Best Notch Apps for Mac

Perch lives behind your Mac's notch and keeps track of your coding agents: Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and pi, in their own apps, in Conductor or in any terminal, plus Cursor's agent chats (beta).

• While you work: when a session you're not in finishes or asks for something, the notch grows with what happened and folds away again.
• Where was I: back from a break, a card shows the session, what the agent did and the next step if it named one (⌃⌥P).
• Answer from the notch: allow or deny a command (A / D) or pick an answer to a question (1 to 4).
• Jump back in: one key opens the exact session: the Claude app, Codex, a Conductor workspace, the tab in Terminal, iTerm2, Ghostty or Warp, or the pane in tmux, herdr or cmux.
• Make it yours: pick a character and a colour. It lives behind the notch and its eyes follow your cursor.

Local only: Perch reads the session files your agents already keep. No account, no analytics. Live status hooks are optional and removed when you turn them off.

Free and MIT. Signed and notarized by Apple, updates itself.

Ledge turns the MacBook notch into a live status area.

• Now playing from Music, Spotify or a browser tab, with cover art, scrubbing and AirPlay output.
• Focus timer right beside the notch.
• Next meeting, with a small camera mirror on the Join button so you can check yourself before a call.
• Weather, notes and AirPods battery. Notes are plain files on your Mac.
• Volume and brightness readouts that replace the system pop-ups.
• Keep Awake, including with the lid closed. The helper is installed only while that mode is on.

Written from scratch in Swift. Free and open source (GPL-3.0), signed and notarized, with no account and no telemetry. Every feature can be turned off on its own. Needs a MacBook with a notch on macOS 26 or later.

Source: https://github.com/egemertbalcik/Ledge

Notchlight turns your Mac's lock screen and notch into something you actually look at.

Live widgets on the lock screen

See the weather, your next meeting, the song that's playing and more before you unlock. 21 widgets in five sizes, placed anywhere with Layout Studio, in glass, frosted, solid or minimal style.

A Dynamic Island for the notch

• Music with artwork, a live waveform and Apple Music's own synced lyrics
• Calls and meetings, including Zoom, Google Meet and Teams in your browser
• Notifications from every app, dropping down from the notch
• Trips by bus, train or plane, with the time left, as Maps shows a journey on the iPhone
• To-dos, home time, timers, AirPods, charging, Focus and your iPhone's hotspot
• A dot while the microphone, camera or a screen recording is in use

Private and native

No account and no analytics: your data stays on your Mac. Signed and notarized by Apple, updates itself, and installs with Homebrew too.

Every notch Mac has a strip of screen that does nothing. Perchy puts the market, your music and your day there.

Hover the notch and it opens into a small, native panel:

• Crypto: live prices for up to 30 coins, charts from 1H to ALL and up to 20 price alerts
• Converter: 30 currencies and your coins
• Music: Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and anything in Now Playing, with synced lyrics and one-click AirPlay
• Calendar: today's events with one-click Join, your week and meeting reminders
• Clipboard: history with pinning
• Files Tray: drop files on the notch; Finder-like selection, Quick Look, AirDrop and file conversion

Closed, it shows charging, volume, brightness and AirPods batteries as they change. It stays on the lock screen with an optional Face Unlock, and Macs without a notch get one too, or a Dynamic Island-style pill, on every display.

Free forever, with a 24 hours Pro trial on every Mac (no email, no card). Pro is $14.99 once for 2 Macs, no subscription, 14-day refund.

Native Swift, no Electron. Signed and notarized by Apple, no analytics or tracking. macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon and Intel, 11 languages.

The best notch app is back—with updates for your Mac. Music, calendar, notes, tasks and files, right in your Mac’s notch.

NotchNook is a macOS notch app that brings music controls, calendar, notes, to-dos, timers, a camera mirror and Shortcuts to the top of your Mac display. The Tray keeps files close for drag-and-drop and AirDrop. It works on Macs with or without a notch and supports multiple displays. It requires macOS 14.6 or later and supports Apple silicon and Intel. The full 48-hour trial requires no card; paid monthly and lifetime plans each cover two Macs. Download the current official release from https://getnotchnook.com. Calendar and camera access are requested for the corresponding optional features; permissions can be managed in macOS settings.

Current plans: US$2/month while the subscription stays active, or US$15 for a lifetime license. Each plan covers two Macs. See the official NotchNook pricing page.

Developed and sold by lo.cafe Ltda. Official lo.cafe company website: locafe.app.

Halo transforms your Mac's notch or any screen's top into a dynamic hub for notifications, dictation, and AI agents. It's designed for anyone using macOS 15 or later, whether on Apple silicon or Intel. With Halo, you can manage messages from any app, dictate text seamlessly, and keep track of your AI agents—all in one place.

The app displays notifications right where you're looking, allowing you to click and respond without distraction. Dictation is as simple as holding a key and speaking, with your words appearing wherever your cursor is. Plus, Halo Buddy adds a playful touch, following your cursor and indicating when your AI agents need your attention.

Halo is a one-time purchase of $9.99, with no subscriptions or accounts required. It runs smoothly, keeping your data private and local. Whether you're working on a MacBook or an external monitor, Halo enhances your productivity without getting in the way.

Hushtop lives in the MacBook notch and fills it with the things you keep checking anyway.

What's playing, with synced lyrics if you turn them on. The next meeting and a Join button. AirPods battery for each bud and the case. The volume HUD. A shelf for files and AirDrop. Clipboard history, Mac vitals, and a small set of developer tools: ports, Docker, Git, Homebrew.

The part it was built for: when Claude Code or Codex stops and waits for a yes, the question shows up in the notch and you answer it there, without hunting for the terminal. It can also keep the Mac awake while an agent or a build is still running, then let it sleep when the job's done.

And there's a small cat living in the notch. It wasn't in the plan.

Native Swift and SwiftUI, Apple silicon, macOS 15 or later. No account, no telemetry, signed and notarized by Apple. Free for 7 days, then $9.99 once.

NotchMind is a native Swift/SwiftUI app that makes the MacBook notch useful.

• Liquid Glass with wallpaper refraction, plus Black, Semi and Glass Dark finishes.
• Local clipboard actions for recognized colors, JSON, links and more. Secret Guard detects suspected passwords and API keys and lets you clear them.
• Music controls, File Tray, AirDrop, timers, reminders and other everyday tools.
• Optional Smart Mode is off by default. It classifies short text snippets through NotchMind’s server using TypeSafe Jev; see the current privacy disclosure.

Compatibility: Apple silicon, macOS 15+. Native Liquid Glass requires macOS 26+.

Pricing: US$15.99 one-time; the first 50 customers pay US$5.99 with LAUNCH50 while available. One person, two Macs, 1.x updates included. No free trial.

Website: https://notchmind.com Privacy: https://notchmind.com/privacy/ First installation: https://notchmind.com/install/