Guide

How to Use the MacBook Notch as a Dashboard

A practical guide — updated October 2026.

The notch on a MacBook is usually dead space around the camera. With the right app, it becomes a live control center: hover up, and it expands into a panel with the things you check all day — then collapses out of the way. This guide covers what the notch can do and how to set it up.

What Is the MacBook Notch?

The notch is the small black cut-out at the top-center of the screen on MacBook Pro (2021+) and MacBook Air (2022+), housing the camera. macOS leaves the area beside it mostly unused. Notch apps turn that strip — and a panel that drops down from it — into useful space. On Macs without a physical notch, apps like Notchfy can draw a simulated notch so you get the same thing.

What Can You Put in the Notch?

Now playing — album art, scrubber and controls for whatever's playing.
System stats — CPU, memory, disk, network and battery health.
Timers — pomodoro, countdown and stopwatch, with a live pill.
Clipboard history — everything you copied, searchable.
File shelf & converter — drag files in, drop them out anywhere; convert images.
Calendar, weather, screen time, downloads, notes — the daily glance-ables.
Live activities — volume, brightness and battery changes flash as a banner.
An AI assistant — ask how to do things on your Mac without leaving your work.

How to Set It up

Install a notch app. Notchfy runs as a lightweight menu-bar app on macOS 14 (Sonoma) and later — Apple Silicon or Intel.
Hover the notch. Move your cursor onto it; the panel expands. Move away; it collapses. No clicks needed to peek.
Pick your modules. Open settings and toggle on the ones you'll use — hide the rest. Each module is a simple on/off switch.
Learn the live activities. Change volume or brightness and you'll see a clean banner in the notch instead of the default macOS HUD.

Tip: start with 3–4 modules you actually check daily (now playing, timers, system stats, clipboard). Add more once hovering the notch becomes a habit — an overloaded panel is slower to scan.

Taking a Screenshot, Finding Settings, and Other Mac How-tos

If you forget a shortcut mid-task, an in-notch AI assistant helps without a browser detour. In Notchfy, MacMate answers Mac how-to questions — "how do I take a screenshot," "where's Full Disk Access" — using Apple's on-device model (private, free) or your own Claude / GPT / Gemini / Grok key. For the record: screenshots on a Mac are ⌘⇧3 (whole screen), ⌘⇧4 (a selection) and ⌘⇧5 (the capture toolbar with recording and options).

Which Notch App Should You Use?

There are a few good options depending on what you want — free-and-simple, a polished tray, or the widest feature set. We broke it down in Notchfy vs NotchNook vs Boring Notch.

Try It

Notchfy turns the notch into 23 modules plus MacMate AI, a hover away — private by default, one-time purchase.

Get Notchfy →