If you’ve always loved the iPhone’s Dynamic Island feature and want to tweak the default macOS interface, take it a step further. A small app for macOS called “NotchNook” brings the iPhone’s Dynamic Island to macOS and gives your MacBooks a fully functional notch. It basically turns the notch of your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro into the Dynamic Island and is well optimized for the task. The app has some super cool animations and feels like a natural extension of macOS.
The NotchNook app
Just like Dynamic Island, NotchNook extends the notch and shows a “Angle” Tab that provides quick access to your multimedia controls, files, shortcuts, and other customizable widgets. For example, if you’re listening to music via Apple Music, the NotchNook app displays media playback controls.
This is quite similar to the Now Playing live activity on the iPhone’s lock screen. If you hover your Mac’s pointer over live activities, you can also see additional information. The app also lets you customize live activities and add other customizable widgets.
In addition to media controls, the app also allows you to Add custom one-click shortcuts to speed up your everyday tasks like adding a shortcut like creating a WordPress document, merging photos or more. This makes it easier for me to run my most used shortcut or open a Google document with a single click. Trust me, it can help you save a lot of time. The app also provides a handy Mirror Option to help you look your best during important video calls and meetings.
There is also a “Subject tab It allows you to drag and drop files and also use the AirDrop option. The Tray tab offers two sections: File storage and AirDop. You can easily add files to the file tray and then drag them into another app. I think this is a great way to avoid cluttering your desktop with files and improve multitasking.
The NotchNook app also makes it easy to use AirDrop on your Mac. Instead of fumbling around in Finder’s menus to find the AirDrop option, you can use NotchNook’s AirDrop option to simplify things. Once you drop the file into NotchNook’s AirDrop area, the transfer will initiate. This will bring up macOS’s default AirDrop sheet, allowing you to choose from nearby Apple devices to share your files with.
The first version had a few issues, but the team fixed them in the 1.2 update. Now the app displays all the media playing on your Mac in Dynamic Island. This includes YouTube videos, listening to music on SoundCloud, VLC Player, and even podcasts on Spotify. Plus, Dynamic Island automatically adjusts any widgets you add, so you can easily scroll to music controls, calendar, and more.
Compatibility with the NotchNook app
The NotchNook app is compatible with Macs running macOS 14.0 or later. It’s important to note that the NotchNook app works on MacBooks with and without a notch. If your Mac doesn’t have a notch, NookNotch can simulate one for you. You can customize it to either look like a full notch or just sit as a small black strip at the top center of your screen. The app offers a nice handler with exactly the same features.
How to download the NotchNook app
You can download the app from the website and try it out for 48 hours. If you want to continue using the app, you can get it for a subscription of $3/month or a one-time fee of $25. So, if you always want to use the Dynamic Island feature on Macs, you should definitely try this fun app.
