Quiet Notch

Turn your MacBook's notch into a dynamic control center.

A native macOS menu bar app that transforms the notch into a music player, file shelf, calendar, system HUD, charging indicator and more — so the empty black bar at the top of your screen finally earns its keep. Part of the Quiet Apps family.

Download · Features · Usage · Build from source · Contributing · FAQ

Why

Apple gave you a notch and forgot to give it a job. Quiet Notch fills the gap. Hover the notch to expand it into a glassy control surface; the active track, your next calendar event, a charging readout, an AirDrop-aware file shelf and the macOS HUDs all live there. When you don't need it, the notch disappears back into the bezel — no menu bar clutter, no extra windows.

Forked from the Boring Notch lineage. Rebuilt and re-branded for the Quiet Apps family. Free and open source under MIT.

Features

Music control center

Live now-playing card with album art, scrubber, transport buttons + track info
Real-time audio visualizer that reacts to playback
Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music + every app that uses the macOS Now Playing protocol
"Sneak peek" thumbnail when tracks change while the notch is closed
Slot configuration — pin a preferred player, choose ordering when multiple are active

Live activities & HUDs

System HUD replacement — volume, brightness and keyboard backlight render inside the notch instead of the stock macOS chunk
Charging indicator with real-time percentage and animated battery state
Open Notch HUD — optional always-visible battery percentage inside the closed notch
Download progress live activity (Safari, Chromium browsers, Firefox where supported)
AirDrop / Quick Share live activity
Mirror — flip your front-facing camera into the notch for a glance check

Shelf

Drag any file onto the notch to stash it in a temporary shelf
AirDrop, Quick Share, copy and Quick Look without leaving the shelf
Per-item bookmarks survive across launches
Optional auto-remove + expanded drag detection zone
Configurable share provider, tap-to-open and copy-on-drag behaviors

Calendar

Inline upcoming events surfaced from the system Calendar
Reminders integration
Notch-sized layout tuned to read at a glance

Customization

App icon picker — pick the default brand mark or the original Boring Notch–era "Classic" icon, switches the Dock + App Switcher icon live
Notch height tuning on real-notch displays + non-notch displays (match menu bar, match real notch, or custom slider)
Per-display preferences — pin Quiet Notch to one screen, show on all screens, or auto-switch to the active display
15+ gesture, hover and tap tunables (sensitivity, hover dwell, open-on-hover, gestures on/off)
Slider color follows album art, system accent, or stays neutral white
Show on lock screen (off by default), launch at login, menu bar icon visibility
Keyboard shortcut bindings for every major action via KeyboardShortcuts

Native macOS feel

Menu bar agent — no Dock icon
SwiftUI Settings window with tabbed nav, search-friendly forms, and live-preview where it matters
Onboarding flow with permission helpers (Accessibility, Calendar, Camera as needed)
Sparkle auto-updater (signed appcast)
XPC helper for privileged Accessibility operations
Localized — community translations via Crowdin

Installation

Note: Quiet Notch is not yet code-signed with an Apple Developer ID. macOS Gatekeeper will warn on first launch. The steps below work around it. A signed/notarized build is on the roadmap.

Homebrew (recommended)

brew tap quietapps/quietnotch
brew install --cask quietnotch

Update:

brew update && brew upgrade --cask quietnotch

Uninstall:

brew uninstall --cask quietnotch
brew untap quietapps/quietnotch

The cask strips the macOS quarantine attribute on install so Gatekeeper does not block launch.

Direct download

Grab QuietNotch-<version>.zip from the latest release
Unzip → drag Quiet Notch into /Applications

Strip the quarantine attribute:

xattr -cr "/Applications/Quiet Notch.app"

Launch Quiet Notch
Grant Accessibility access when prompted (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility). Grant Calendar / Camera if you want those live activities.

Heads-up about unsigned builds

The Homebrew cask strips every extended attribute and re-registers the bundle with Launch Services on install, so the app should launch on a clean Mac out of the box.
If a double-click does nothing on first launch, this is Gatekeeper silently blocking the unsigned binary. Fix once: Finder → /Applications → right-click Quiet Notch.app → Open → Open in the warning dialog. macOS remembers your choice afterward.
After every new release you may need to remove + re-add Quiet Notch in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. macOS ties the permission to the app's code-signature hash, and unsigned builds change hash each time.
If Gatekeeper still won't let the app run, open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the message about Quiet Notch, click Open Anyway.

Updating

Homebrew

After upgrading, if Quiet Notch stops detecting media or input:

Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility
Select Quiet Notch in the list and click − to remove it
Click +, add /Applications/Quiet Notch.app again, and enable the toggle

A signed release will eliminate this step.

Direct download

Download the newer zip from Releases, unzip, drag the new Quiet Notch.app over the old one in /Applications, run xattr -cr "/Applications/Quiet Notch.app", then re-grant Accessibility as above.

Uninstalling

Homebrew

# Remove the app and its preferences (via the cask's zap stanza)
brew uninstall --cask --zap quietnotch
brew untap quietapps/quietnotch

Direct download

# Move the app to Trash
rm -rf "/Applications/Quiet Notch.app"

# Remove saved settings + caches
defaults delete app.quiet.QuietNotch 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/app.quiet.QuietNotch.plist \
       ~/Library/Application\ Support/Quiet\ Notch \
       ~/Library/Caches/app.quiet.QuietNotch \
       ~/Library/HTTPStorages/app.quiet.QuietNotch \
       ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/app.quiet.QuietNotch.savedState

Then remove Quiet Notch from System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.

Verify it's fully gone

ls /Applications | grep -i notch    # empty
brew list --cask | grep -i notch    # empty (Homebrew users)
brew tap | grep -i notch            # empty (Homebrew users)

Usage

Action	How
Expand the notch	Hover the notch area
Open Settings	Click the ✦ menu bar icon → Settings, or ⌘, with the app focused
Switch active media slot	Drag-tap inside the music card, or use the slot picker in Settings
Drop a file on the shelf	Drag any file onto the notch — it expands automatically
AirDrop / Quick Share	Tap the share icon on any shelf item
Restart	Menu bar icon → Restart Quiet Notch
Quit	Menu bar icon → Quit (⌘Q while menu open)

Picking an app icon

Settings → General → App icon. Pick Default (Quiet Apps brand mark with the notch) or Classic (the original Boring Notch icon, kept for nostalgia). The Dock + ⌘-Tab icon swaps live; the Finder icon updates on next launch.

Menu bar icon

A ✦ sparkle by default. Toggle it off in Settings → General → Show menu bar icon — you'll still reach Settings by clicking the notch.

Permissions

Quiet Notch can ask for several permissions depending on which features you enable:

Accessibility — required for HUD replacement, gesture detection and media key handling
Calendar — required to show upcoming events inside the notch
Camera — required for the Mirror live activity
AppleEvents — required to drive Music / Spotify / Browsers

On first launch you'll see an onboarding flow that links straight to the right System Settings panes. The app polls for permission and switches the relevant feature on the moment access is granted — no restart needed.

Heads up: macOS ties Accessibility permission to the app's code signature. If you rebuild Quiet Notch from source the signature changes and the old permission entry no longer matches. Fix: remove Quiet Notch from the Accessibility list and add it again. Signed release builds don't have this problem.

Build from source

Requirements

macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
Xcode 16.0 or later

Steps

git clone https://github.com/quietapps/QuietNotch.git
cd QuietNotch
open QuietNotch.xcodeproj

Hit ⌘R in Xcode. Or from the command line:

xcodebuild -project QuietNotch.xcodeproj -scheme QuietNotch -configuration Release build

The built .app lands in ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/QuietNotch-*/Build/Products/Release/.

Project layout

QuietNotch/
├── QuietNotchApp.swift          # entry point + AppDelegate
├── managers/                    # MusicManager, CalendarManager, BrightnessManager, etc.
├── MediaControllers/            # Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, NowPlaying
├── components/
│   ├── Notch/                   # NotchWindow, NotchShape, Header, ExtrasMenu
│   ├── Music/                   # Visualizer, Lottie animations
│   ├── Live activities/         # Battery, Download, InlineHUD, OpenNotchHUD
│   ├── Shelf/                   # Drop service, models, view models, views
│   ├── Calendar/                # QuietCalendar
│   ├── Settings/                # SettingsView, AppIconPicker, panels
│   └── Onboarding/              # Permission requests, welcome flow
├── models/                      # ViewModel, Constants (Defaults keys), PlaybackState
├── enums/                       # generic.swift (DownloadIconStyle, AppIconChoice, …)
├── extensions/                  # KeyboardShortcuts helper, NSScreen UUID, etc.
├── XPCHelperClient/             # Client for the privileged XPC helper
└── Assets.xcassets/             # AppIcon, ClassicAppIcon, palette
QuietNotchXPCHelper/             # Out-of-process helper (Accessibility auth, etc.)
mediaremote-adapter/             # MediaRemoteAdapter framework
Configuration/dmg/               # Release DMG builder script
updater/                         # Sparkle public keys

Configuration

Settings live in UserDefaults under app.quiet.QuietNotch. Reset everything with:

defaults delete app.quiet.QuietNotch

Want to inspect a single key first? defaults read app.quiet.QuietNotch <key>.

Contributing

PRs welcome. Before opening one:

Open an issue describing the change
Keep changes focused — one feature or fix per PR
Match the existing code style (Swift API design guidelines, no force-unwraps in new code)
Verify the project builds with xcodebuild before pushing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full guide. Translations land via Crowdin.

Roadmap

FAQ

Does Quiet Notch work on non-notch Macs? Yes. On Macs without a real notch, Quiet Notch draws a virtual notch at the top of your screen using the height you choose in Settings → General → Notch height on non-notch displays.

Does it drain battery? No. The notch only animates when you hover it or a live activity fires. CPU sits near zero idle.

Does it slow down audio playback? No. Now Playing data is observed, never proxied — Quiet Notch just reads what the system already publishes.

Can I use it with multiple displays? Yes. Settings → General → Show on all displays, or pin to one display, or let it auto-switch to whichever screen is active.

Why isn't my music app showing up? Quiet Notch reads from the macOS Now Playing protocol via MediaRemoteAdapter. If your player doesn't publish Now Playing info, it won't appear. Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube Music are explicitly wired up.

Where do I change the app icon? Settings → General → App icon. Two options: the new Quiet Apps brand mark (default) or the Classic original. The Dock icon swaps live. The Finder icon updates on next launch.

Can I change the menu bar icon? Toggle it off entirely in Settings → General → Show menu bar icon. Custom glyphs are on the roadmap.

Why does macOS keep forgetting my Accessibility permission? Each unsigned build has a different code-signature hash and macOS treats it as a new app. Remove + re-add Quiet Notch in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. A signed release will fix this for good.

How do I quit? Click the menu bar icon → Quit, or focus the app and hit ⌘Q.

Support

Star history

Acknowledgments

Quiet Notch stands on the shoulders of the open-source community:

MediaRemoteAdapter — gives us access to the macOS Now Playing source on macOS 15.4+
NotchDrop — inspiration and reference for the original Shelf feature
Boring Notch — Quiet Notch is a continuation of this lineage; massive thanks to the original team
KeyboardShortcuts, Defaults, Sparkle — workhorse libraries that make the app feel native

Icon credits: @maxtron95 (Classic). Default icon by Quiet Apps.

For a full list of licenses and attributions, see THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.

License

If Quiet Notch makes your notch worth looking at, drop a ⭐ on the repo.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 10 Commits
.claude/skills/quiet-apps-design		.claude/skills/quiet-apps-design
Configuration/dmg		Configuration/dmg
QuietNotch.xcodeproj		QuietNotch.xcodeproj
QuietNotch		QuietNotch
QuietNotchXPCHelper		QuietNotchXPCHelper
mediaremote-adapter		mediaremote-adapter
scripts		scripts
updater		updater
.gitignore		.gitignore
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES		THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES
crowdin.yml		crowdin.yml

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Quiet Notch

Why

Features

Music control center

Live activities & HUDs

Shelf

Calendar

Customization

Native macOS feel

Installation

Homebrew (recommended)

Direct download

Heads-up about unsigned builds

Updating

Homebrew

Direct download

Uninstalling

Homebrew

Direct download

Verify it's fully gone

Usage

Picking an app icon

Menu bar icon

Permissions

Build from source

Requirements

Steps

Project layout

Configuration

Contributing

Roadmap

FAQ

Support

Star history

Acknowledgments

License

About

Resources

Contributing

Security policy

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Forks

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