Free, open-source Dynamic Island for the MacBook notch
NotchIsland turns the MacBook notch into a Dynamic Island: a true-black surface that grows out of the notch when something is live (Now Playing, timers, AirPods battery, downloads, notifications) and disappears when nothing is. Hover for a readout; click for a shade with quick toggles, a timer, your next meeting with a Join button, a file Shelf and clipboard history. Option-Space opens a launcher with app search, calculator and unit conversion. Forever free, open source (MIT), macOS 13+.
Hi Product Hunt! I'm Rufaro, the maker of NotchIsland.
Every MacBook since 2021 has a notch that does nothing. I wanted the iPhone's Dynamic Island on my Mac, so I built it: one true-black surface that grows out of the notch when something is happening and disappears when nothing is.
What it does:
Live activities in the notch: volume, charger, low battery, AirPods battery, downloads, timers
Notifications mirrored into the island and grouped by app in the shade
Hover for a readout: clock, status chips, battery, unread count, next event, Now Playing, last notification
Click for the shade: quick toggles, a timer, your next meeting with a Join button (Zoom, Meet, Teams, Webex), Now Playing with a scrubber and volume, a Shelf you can drag files onto and AirDrop from, and clipboard history
Shortcuts integration: write a small JSON file and NotchIsland shows it as a custom live activity
It is pure Swift (SwiftUI and AppKit), no Electron, and it is forever free and open source under MIT. macOS 13 or later, Apple silicon. It is signed ad-hoc for now, so on first launch right-click the app and choose Open.
I would love your feedback: what breaks, and what you would want next. Bug reports and feature requests are welcome on GitHub Issues, and pull requests too.
“Free, open-source Dynamic Island for the MacBook notch”
NotchIsland launched on Product Hunt on November 8th, 2026 and earned 90 upvotes and 3 comments, placing #12 on the daily leaderboard. NotchIsland turns the MacBook notch into a Dynamic Island: a true-black surface that grows out of the notch when something is live (Now Playing, timers, AirPods battery, downloads, notifications) and disappears when nothing is. Hover for a readout; click for a shade with quick toggles, a timer, your next meeting with a Join button, a file Shelf and clipboard history. Option-Space opens a launcher with app search, calculator and unit conversion. Forever free, open source (MIT), macOS 13+.
On the analytics side, NotchIsland competes within Mac, Open Source, GitHub and Menu Bar Apps — topics that collectively have 226.7k followers on Product Hunt. The dashboard above tracks how NotchIsland performed against the three products that launched closest to it on the same day.
Who hunted NotchIsland?
NotchIsland was hunted by Rufaro Edward Mutepfa. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
For a complete overview of NotchIsland including community comment highlights and product details, visit the product overview.
Rufaro Edward Mutepfa
Hi Product Hunt! I'm Rufaro, the maker of NotchIsland.
Every MacBook since 2021 has a notch that does nothing. I wanted the iPhone's Dynamic Island on my Mac, so I built it: one true-black surface that grows out of the notch when something is happening and disappears when nothing is.
What it does:
Live activities in the notch: volume, charger, low battery, AirPods battery, downloads, timers
Notifications mirrored into the island and grouped by app in the shade
Hover for a readout: clock, status chips, battery, unread count, next event, Now Playing, last notification
Click for the shade: quick toggles, a timer, your next meeting with a Join button (Zoom, Meet, Teams, Webex), Now Playing with a scrubber and volume, a Shelf you can drag files onto and AirDrop from, and clipboard history
Option-Space launcher: fuzzy app search, calculator, unit conversion, file search, quick actions
Shortcuts integration: write a small JSON file and NotchIsland shows it as a custom live activity
It is pure Swift (SwiftUI and AppKit), no Electron, and it is forever free and open source under MIT. macOS 13 or later, Apple silicon. It is signed ad-hoc for now, so on first launch right-click the app and choose Open.
I would love your feedback: what breaks, and what you would want next. Bug reports and feature requests are welcome on GitHub Issues, and pull requests too.
Website: https://edwardrem.github.io/NotchIsland/
GitHub: https://github.com/Edwardrem/NotchIsland
Download: https://github.com/Edwardrem/NotchIsland/releases