The best notch apps for Mac, grouped by what you want the notch to do

The best notch app depends on what you want the notch to do. For music and your calendar, NotchNook ($15 lifetime at the moment) or Alcove ($13.99) are the most polished, and Boring Notch does the basics for free. For notifications, calls and file conversion, DynamicLake Pro ($13.99) has the longest list. For work tools (clipboard history, window snapping, eye breaks, keep-awake), there's Toolnotch, which I make.

Most "Dynamic Island for Mac" apps do roughly the same thing, so the useful question is which job you want done. This list is grouped that way. Facts come from each app's official site and changelog, checked 20 October 2026.

What macOS does with the notch on its own

Nothing. The notch is dead space in the menu bar. Worse, when the menu bar is full, macOS hides the icons that would fall behind the camera, with no sign that they're there.

Two built-in fixes help with that before you install anything. In Finder, select an app, press ⌘I and tick "Scale to fit below built-in camera": that app then draws its menus below the notch, at the cost of a thicker black band. And since macOS 26 Tahoe, System Settings › Menu Bar lets you hide the menu bar icons you don't need, so the rest fit.

Everything below is about using the notch, not hiding it.

All the apps at a glance

Toolnotch costs $4.99 for the first 10 buyers, $9.99 for the next 100, then $19.99, and one licence covers 3 Macs.

Best for music and calendar: NotchNook or Alcove

NotchNook is the app that made notch apps popular. Hover over the notch and it shows what's playing, your calendar with join buttons for Meet, Zoom, Teams and Webex, notes, to-dos, timers and a camera mirror. It also has a Tray for files. It went offline in September 2026 and came back in October at getnotchnook.com, where it now costs $15 lifetime or $2 a month for a limited time (normally $25 and $3). One licence covers 2 Macs. Details in Toolnotch vs NotchNook.

Alcove has the best finish of the group. It copies the iPhone's Dynamic Island closely: music from any player, calendar events as live activities with "time to leave" alerts, weather, battery, AirPods, Focus modes, redrawn volume and brightness overlays, and Lock Screen widgets. It doesn't hold files yet; its changelog promises a tray in version 1.8. $13.99 once, 3 Macs, 72-hour trial. Details in Toolnotch vs Alcove.

Pick NotchNook if you want notes and a file tray in the same place. Pick Alcove if you care most about how it looks and moves.

Best free notch app: Boring Notch

Boring Notch is open source (GPL-3.0) and free. It does music with a visualizer, calendar and reminders, a camera mirror, battery status, a file shelf with AirDrop, and replaces the volume and brightness overlays. It isn't signed with an Apple developer account, so the first launch needs a Terminal command, or you install it with Homebrew, which handles it. The last stable version is 2.7.3 from November 2025, with 2.8 in release candidates.

For most people who only want to see what's playing, it's enough. Details in Toolnotch vs Boring Notch.

Best for notifications and calls: DynamicLake Pro

DynamicLake Pro shows notifications from Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack and email in the notch, and iPhone and FaceTime calls. It adds music, calendar and weather, timers, Bluetooth device alerts, an app switcher with previews, and file actions: AirDrop, share links, and audio, video and document conversion. It runs on Macs with or without a notch and on external displays. No trial, but a 14-day refund. $13.99 once on Gumroad, 3 Macs. Details in Toolnotch vs DynamicLake.

Best for files in the notch

Four of these apps let you drop files on the notch and drag them out later:

• NotchNook's Tray, with AirDrop.
• Boring Notch's shelf, with AirDrop.
• DynamicLake's file actions, with conversion and share links.
• Toolnotch's shelf, inside Pasteback. It can compress an image, convert it (JPEG, PNG, HEIC, WebP, AVIF) or remove its location and camera data, and the result lands on your clipboard ready to paste. New screenshots also wait on the shelf for 24 hours, so you can drag one into a chat without digging through the Desktop (how that works).

Alcove has no file tray as of version 1.7.9.

Best for work: Toolnotch

The apps above make the notch a dashboard. Toolnotch makes it a set of tools you use all day, and doesn't do music or calendar at all.

Pasteback, clipboard history. ⇧⌘C opens it from the notch. It finds the words inside screenshots you copied, hides passwords and API keys behind dots, and ⌃⌘C starts a Paste Stack that pastes several items in order. ⇧⌘2 copies the text of anything on screen, even a paused video (guide).

Wyndow, windows. Snap with ⌃⌥ and the arrows, undo with ⌃⌥⌫. When you unplug your monitor, its windows land on the laptop in the same zones, and go back when you plug it in again (guide). Desks save every window across your Spaces.

Bodybreak, eye breaks. Every 20 minutes it asks you to look away for 20 seconds, waits until you stop typing and stays quiet during calls and videos (guide).

Staywake, keep-awake. On demand from the notch, or on its own while a terminal command runs (guide).

Toolnotch never opens on hover: panels come from shortcuts or a click. It needs macOS 15, and Accessibility permission for the window manager. There's no trial build; the demos on toolnotch.app run in your browser, and there's a 14-day refund.

Can you use two notch apps?

Yes, with care. Two apps that both open on hover will fight over the same gesture, so keep one. A dashboard app and Toolnotch work side by side, since Toolnotch only opens from shortcuts and clicks. If both have a file shelf, turn one off (in Toolnotch: Settings › Pasteback › Shelf).

If you came here because NotchNook disappeared for a while, there's a separate list of NotchNook alternatives.

FAQ

What is the best free notch app for Mac?

Boring Notch. It's free and open source, with music controls, a calendar and a file shelf. It isn't signed by an Apple developer account, so install it with Homebrew or allow it once in Terminal.

Is there a Dynamic Island for Mac?

Not from Apple. Alcove, DynamicLake Pro, NotchNook and Boring Notch all draw an iPhone-style island around the MacBook notch. Alcove copies the iPhone's look most closely.

Do notch apps work on Macs without a notch?

Most do. NotchNook shows a slim handle at the top of the screen, Alcove draws a pill, DynamicLake Pro supports non-notch Macs and external displays, and Toolnotch hangs its panels from the menu bar.

Do notch apps slow down a Mac?

They're small native apps, and none of their official sites lists a performance cost. Animated extras such as a music visualizer do the most work, and some apps let you turn them off: Alcove, for example, has a setting to disable its spectrogram.