shoulders, one continuous black shape with the notch itself — so it reads as hardware, not as a window someone left open.
Your work never gets covered — the band lives above the menu bar’s own strip.
Content sits in horizontal lanes, so nothing ever needs to grow taller.
No notch? Idle becomes a slim pill hugging the top edge. Same app, same shape language.
IDLE · 190 × 38
PEEK · 440 × 48
West End Blues
24:18 focus
OPEN · 980 × 168
shelf · music · weather · notes
78% · 24:18
WHAT'S IN THE BAND

Fourteen tiles. One row.

Everything opens inside the same 168 pt band. Nothing launches a window, nothing bounces in the Dock.
Drag & drop shelfStart a drag and the band becomes a drop target. Files stay put until you drag them out — into any app, Finder window or AirDrop target.
Now playing, properlyAlbum art anchors every width, transport is real buttons from Peek up, and the equaliser is live audio — a glance tells you sound is actually playing.
Weather you can readBuilt condition domes instead of glyphs: current conditions at a glance, seven hours across a strip, no labels needed.
Camera mirrorHover during a call to check framing without leaving the meeting window, with a teleprompter lane scrolling notes under the lens.
Power that names namesCharge, health, temperature and cycles, plus the apps actually draining you — with a one-click quit and a charge limit.
Focus sessionsBlocks, streaks, and a lock button at the far right that puts the Mac to sleep and starts the next block on wake.
Keyboard first⌥ Space opens the band focused; typing filters the single-row rail so arrow keys map to it exactly. ⌘↩ commits, Esc reverts, everywhere.
Quick addOne field parses “25m tea, then remind standup” as you type — durations, times and chains highlighted before you commit.
Pinned usagePin any micro-view into the notch row so it shows in Idle, with a quota bar and threshold alerts instead of system notifications.
Clipboard filmstripHistory as a horizontal strip, newest at the left, two-finger swipe to scroll. Nothing ever scrolls vertically.
Devices & HUDPer-earbud battery, one-tap connect, and macOS’s volume and brightness overlays moved out of the centre of your screen.
Stopwatch & timersA monospace readout with laps as a filmstrip — no dial, because a ring wastes the band’s height.
THE MARK

An icon that is the product.

Obsidian squircle, the notch cut into the top edge, one warm bar of light widening out of it. No letterform, no gradient mesh — the silhouette alone says what the app does.
512 PT
128 PT
32 PT
16 PT
01The notch is a real cut, not a drawn shape — it reads as negative space at every size.
02Three bars widening out of it are the product’s motion, frozen: width, not depth.
03Bars drop from three to two to one as the icon shrinks. At 16 pt only the warm bar survives.
04One warm accent against graphite, so the icon never competes with the colourful Dock around it.
IN THE DOCK
MENU BAR · MONOCHROME
61%
Sat 14:22
WORDMARK
NotchIsland
PRICING

Pay what you want.

No subscription, no account, no telemetry. Name your price — even $0 — and get every update.
PAY WHAT YOU WANT
NOTCHISLAND
$0+pay what you want, every update included
Music, weather, calendar, notes & clipboard Stopwatch, timers, Bluetooth & battery Drag & drop shelf with AirDrop Camera mirror & teleprompter All five themes & HUD takeover Focus sessions & per-app profiles Keyboard control and quick add
Get NotchIsland — Pay What You Want

Your Mac already has the space. Use it.

Six megabytes, no account, and it never grows taller than the notch it came from.
Get NotchIsland — Free
FAQ

Questions, answered.

Does NotchIsland work on MacBooks without a notch?+

Yes. NotchIsland works on every Mac running macOS 14 Sonoma or later. On Macs without a notch, the app creates a notch-style bar at the top center of your screen. The experience is identical.

Is this a one-time purchase or a subscription?+

Pay what you want — even $0. You own it forever. Every future update is included at no extra cost. No subscription, no recurring charges, no account required.

How is this different from Dynamic Island on iPhone?+

Apple's Dynamic Island on iPhone only shows system activities like timers and music. NotchIsland does far more — it gives you a full dashboard with weather, calendar, notes, clipboard history, a drag-and-drop shelf, camera mirror, teleprompter, focus sessions, and fourteen different tiles, all expanding horizontally from the notch.

Does it slow down my Mac?+

No. NotchIsland is just 6 MB. It uses minimal CPU and memory, sitting idle until you interact with it. It's built with native Electron optimizations and runs at 60fps on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

Does NotchIsland collect any data?+

No. Zero telemetry, zero analytics, zero tracking. NotchIsland runs entirely on your Mac. Nothing leaves your machine — not your calendar data, not your clipboard, not your usage patterns. There is no account system and no server to phone home to.

Why does macOS say the app is "damaged" or unverified?+

NotchIsland is distributed outside the Mac App Store, so macOS Gatekeeper flags it. This is normal for independent Mac apps. After installing, open Terminal and run xattr -cr /Applications/NotchIsland.app to clear the quarantine. See our installation guide for step-by-step instructions.

Can I get a refund?+

Yes. If NotchIsland isn't for you, reach out within 14 days of purchase and we'll refund you, no questions asked.

NotchIsland is a macOS menu bar app that transforms your MacBook notch into a powerful dashboard. Built for MacBook Pro 14-inch, MacBook Pro 16-inch, and MacBook Air models with the notch — and works beautifully on older Macs without one too. The best Dynamic Island alternative for Mac, turning wasted screen space into a productivity hub with music controls, weather widgets, calendar integration, clipboard manager, drag-and-drop file shelf, camera mirror, teleprompter, battery monitor, Bluetooth manager, focus timer, and more.

Compatible with macOS Sonoma, macOS Sequoia, and later. Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4) and Intel supported. No subscription required — pay what you want (even $0) and all future updates are included.

FROM THE DEVELOPER

Why I built NotchIsland

Hi, I'm Yash Kesharwani — the indie developer behind CodeLoom. I built NotchIsland because I kept glancing at the notch on my MacBook Pro and seeing nothing but wasted pixels. Every widget in the app started as something I wanted on my own screen: the clipboard history I kept losing, the timer I kept forgetting, the file shelf I wished existed every time I dragged something between apps.

NotchIsland is built by one person, which is why it's 6 MB instead of 600, why nothing leaves your Mac, and why you can pay whatever you think it's worth — even $0. If it breaks, I'm the one who fixes it. If you have an idea, I'm the one who reads it.

GitHub → Contact me →