Notch apple

What is Notch Apple?

Notch Apple lives in the black cutout at the top of your MacBook screen (a small pill on Macs without one). Press ⌃⌥S in any app, drag a box around a maths problem, an error, a paragraph in another language or a chart, and pick what to do: Solve, Explain, Translate, Summarize, Code… The answer streams into the notch, and you can keep asking follow-ups about the same capture. It also brings F1 live timing, live tennis from every ATP and WTA tournament, window snapping, clipboard history, Now Playing and many more tools. Everything is optional, and only the Pro extras need a key.

📸 Instant capture	⌃⌥S from anywhere, even full screen: a region, a single window, the whole display, or all displays. Retina-sharp, on the display under your pointer
🧠 AI vision & modes	Solve (maths), Explain, Explain simply, Answer only, Hint, Summarize, Translate, Extract text (on your Mac), Rewrite, Code, Ask
💬 Follow-ups	Ask "why?" or "explain step 3": the AI still sees your capture. Stop, Retry, Edit, Copy, export
📋 Any input	Paste an image or text (⌘⇧V), drop an image or PDF, or use the text you selected
🕘 History	Local, searchable, with the image, mode and model; reopen and continue
🔒 Free or fully local AI	Gemini, Groq or OpenRouter for free, Ollama on your Mac (offline, no key), or your own Claude, ChatGPT or DeepSeek key
⚽ Sports & cricket	Your team with match alerts, fixtures, league tables and match details (goals, cards, lineups); national teams, India cricket and the IPL
🏁 F1	Live running order, classification with gaps and tyres, schedule countdown, standings, a favourite driver or team beside the notch
🎾 Tennis (new)	Every ATP and WTA match with live set scores in Men, Women and Mixed tabs, Grand Slams in red, earlier weeks and past Slams one click back, the ATP and WTA top 20, and your favourite players' live score beside the notch
🪄 Do It (Ultimate)	Tell the AI what to do (a worksheet, a form, a task) and it does it on your screen, step by step, with a Start button, a Stop button that works from any app, and questions before anything risky
🔁 Convert (Ultimate)	Drop any file and turn it into another kind: PPTX → PDF, HEIC → JPG, DOCX → PDF, MOV → MP4, PNG → ICO, XLSX → CSV, PDF → pictures, pictures → one PDF, zip and unzip. Saved next to the original
⌨️ Klick (Pro)	Mechanical keyboard sounds as you type, in any app: Mechanical, Cream, Holy Panda, Blue, Red, Brown, Topre, Typewriter or Bubble, plus four premium sounds downloaded with your key (Cherry MX Black, Gateron Ink, Alps, Buckling spring), each with its own volume, and an on / off switch
🖼 Live wallpaper (Pro, new)	Play a video as your desktop wallpaper: your own (up to 60 s, up to 4K) or a free NASA clip. Pauses on battery and when windows cover it; the lock screen shows a still
📡 Flight Radar (new)	Every aircraft around you, live, on a round radar with callsign, type, height and speed (the free adsb.lol feed; your location is rounded to about 1 km and only sent while the tab is open)
✈️ Plane game	A 3D flight sim in Games: Cessna to A380, fighters and helicopters, with real dials, engine sounds, flaps in notches, retractable gear, damage and spoken GPWS callouts. Battle adds co-op and multiplayer waves with clearer enemy markers, an aim ring, a battlefield warning, sturdy fighter wings, a G-force toggle and a self-destruct/respawn button that keeps the wave score. The simulator also has an autopilot, ILS approaches, full-screen mode, AI traffic, Clean start and optional Fly with others.
🃏 Poker	Play-money Texas Hold’em against the computer in Games, with a persistent chip stack and a tested seven-card hand evaluator.
🤖 Notch Apple AI (included with Pro)	Ask without setting up any key: the request goes to Notch Apple's server, which checks your key and answers with the project's own AI account (Pro 60 messages a day, Ultimate 200). Your own keys still work with no limit
🗓 Updates once a week	Optional and off by default: be asked about updates once a week instead of for every release
🧰 30+ more tools	Now Playing, window snapping, clipboard, file shelf, focus timer, Sports, Messenger, notes, search and more

Download

Pick your computer. Both buttons start the download straight away. The Mac link always opens the latest stable release; the Windows link always downloads the newest Windows installer.

Install on Windows

It takes about a minute. You do not need an administrator password.

1. Click "Download for Windows" above. A file called NotchApple-Windows-Setup.exe saves to your Downloads folder. Chrome or Edge may say the file isn't commonly downloaded. That's only because it's a new, uncommon download: click Keep (in Edge, open the … menu next to the file first).
2. Double-click the file and click through the installer. If a blue "Windows protected your PC" window appears, click More info, then Run anyway. Windows shows this for every app that doesn't pay for a code-signing certificate. The full source code is in this repository.
3. Open Notch Apple. If it doesn't open by itself, press the Windows key, type Notch Apple and press Enter. A slim pill appears at the top centre of your screen. Click it to open the panel, or press Ctrl + Alt + N from any app.
4. Free to start. Everything free works straight away. If you bought Pro or Ultimate, open Settings → Access and enter your key (NTCH-…, the same key as the Mac app, valid on up to 3 devices).

• I can't see it. Look at the very top centre of your screen. Or find the Notch Apple icon near the clock (click the ^ arrow if it's hidden), right-click it and choose Open notch. If you pressed Ctrl + Alt + O, the notch is hidden: press it again.
• It doesn't start with Windows. Not yet. Open it from the Start menu when you want it.
• My antivirus removed the file. Restore it from the antivirus quarantine, or build it yourself.
• Updating. Download again and run the new installer. It replaces the old version.
• Remove your key from this PC. Settings → Access → Remove the key from this PC frees the device slot.
• Uninstall. Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Notch Apple → Uninstall.
• Need an .msi instead (for a work-managed PC)? Get NotchApple-Windows.msi.
• Other Windows versions: the releases list keeps the recent Windows builds (1.31.0 and newer). Older downloads were removed to keep the list short; the app updates itself to the newest one.

Install on Mac

With Homebrew

One command:

brew tap adityajaindxb/notchapples https://github.com/AdityaJainDXB/NotchApples
brew install --cask notch-apple

Update later with brew upgrade --cask notch-apple. The first time you open it, macOS may block it because it isn't notarized: go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.

Manually

1. Click "Download for Mac" above. On the page that opens, click the NotchApple-x.y.z.dmg file under Assets to download it.
2. Open it and drag Notch Apple into Applications.
3. The app is ad-hoc signed, not notarized, so on first launch right-click the app and choose Open, then confirm. (Or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Notch Apple.app".)
4. Click the notch, or the menu-bar icon, to get started.

On a Mac without a notch, a slim pill appears at the top center of the menu bar instead.

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Screenshots

Taken from the current app with scripts/screenshots.sh: a separate demo build with sample data, real answers from Ollama on the Mac, and only the app's own windows captured.

Capture: drag over anything; the exact size shows as you drag	Pick an action: suggested from a quick look at the text, on your Mac
The answer: readable maths, streamed in	Follow-ups remember the capture
Code: explains the error and fixes it	History: searchable, with images, modes and models
Settings → AI: providers, Test connection, privacy, capture	F1: classification, schedule, standings
The AI tab: capture, paste, selected text, or ask	Pro: enter a code or product key

Now Playing: any app, album cover, progress and controls	Beside the notch: album cover with live bars; charging time
Voice Notes (Pro): transcribed on your Mac, AI summary	Screen Time (Pro): time per app, limits, Focus Blocker
Quick Add (Pro): plain words into Calendar or Reminders	Timer & stopwatch
Live: scores and parcel/flight tracking	Devices: accessory battery, mic & camera
F1: live timing, schedule and standings	Updates: Update or Not now when a new release is out
Notifications: reply to iMessages from the notch	Plugins: your own widgets from any script
Snippets: paste saved text anywhere	Settings → Notch Extras
Sign in with Google to unlock Pro on every Mac	Backup & Sync: account, iCloud and backup files

All screenshots use sample data.

Start screen: Clean start, Fly with others, weather, time of day	Clean start: the checklist walks you through the start-up
Night: glowing runway lights and the tower	ILS approach: needles, autopilot and AI traffic
Fly with others: other Notch pilots, with callsigns	Printer Status: LAN Mode, or sign in with your Bambu account

Today: weather, next events, battery	AI: free providers, switch in the notch
Windows: snap, tile and save window layouts	Drag a window to the notch and drop it on a zone
Tools: Keep Awake, colour picker, calculator	Settings → Updates: new versions from GitHub, Update or Not now
Mirror add-on: flip, zoom, ring light (camera placeholder shown)	World Clock add-on: cities, day or night, time difference
Clipboard: searchable history, pins and filters	Notes: quick notes, saved automatically
Messenger: anonymous, end-to-end-encrypted rooms	Focus: Pomodoro timer
Share: AirDrop and PairDrop	File Shelf: drop files into the notch
Audio: output, master and per-app volume and EQ	VPN: your profiles and free servers
Now Playing	First launch: every permission in one place
Settings: a sidebar of panes, like System Settings	Settings → Modules: every feature is optional
Settings → AI: provider, model and keys	Settings → AI History: every chat, with the model that answered
Settings → Windows: snap zones, shortcuts, gaps	Face unlock: Face ID-style

What's new

About old versions: Mac releases before 1.34.10 and Windows releases before 1.31.0 were removed from the Releases page to keep it short. Their notes stay below, and the code for every version is in the repository's history.

Windows 2.1.71 BETA · 29 October 2026 · 🪄 Do It matches the Mac

• Do It on Windows now works exactly like Do It on the Mac. Same engine and instructions to the AI, the same 40-step limit, the same pauses between steps, and the same floating bar with Approve, Skip and Stop. The notch just folds away while it works (it is no longer hidden, which could leave it stuck on starting), and the tab looks like the Mac one: status, Confirm every step, Clear, and your questions and answers in the chat. Any step that stalls now ends the run with a message that says which step.

Mac 2.1.70 · 29 October 2026 · 🏠 Home cards stay on Home; own tab is a Settings option

• Home cards (Clipboard, Now Playing, Notes and the rest) now start on Home for everyone, and the first-run tour no longer asks where each feature should live. To turn a card into its own tab, go to Settings → Modules, find it under Home widgets and open its … menu → Make its own tab. The same menu can show it closed on Home, move it to Non-Necessities or turn it off.

Mac 2.1.69 · 28 October 2026 · 🌑 ⌥A black screen for everyone

• ⌥A black screen is now on for everyone and listed first in Settings → Shortcuts & Hotkeys. Press Option+A to turn the screen and keyboard backlight off, and again to bring them back. If Accessibility isn't allowed yet, Settings says so, and ⌥A starts working the moment you allow it, without restarting the app.

Windows 2.1.56 BETA · 25 October 2026 · 🔒 Safer Do it and plugins

• Do it: mouse and keyboard actions are now only accepted while a Do it run is active.
• Plugins: a plugin's ▶ action now shows the exact command and asks before it runs.

Windows 2.1.55 BETA · 25 October 2026 · 🛠 Plane and racing fixes

• Plane: leaving the game while you are in a shared Battle now also leaves the room and stops its background timers, so it no longer keeps a connection open.
• Racing: other drivers' names in a shared race are cleaned of markup before they are shown.
• Racing: 3D hills — tracks now have elevation. The 3D view draws every track with its ups and downs, car physics respond to gravity on slopes (uphill slows you, downhill speeds you up), and the track editor can set a height on any point.

Windows 2.1.64 BETA · 27 October 2026 · 🪄 Do It works again

• Do It no longer gets stuck. Starting a task could freeze on "starting" because the little status window with the Stop button was opened in a way Windows can't handle. Now it opens properly, and every step (screenshot, AI answer, click, typing) has a time limit, so a run that can't go on stops with a message instead of hanging.

Mac 2.1.68 · Windows 2.1.68 BETA · 28 October 2026 · 🪨 Smoother hills

• Racing, hills: the road height is smoothed along the track, so the car no longer shakes on the hills.

Mac 2.1.67 · Windows 2.1.67 BETA · 28 October 2026 · 🏁 Hills that look right, a real slipstream, and crowds

• Racing, hills: the road now rises and falls smoothly on the F1 circuits (no more jumps where the track changed height), with a steepest grade of about 7%.
• Racing, hills: the car tilts nose up going uphill and nose down going downhill, so it no longer sinks into the road at crests and dips.
• Racing, slipstream: a car tucked in behind another now gets up to 40% less air drag, so the gain builds while you stay close.
• Racing, crowds: stands line some straights, and the crowd bobs and cheers when an overtake happens near you.

Mac 2.1.63 · 27 October 2026 · 📍 Put the notch anywhere

• Move the notch anywhere: Settings → Notch → Adjust placement of notch. Drag the notch where you want it on the screen (it snaps to the top edge and the centre line), then Confirm placement, Reset to top centre or Cancel. It keeps the same shape and way up, and clicking it still slides the panel down out of it.
• Fixed: the Mac build of 2.1.62 failed to compile (sending a file in Messenger), so 2.1.62 never came out for Mac. This release includes everything from 2.1.62.

Mac 2.1.60 · Windows 2.1.60 BETA · 25 October 2026 · 🏔️ Racing: hills and elevation in the 3D view

• Racing: the grandstand crowd's cheering sound is louder and reaches full volume instantly (was ramping up over half a second and cutting off), with a third frequency band for a fuller, more crowd-like swell.

Mac 2.1.59.1 · Windows 2.1.59.1 BETA · 25 October 2026 · 🏎️ Crowd cheer fix

• Racing: the grandstand crowd's cheering sound now plays for the full 2.7 seconds instead of cutting off at 1-2 (the noise buffer wasn't set to loop).

Mac 2.1.59 · Windows 2.1.59 BETA · 25 October 2026 · 🏎️ Slipstream and grandstands

• Racing, slipstream: a car tucked in behind another now gets up to 40% less air drag while close, so the tow builds over a straight instead of giving only a tiny push. The HUD shows when you're in the tow.
• Racing, grandstands: three-tier stands along the straights outside the barriers, with a crowd that bobs and cheers when you pass or are passed within 160 metres.

Mac 2.1.58 · Windows 2.1.58 BETA · 25 October 2026 · 🏎️ A real pit crew, and a boost you can feel

• Racing, pit crew: every stop now has a real crew in 3D, seven people per car: four wheel gunners with impact wrenches, a jack man, a tyre carrier and the engineer. The car lifts on its jack, and the wrench, jack and wheel-seat sounds are timed to each wheel. The wheels stay on the car in this version.
• Racing, F1 boost: B boosts from the battery, which now gives about 26% more acceleration at 2 seconds and about 12% more top speed, and lasts about twice as long, so you can use it for a real overtake.

Mac 2.1.57 · Windows 2.1.57 BETA · 25 October 2026 · 🌧 Boost, DRS, rain and breakdowns, and the formation-lap skip fixed

• Racing: skipping the formation lap with N no longer leaves cars steering into the wall (or your view glitching) at lights out.
• Racing, F1 cars: B boosts from the battery (a meter above the speed shows what's left; braking recharges it), and E opens DRS when you're within a second of the car ahead from lap 2 (braking closes it). The computer drivers use both. Slipstream is stronger, and the HUD shows when you're in it.
• Racing, weather: dry, wet, or changeable (rain can arrive partway through and dry out again). Slicks slide in the rain, so pit for intermediates or wets (Y picks the tyres); your engineer calls it on the radio, and the others pit too.
• Racing, things go wrong: in races of 5 laps or more, a puncture can force a pit stop and, rarely, an engine fails and the car is out. Your engineer tells you to box or retire. A big crash into the barrier now ends your race too. Damage no longer paints the car black: it shows in the smoke and in a car that's slower and pulls to one side. Races can now be 10 or 20 laps long.

Mac 2.1.54 · Windows 2.1.54 BETA · 24 October 2026 · ✨ A livelier notch, and smoother racing explained

• Smoother, livelier notch: a burst of confetti when you tick off a to-do, buttons that dip with a spring when you press them, three pulsing dots while the AI is thinking and a light that runs round its answer while it's still arriving, your name coming into focus word by word in the hello, and notifications that slide in one after another. All follow the iPhone Duo setting and Reduce Motion.
• Racing: when macOS Low Power Mode is on, the Mac's web engine draws the game at 30 frames a second instead of 60; the race now tells you so once (plug in or switch Low Power Mode off for smooth 60). The timing tower no longer covers the tyre line when you drive the Safety Car or the Medical Car.

Mac 2.1.53 · Windows 2.1.53 BETA · 24 October 2026 · 🔧 Race engineer: typing on the Mac, and clear reasons when it can't answer

• Racing, race engineer fixes: on the Mac, typing a question (Enter in the open radio) now works in the notch: the box gets the keyboard instead of your letters going to the car. When the AI or the voice radio can't answer, the race now says why, for example that the microphone or speech recognition is switched off for Notch Apple in System Settings, or the AI provider's own error (a missing key, a busy model), instead of quietly giving the quick answer. With voice switched off, opening the radio tells you where to switch it on.

Mac 2.1.52 · Windows 2.1.52 BETA · 24 October 2026 · 🎧 A race engineer you can ask anything

• Racing, a smart race engineer: ask anything on the radio (“what should I do on the formation lap?”, “what's the status of the car?”, “can I make these tyres last?”) by voice, or press Enter in the open radio and type it. The AI you set up in the AI tab answers in a sentence or two on the radio, knowing your race right then: position, gaps and who is around you, tyres and their age, damage, penalties, the flag, laps to go, and whether you're on the formation lap. Without an AI set up, the built-in answers are used as before, and the number keys still give instant answers. Only the question and that race summary are sent, to the AI provider you chose.

Mac 2.1.51 · Windows 2.1.51 BETA · 24 October 2026 · ⏱ A live timing tower and tyre compounds

• Racing, a live timing tower (like issue #35 asked for the F1 tracker): position, driver, the gap to the car ahead or to the leader (real time gaps, measured where each car passed the same point), the last lap (green when it's that driver's best), the tyre and how many laps it has done, and pit stops. Cars in the pits show PIT, cars out of the race OUT. L switches between the interval, the gap to the leader and hiding the tower.
• Racing, tyre compounds: Soft (grippiest, wears fast), Medium and Hard (a bit slower, lasts much longer). Pick your starting tyres in the menu, and press Y to choose the tyres for your next pit stop. The other drivers start on a mix and choose their own at their stops. Your engineer tells you the compound and its age when you ask about tyres, and which set you'll get when you ask about boxing.

Mac 2.1.50 · Windows 2.1.50 BETA · 24 October 2026 · 🎙 Talk to your engineer, the Medical Car on foot, and full F1 timing

• Racing, talk to your race engineer out loud: the first time you open Racing it asks whether to use the microphone. With it on, open the radio (T, or Space in the Formula One car), say your question (“how are my tyres?”, “should I box?”, “what's the gap?”), and press again to send; the engineer answers with the live numbers. Your words are turned into text on your Mac. Without the microphone the radio works with the number keys, as before. Before your first Formula One race there's a short radio check: send each of the six lines once.
• Racing, driving the Medical Car: race control tells you how the driver sounds on the way. At the crash, press F to get out, then pick the right question to ask the driver (only one tells you how they really are), stay with them for 5 to 30 seconds depending on how bad it is, and give your evaluation: red (serious), yellow or green (minor). Then you drive them back to the pits, and the Safety Car asks whether you're finished or going round one more lap. Each step scores.
• F1: the timing tower is back with the full data (GitHub issue #35): for the latest session, each driver's tyre and how many laps it has done, gap (to the leader in races, to the fastest lap in practice and qualifying), last and best laps, and pit stops. F1 has locked its own timing archive, so this now comes from OpenF1's free data.

Mac 2.1.49 · Windows 2.1.49 BETA · 24 October 2026 · 🏆 All 24 circuits of the 2026 F1 calendar, and a smarter track assistant

• Racing: the whole 2026 Formula 1 calendar, 24 real circuits from Australia (Albert Park) to Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina): Shanghai, Suzuka, Bahrain, Jeddah, Miami, Montréal, Monaco, Barcelona, the Red Bull Ring, Silverstone, Spa, the Hungaroring, Zandvoort, Monza, Madrid, Baku, Singapore, Austin, Mexico City, Interlagos, Las Vegas and Lusail. Pick one under “F1 2026” in the menu. Each is the real layout at its real length (from the open f1-circuits map data), with the start on the main straight and the pit lane beside it.
• Racing, track assistant: new tracks look like real circuits instead of squares: an irregular loop with straights of different lengths, corners of every size both ways, hairpins with long straights in and out, and the chicanes and corners you asked for. Ask for a real circuit by name (“Yas Marina”, “Silverstone”, “the Monaco GP”) and you get the real layout. When you give a length, it adds only as many features as fit.

Mac 2.1.48 · Windows 2.1.48 BETA · 24 October 2026 · 🚑 Formation lap fixes, Medical Car follows the field, retire and car check

• Racing, formation lap fixed: your car no longer gets stuck in its grid box a few seconds in, and the grid now follows the road, so the back rows of a big field start on the track instead of in the sand behind it.
• Racing, Safety Car and Medical Car: you can drive them straight away, formation lap included. The Medical Car now follows the field round the formation lap and the first lap, a good way back, then goes into the pits (like F1); a car that falls behind it on the formation lap is disqualified. Driving for race control, you hear race control (who has crashed and how far ahead), not a race engineer, and a red pin on the mini map shows where the crash is.
• Racing, the radio stays open while you drive: press T (or Space in the Formula One car) and pick 1 to 7; T closes it. New: 7, retire the car, and a green line shows the way into the pit lane and to your box. The engineer and commentator now use the most natural voices on your computer instead of the robotic ones.
• Racing, pit stops are timed: arriving crooked in your box, or steering or pressing the gas while the crew works, adds time to the stop.
• Racing, after you hit a barrier a car check shows for a minute (tyres and damage, on a little drawing of the car), and your engineer reads it out.
• Racing, track designer: a picture of a circuit map now traces properly even with labels, DRS boxes, sector colours and corner numbers on it, at a real track size (15 m wide road, never longer than 8 km).

Mac 2.1.47 · Windows 2.1.47 BETA · 24 October 2026 · 🏁 Pictures in the track designer, and a proper formation lap

• Racing, track designer: “From a picture” works on the Mac now. The file picker used to open behind the notch, out of reach; it now opens in front of it, and the notch stays open until you have picked a picture.
• Racing, formation lap: cars are solid (they can touch and be damaged), the car in front no longer reverses while the queue slows, and every car parks in its own grid box. FIA rules: overtaking on the formation lap brings the black-and-white flag (give the place back); still ahead of a car that started in front of you when you reach your grid box is a 5-second penalty. Taking your own place back after being delayed is allowed.

Mac 2.1.46 · Windows 2.1.46 BETA · 24 October 2026 · 🚦 A real F1 start, much harder racing, and talk to your engineer

• Racing, a real start: a formation lap behind the pole sitter (no overtaking), every car stops in its own painted grid box, then five red lights come on one a second with a beep each, a random hold of 0.2 to 3 seconds, and lights out. Go before the lights are out and it's a jump start (5-second penalty); after them, your reaction time is shown. N skips the formation lap, and the menu can turn it off.
• Racing is much harder: every driver races the same car as you, corners at the real grip limit (downforce included), brakes late, takes a proper racing line (out, apex, out) and defends the inside when you attack. Everyone gets a slipstream behind another car, so passing takes a real move. Hard is properly hard now; Easy and Normal are still there.
• Talk to your race engineer: hold T and press 1 to 6 (gaps, tyres, should I box, position and laps to go, pace, damage), and the engineer answers with the live numbers. Where the computer understands speech, you can just ask while holding T.
• Recovery cranes: a wrecked or stuck car is lifted over the barrier by a crane and is out of the race (DNF), instead of sitting on the track. Flags stay out until the crane is done. Running into a stopped or wrecked car is no longer your penalty.
• Safety Car: nobody can pass the Safety Car, whether the computer or you drive it; cars it hasn't reached yet slow down until it is in front of them. A car in the pit lane under the Safety Car no longer holds up everyone behind it. The Safety Car and Medical Car never get penalties or track-limit warnings, and you can reverse the Safety Car in the pit lane again.
• Sound: the engine is quieter and drops under the team radio, so you can hear your engineer. A spin on the start line no longer counts as an extra lap.

Mac 2.1.45 · Windows 2.1.45 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🏎️ Watch F1, and live timing as big as you like

• F1: a ▶ Watch on F1 TV button opens the official live stream in your browser (it needs an F1 TV subscription), and a new Big view opens the F1 tab in its own window: live timing, the countdown and the standings scale up to whatever size you make it, so you can keep it beside the race or go full screen. Esc closes it.
• Windows: a ▶ Watch on F1 TV button opens the official live stream in your browser (it needs an F1 TV subscription), and ⛶ Full screen makes the live timing, countdown and standings fill the screen. Esc leaves.

Mac 2.1.44 · Windows 2.1.44 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🎲 Racing that's different every time, and a real Safety Car

• Racing: every race is different now. The rivals' names, cars and grid places are shuffled, and each driver gets their own pace, line, reaction off the line and temperament. They make mistakes at random moments (running wide, locking a wheel, the odd spin), see the car in front (backing off or pulling out to pass) and give room to a car alongside. The pile-up that used to happen in the first seconds of every big race is gone: drivers hold their side of the grid off the line.
• Racing, a real Safety Car period: the Safety Car comes onto the track right in front of the leader and waits for them, the field queues up behind it, it stays out for a lap and comes in at the end of the next one, and the race restarts when the leader crosses the line (the leader sets the pace until then). Overtaking the Safety Car itself is a 10-second penalty.
• Racing, pit lane: computer cars now follow the pit lane all the way to the exit after their stop, instead of turning into the pit wall.

Mac 2.1.43 · Windows 2.1.43 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🛞 Pit stops that work

• Racing, pit stops fixed: stopping in your pit box now always works. Holding the brake used to turn into reverse the moment the car stopped, rolling you back out of the box before the crew could start. Now the crew catches the car as soon as you're in your green box and nearly stopped, holds it until the stop is done, and you can't reverse in the pit lane (as in real racing). The pit lane message also tells you how far away your box is.

Mac 2.1.42 · Windows 2.1.42 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🤫 Meeting mode, and a real crashed car for the Medical Car

• Meeting mode: while you're on a call (the camera is on, or the microphone has been in use for 20 seconds), the notch goes quiet. Music, scores, notification flashes and the hello stay away; volume and brightness still show. Beside the notch you see the camera or microphone (crossed out when you're muted) and the minutes left in the calendar meeting you're in, or how long the call has been going. It ends by itself when the call does. On by default; Settings → Notch Extras.
• Racing, driving the Medical Car: a crashed car now actually stops at the side of the track, smoking, where the crash happened. Drive up and stop beside it to check on the driver; the yellow flag or Virtual Safety Car stays out until you do (or about 2½ minutes pass), then the car is recovered and racing resumes.

Mac 2.1.41 · Windows 2.1.41 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🌡️ Heat warning, keep the notch out of screen shares, Copy as

• "Hot" beside the notch: when your Mac gets hot enough that macOS starts slowing it down (a long export, a build, a game), a small amber mark shows beside the notch, red when it's critical, and it goes away as the Mac cools. Settings → Notch Extras → Beside the closed notch.
• Privacy: a new switch keeps the notch out of screenshots, screen recordings and screen sharing, so a notification, a message or your clipboard in the notch never shows up in a meeting or a video. It's off by default (so your setup screenshots still show the notch).
• File shelf: right-click a file → Copy as → path, path with ~, Markdown link, file URL, or Base64 data (files up to 2 MB).

Mac 2.1.40 · Windows 2.1.40 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🚓 Safety Car periods that end properly

• Racing, race control: the Safety Car now comes out at the right pace (about 144 km/h), and the period ends when it actually enters the pit lane, with a green-flag restart (it used to stay out until a 2-minute fallback). After a restart the crashed car is recovered so it doesn't keep triggering new flags, the next incident waits a while, and race officials never collide with race cars.
• Driving the Safety Car or the Medical Car: the first incident now happens within about 15 seconds of the start (as the Safety Car it always brings you out), instead of after a minute or more.

Mac 2.1.39 · Windows 2.1.39 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🚓 Race control, Safety Car and flags; real-terrain runway fixed

• Flying: real terrain fixed. The runway is back (it was hidden under the real ground), and pressing Start while the real ground is still loading now waits for it instead of starting in half-loaded ground. There's also a ↻ Reload terrain button if it ever looks wrong. Heights are measured from the home airfield; land lower than it becomes low ground instead of flooding, and the real sea stays sea.
• Racing: race control with real flags. A yellow flag when a car hits the barrier (no overtaking there), the Virtual Safety Car for a wreck on track (everyone slows to a set pace), the Safety Car for a big crash (a silver GT with an orange light bar leads the pack until the track is clear, then comes in for a green-flag restart), a red flag for a huge crash or several wrecks (everyone stops, then the race restarts), a blue flag when the leader is about to lap you, and the Medical Car parks by the wreck. Overtaking under a flag, or going too fast under the VSC, earns a 5-second penalty.
• Racing: drive for race control. Choose "You drive: the Safety Car" to catch the leader and lead the pack when race control calls it, then pit when it's clear; or "the Medical Car" to race to every crash and check on the driver. You score points for each job.

Mac 2.1.38 · Windows 2.1.38 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🙋 Get help without a GitHub account

• Get help without a GitHub account: Settings has a "Get help or report a problem" link to a new form on the website. No sign-in is needed. Report a problem on Mac or Windows, a flight sim glitch, suggest a feature, ask a question, show your setup, or ask about your licence. Problems and ideas are posted as GitHub issues for you (your email is never shown), questions and setups go to Discussions, and licence questions stay private and are answered by email. GitHub and plain email still work too.

Mac 2.1.37 · Windows 2.1.37 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🤖 Track assistant, 20 new monuments, satellite imagery

• Racing: a track assistant in the track designer. Type what you want ("21 chicanes and 4 hairpins", "a fast 5 km circuit", "a desert sprint with three hairpins, called Dune Run") and it builds that track, checks it against the track rules and opens it to preview and edit. "Another version" gives a different layout. Or give it a picture of a circuit (📷 From a picture, or drop or paste an image, such as a map of Yas Marina) and it traces the layout into a drivable track.
• Flying: 20 more places with their own monuments: Delhi (India Gate, Qutub Minar), Agra (Taj Mahal), Mumbai (Gateway of India), Abu Dhabi (Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque), Rome (Colosseum), Athens (Parthenon), Moscow (St Basil's), Istanbul (Blue Mosque), Berlin (Brandenburg Gate and TV tower), Rio (Christ the Redeemer), Toronto (CN Tower), Seattle (Space Needle), Kuala Lumpur (Petronas Towers), Singapore (Marina Bay Sands), Shanghai (Oriental Pearl Tower), Beijing (Temple of Heaven), Seoul (N Seoul Tower), Bangkok (Wat Arun), Barcelona (Sagrada Família) and Riyadh (Kingdom Centre).
• Real terrain now shows real satellite imagery of the place (Sentinel-2 cloudless by EOX, CC BY 4.0, contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016) on top of its real heights, and trees grow only where the imagery shows forest.

Mac 2.1.36 · Windows 2.1.36 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🏁 Serve penalties in the pits

• Racing: serve a time penalty at your pit stop, like in F1. Press Q after getting a penalty: at your next stop the car stands still in the box for the penalty time before the crew goes to work, and the penalty is cleared from your race time. Press Q again to keep it added at the finish instead. Computer drivers serve theirs at their stops too.

Mac 2.1.35 · Windows 2.1.35 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🏁 A pit entrance you can find

• Racing: the pit entrance is now easy to find: a "PIT IN" board over the entry, a white line peeling off the track into the pit lane with chevrons, a matching line at the exit, and a HUD countdown on the run-up ("Pit entry on the left in 200 m"). The pit lane is on the start straight, on the outside of the circuit; drive in there, keep to the limiter and stop in your box (the green one).

Mac 2.1.34 · Windows 2.1.34 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🔫 Realistic guns and new tank models

• More realistic guns: one round in four is a glowing tracer (like a real ammunition belt), with a muzzle flash at the gun, a continuous cannon roar while you hold the trigger (a deep growl on the Gunship), a little shake, and dust and sparks where rounds hit the ground. Enemy fighters show a muzzle flash when they open fire on you.
• New tank models: sloped front armour, track runs with seven road wheels a side, side skirts, a low turret with a gun mantlet, the commander's cupola and machine gun, smoke launchers, an antenna, a stowage rack, and a longer gun with a fume extractor and muzzle brake. Enemy tanks and your own get the new look.

Mac 2.1.33 · Windows 2.1.33 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🪙 Coins and paint schemes fixed

• Fixed: coins and passport stamps now work. You earn them as soon as you've landed and slowed to taxi speed on a runway or helipad; before, the plane had to stop completely, which it hardly ever did.
• Fixed: paint schemes now cover the whole plane, including the ailerons, flaps, elevators and rudder, which used to stay white.

Mac 2.1.32 · Windows 2.1.32 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🛰 Real terrain: fly over the real ground of any place

• Real terrain (Free Flight): turn on 🛰 Real terrain under "Where in the world", then pick a place, type any city or country, or use My location. You fly over that place's real hills, mountains, valleys, coast and sea, with heights above sea level from the free elevation tiles on AWS (SRTM, GMTED and ETOPO1 data), and the home airfield and the other airports are given level ground. The world map shows the real land too.
• The flight ceiling is higher with real terrain, so you can fly over real mountains.
• Real terrain needs an internet connection the first time a place loads, and it is only used in Free Flight; the other modes keep the home valley they were built for.

Mac 2.1.31 · Windows 2.1.31 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🏁 Pit lane, FIA penalties, real-looking cars, and a Mac-style hello

• Hello from the notch, Mac style: the notch now writes "hello" in the same flowing handwriting as the Mac's own welcome screen, stroke by stroke, then shows your name.
• Racing cars look like real cars: every car has its own body shape, a glass cabin with sloping windscreens, round wheels that turn, headlights and brake lights, and its details (the GT3's splitter and big rear wing, the hot hatch's roof spoiler, the muscle car's bonnet stripe, the supercar's low wedge).
• A real pit lane on every circuit: on the start straight, with an entry, a pit wall, an exit and an 80 km/h limiter. Every car has its own pit box; stop in yours for new tyres and repairs (a longer stop if the car is damaged). The engineer calls you in: "Box, box."
• Tyres wear, faster when you slide, and worn tyres grip less. The HUD shows how much tyre you have left. Computer drivers pit for tyres and damage too.
• FIA-style time penalties, added to your race time: track limits (three warnings, the black-and-white flag, then 5 seconds each time), causing a collision (5 seconds, 10 for a big hit), and speeding into the pit lane (5 seconds). The results show each driver's penalties.

Mac 2.1.30 · Windows 2.1.30 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🌍 A bigger world: far islands, a world map, coins and a passport

• A much bigger world: the ocean around the home island now reaches more than three times as far, with six new far islands, each with its own airport: Sunset Key, Volcano Isle, Fjord Point, Eastport, Reef Harbour and Frost Island. They're a long flight across open sea, so check your fuel. Start at any of them from the menu.
• World map (Free Flight menu → 🗺 World map): the home island, all eleven airports and where you are.
• Coins and a passport: land and stop at an airport in Free Flight to earn coins. The first landing at each airport stamps your passport (+250); after that you earn more the further you flew to get there.
• Hangar: paint schemes for your plane (Sunset, Ocean, Forest, Stealth, Gold). They have prices in coins but are all free for now.

Mac 2.1.29 · Windows 2.1.29 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🚢 Sea battle with warships and a carrier

• Sea battle: a new Open Sea battlefield, a chain of small islands with enemy warships that sail and fire flak, island towns to bomb, and your own aircraft carrier as the home base. Fly low and slow along its deck to rearm.
• More realistic missiles: they drop off the rail for a moment, then the motor lights with a visible flame and thick smoke while it burns, and they slow down after it burns out.
• Rearming at the home base is quicker (1.5 seconds) and works from a little higher up.

Mac 2.1.28 · Windows 2.1.28 BETA · 23 October 2026 · ✈️ Battle: fly low, bigger battlefields, cities, a home base, and day and night

• Battle, flying fixes: in Automatic you are no longer held 200 m up. You can fly right down low, and if you keep pushing the stick down you can fly into the ground. Climbing and diving now answer the stick straight away, and turning is quicker.
• Bigger battlefields: about half as big again, so you don't run off the edge so easily.
• Wings no longer snap off from pulling G. Only a long, very hard pull far past the limit can break one.
• Cities to bomb: every wave has an enemy city with houses, tower blocks and a factory, and you can name the first city yourself (Battle menu → Target city).
• Home base: a runway near the start of every front. When you run out of missiles or bombs, the HUD points you home. Fly low and slow down the runway and the ground crew rearms you and patches you up.
• More enemies in each wave (more bases, more convoys, more fighters), and enemy fire hurts you less in the Easy and Automatic settings.
• Friendly fire: your guns and bombs can now hit your own wingman, so watch where you shoot.
• Day and night: a new Day/night cycle setting, on by default. The sun rises and sets, with dawn and dusk colours and a starry night, one full day every 16 minutes. The fixed times of day are still there.
• Fixed: trees knocked down or cleared away in a battle kept showing on screen.

Mac 2.1.27 · Windows 2.1.27 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🏎️ Formula One: real F1 cars, F1 tracks, team radio, and a hello from the notch

• Racing, Formula One: a proper F1 car (nose and front wing, sidepods, halo, helmet, airbox, rear wing and four open wheels that turn), and a lower chase camera behind it. Pick the F1 car and every rival drives one too, for a real F1 grid.
• Up to 15 rivals (was 5).
• Formula One style tracks: Ardennes GP (in the style of Spa, with La Source, Eau Rouge, the Kemmel straight and the Bus Stop), Dunes GP (Zandvoort style) and Temple of Speed (Monza style).
• The first track is now a hairpin oval: two long straights and two tight hairpins, to learn braking and turning.
• Team radio and commentary (📻 switch): lights out, position changes, lap times and gaps, fastest laps, the final lap, damage, crashes and the chequered flag, spoken by your Mac's voices.
• Hello from the notch: when Notch Apple starts and each time your Mac wakes, an F1 car races across the notch and says hello with your name (it asks your name once; change it or turn it off in Settings → Notch Extras).
• Settings → AI shows what Notch Apple AI gives you, and that it comes with Pro ($1 once): no key to set up, ask about your screen, web search, voice, always one shortcut away.

Mac 2.1.26 · Windows 2.1.26 BETA · 23 October 2026 · 🏎️ Racing: cars sit on the road and barriers are solid

• Racing: cars now sit on top of the track in the chase view. The road used to be drawn over the back of a car (and over other cars), which made it look sunk into the tarmac. Cars now have wheels, a shadow and a full underside on the road.
• The barriers beside the road are solid for every car, including the computer drivers: nothing gets through them, on any track. Tracks you draw in the designer are now checked so a tight bend or two close sections cannot let the barrier fold over and let cars through.

Mac 2.1.25 · Windows 2.1.25 BETA · 22 October 2026 · 🏁 Plane racing with friends

• Plane racing with friends: in Time Trial, make a race room and send friends the 6-letter code. Everyone picks a plane, the host starts, and you all fly the same 12 hoops at once. You see the other racers' aircraft with their names, a live standings box shows who is ahead, and the results list everyone's time (or who crashed out).

Mac 2.1.24 · Windows 2.1.24 BETA · 22 October 2026 · 🏎️ Racing: 12 tracks, 7 cars, cockpit view, crashes and a track designer

• Racing is much bigger: 12 premade tracks (Grand Prix, Speedway oval, City streets, Mountain pass, Hairpin hill, Desert run, Coast road, Frozen lake, Kart track and the first three), and a garage of 7 cars: Formula One, GT3 Racer, Supercar V10, Muscle, Hot Hatch, Street GT and Drift King, each with its own top speed, grip, brakes, toughness and gearbox (stats shown in the garage).
• Three views, switched with V: chase camera, cockpit (a steering wheel that turns with the front wheels, paddles that flash at each gear change, shift lights, speed and rev dials, a mirror; the F1 car has its halo and wheel display) and the old top-down view.
• Real engine sound from each car's revs and cylinders (a V8 rumbles, the V10 and F1 scream), gear changes you can hear, squealing tyres, wind, grass rumble and crash sounds. M or the app's Sound switch turns it all off.
• Crash physics: solid barriers you bounce and scrape off, car-to-car impacts that push and spin both cars, damage that slows and pulls the car, sparks, flying bodywork, smoke and flames from a wreck.
• Track designer: click to draw a circuit or a sprint, drag points to shape it, pick width, scenery and laps. It checks the road as you draw, then drive it at once, save it to your track list, or share it with a code. Online rooms can race on a drawn track: friends get it automatically.
• Fixed: the Hairpin hill track used to cross over itself.

Mac 2.1.23 · Windows 2.1.23 BETA · 22 October 2026 · ⛶ Full screen button for every small game

• Every small game now has a Full screen button (the little corner arrows on Mac, "⛶ Full screen" on Windows): 2048, Snake, Breakout, Memory, Reaction, Cookie Clicker, Runner, Blackjack and Poker open in a big window that fills the screen, easy to see from a distance. Solitaire already had one.

Mac 2.1.22 · Windows 2.1.22 BETA · 22 October 2026 · 🔇 Airplane sound switch fixed, 🌍 World Clock: every country and region

• The Sound switch is now always obeyed in the airplane game: with it off, the game's audio engine is shut down completely and checked every frame, so no engine, warning or effect sound can slip through.

• World Clock: search by country, state or well-known city, not just the time zone's city name. Type India, Mumbai, Texas, California, Dubai or Queensland and it finds the right time. Every country is listed, and each region with its own time (all of the USA's, Australia's, Russia's, Brazil's, Canada's and so on). The clock shows the name you picked.

Mac 2.1.20 · Windows 2.1.20 BETA · 22 October 2026 · 🔇 Sound switch works for the airplane game

• The Sound switch in the Games list now also turns the airplane game's sound (engine, warnings, effects) on and off. Before, it only affected the other games.

Mac 2.1.19 · Windows 2.1.19 BETA · 22 October 2026 · 🚩 Capture the Flag

• New game: Capture the Flag, in the Games tab on Mac and Windows. Two teams fight round walls and crates: steal the other team's flag, carry it home to your own base (your own flag has to be there to score), and be first to 2, 3 or 5 captures or lead when the clock runs out. A flag you drop goes home when your team touches it or after 14 seconds, and whoever carries a flag runs faster and takes less damage.
• Play against computer teams (2 to 5 players a side, Easy, Normal or Hard, they attack, defend and chase flag thieves), or online with friends: Quick match joins an open game, or Host a game and share the 6-letter code. Empty places are filled by the computer, and with no connection it plays the computer.
• Controls: W A S D move, the mouse aims, click or Space shoots (or the arrow keys to aim without a mouse), M mutes.

Mac 2.1.18 · Windows 2.1.18 BETA · 22 October 2026 · 🏎️ Racing game: race friends in cars

• New Racing game in the Games tab (Mac and Windows): top-down cars on a straight sprint, a curved circuit or a mixed track with straights, a hairpin and a chicane. Pick a Street GT, a Drift King or a Muscle car, and race 0 to 5 computer rivals at Easy, Normal or Hard.
• Drive with the arrows or W A S D, brake and reverse with the down key, and tap Space for the handbrake to drift round corners (skid marks and a drift score). Lap times, the best race time and a minimap are kept on your computer.
• Race friends online: choose Create room and share the 6-letter code, friends type it under Join, and the host starts the race for everyone (up to 8 drivers). Planes can already race through hoops in Plane's Hoop Rush and Time Trial; racing planes with friends is next.

Mac 2.1.17 · Windows 2.1.17 BETA · 22 October 2026 · ✈️ Battle works offline

• Battle works offline: with no internet (or when the room server can't be reached) Start now plays a solo Battle on this computer instead of waiting for the network, and you don't need to type a name. The Battle menu says when you are offline. Online games with friends still need the internet.

Mac 2.1.16 · 22 October 2026 · 🔒 Privacy: choose what shows beside the notch

• Privacy: Settings → Extras → Beside the notch lets you choose what appears beside the closed notch: calendar (next event and “Join”), timers and alarms, music, battery and charging, volume and brightness, messages and notifications, and everything else. “Only my calendar” keeps just the countdown to your next class or event, “Nothing” keeps the notch plain, and “Show everything” puts it all back. Nothing a passer-by could read pops up unless you allow it.

Mac 2.1.15 · Windows 2.1.15 BETA · 22 October 2026 · 🃏 Solitaire full screen, and Lock on is T again

• Solitaire has a Full screen button: it opens the game in its own window that fills the screen, with the cards sized to fit (up to nearly four times bigger). It is the same game, so you carry on where you were, and the green button or Esc brings you back.
• The faded square glow round the open notch is gone: it was a soft shadow in your theme colour that the window cut off into a square. The notch itself is unchanged.
• Battle: Lock on is the T key again, as before. Chat in online games now opens with / instead.

Mac 2.1.14 · Windows 2.1.14 BETA · 22 October 2026 · 💬 Chat in online Battle

• Chat in online Battle: press T to open a chat box and type to the other players. While the box is open your plane flies itself in slow circles around the middle of the field (it slows down first with the air brake), so you don't leave the battlefield; on foot you stand still. Enter sends, Enter on an empty line or Esc closes, and a button in the box hides other players' chat.
• Key change: Lock on moves from T to K (the Lock on button shows K), because T is now chat.
• Windows: the update helper now breaks away from the app before the app closes, so the installer always runs and the notch reopens (this was 2.1.13).

Mac 2.1.13 · Windows 2.1.13 BETA · 22 October 2026 · 🪟 Windows updates that survive

• Windows: the update helper now breaks away from the app before the app closes. If the notch was started by a launcher or a task, Windows used to stop the helper when the app quit, so the installer never ran, the notch stayed closed and the old version came back when you reopened it. Now the installer runs, and the notch reopens (as the new version, or the old one if the installer failed, with a log in your Temp folder).

Mac 2.1.12 · Windows 2.1.12 BETA · 22 October 2026 · 🗺 Battle is a journey, and a Windows update that always comes back

• Battle is now a journey on one continuous map: when you clear a wave the front moves on, and the next enemies are way ahead of you (about 2.6 km further for planes, 1.1 km for people on foot and tanks). The land goes on instead of ending in the sea, the front travels along a long road round the map, and respawns, loot, bases, fighters and the edge warnings all follow the front. In shared battles the host decides where the front is and tells everyone.
• Windows: the updater now keeps a log (NotchApple-Update.log in your Temp folder) and, if the app did not start again 15 seconds after the installer finished, starts it itself, so the notch always comes back instead of staying closed. If an update still does not take, download the installer from the website and run it, and send that log.
• Windows: T is Lock on in Battle (and the checklist everywhere else) in this version; a Windows app older than 2.0.99 still opens the checklist, which is another reason to update.

Mac 2.1.11 · 22 October 2026 · 🪂 Online Battle on one team, F1 final classification

• Update needed for online Battle: it has a new network version, so everyone must be on 2.1.9 or newer (Windows 2.1.9 or newer) to meet in the airplane game. Older versions sit in their own empty rooms and cannot join.
• The open online game is Co-op for everybody (everyone on the green team, no Fight vote), and everyone gets 2 guided missiles per wave. Private games you open yourself can still be Co-op or Fight.
• Formula 1: when no session is on, the F1 tab shows the latest final classification (the newest race, sprint or qualifying) with gaps, fastest laps and retirements. Live sessions show the running order.

Mac 2.1.10 · 22 October 2026 · 🏎️ Formula 1: latest final classification

• Formula 1: when no session is on, the F1 tab now shows the latest final classification (the newest race, sprint or qualifying) with gaps, fastest laps and retirements, instead of an empty page. Live sessions still show the running order.
• Housekeeping: the oldest 20 releases and their tags were removed to keep the list short.

Mac 2.1.9 · Windows 2.1.9 BETA · 22 October 2026 · 🔄 Update needed for online Battle: everyone on one team

• Online Battle has a new network version: only people on this version or newer can meet each other, so everyone must update Notch Apple to play the airplane game with friends. Older versions now sit in their own empty rooms and cannot join, and a game started on a newer version tells you to update.
• The open game is Co-op for everybody: all players are on the same team (green) and the Fight vote is gone from it. Private games you open yourself can still be Co-op or Fight.
• Everyone gets guided missiles (2 each wave), and friends on the same code share one game and wave.

Mac 2.1.8 · 22 October 2026 · 🏎️ Formula 1 tab fixed

• Formula 1: the F1 tab no longer spins forever. F1 has closed the public live-timing feed the tab was reading, so it now shows the running order from ESPN when a session is on or has finished, and otherwise says plainly that session timing isn't being published. The schedule, standings and favourite-team features are unaffected.

Mac 2.1.7 · Windows 2.1.7 BETA · 22 October 2026 · 🛰 Guided missiles for everyone

• Guided missiles (G) now work for every player in a shared battle, not only the host. You fly your own missile, and when it explodes the host judges what it hit, so a friend's guided missile can destroy a base for the whole team. Everyone sees the explosion; two missiles come back each wave.
• Before, only the host could use them and anyone else got "Guided missiles are for the host". On the Online button the first player is the host, so most of your friends had no guided missiles at all.

Mac 2.1.6 · Windows 2.1.6 BETA · 22 October 2026 · 🤝 Every percent again, and friends share one wave

• The Claude usage pulse on the closed notch is back to one for every new percent. The earlier fix that stopped false ones (wobbling numbers and mixing up accounts) stays, so it only fires when a number really goes above the highest one it already showed.
• Friends who use the same code end up in the same game and the same wave: if two players both open a game in one room at the same moment, the one that started later now joins the one already running (same wave, score and battlefield size). Waiting to find an open game is also a little longer (6 seconds) so a slow connection does not open a second game by mistake.

Mac 2.1.5 · Windows 2.1.5 BETA · 22 October 2026 · 🔇 Plane game: sound really off

• Plane game sound: switching sound off, or closing the notch, now shuts the game's audio engine down completely instead of only muting it, so nothing can still be heard. It starts fresh when sound is wanted again.

Mac 2.1.4 · Windows 2.1.4 BETA · 21 October 2026 · 📉 Claude usage pulse: much less often

• The Claude usage pulse on the closed notch ("5h 96% left, wk 48% left") no longer keeps coming back. It only appears when a number passes the highest one it has already shown (a reading that wobbles 4, 5, 4, 5 says nothing more), at most once every five minutes, and straight away only when usage is at 75% or more. A window that resets starts the count again.

Mac 2.1.3 · Windows 2.1.3 BETA · 21 October 2026 · 📉 Fewer network messages, new version numbers

• Online Battle sends 5 updates a second instead of 10, to keep the shared room relay inside Cloudflare's free daily limits. Movement still looks smooth because other players' vehicles are glided between updates.
• Version numbers are tidier: Mac rolls over from 2.0.102 to 2.1.3, and Windows now uses the same number as the Mac (2.1.3, replacing the 1.101.0 style). Updates work as normal.

Mac 2.0.102 · Windows 1.101.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · Plane menu: shorter and quieter

• The big "How to play" card on the Plane menu now shows only until you have started a game once. After that it folds into one "How to play" button (and a Hide button to fold it again). The long explanation under Host a game is one short line, and the Full screen button only appears where full screen can work, so you no longer get "Full screen is not available in this window".

Mac 2.0.101 · Windows 1.100.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · Plane game: the sound really stops

• Fixed the plane game's sound that would not stop: the Sound button now silences everything (engine, warnings and spoken calls) and turns it back on properly, and closing the notch, leaving the game or hiding the window stops all sound too, including the spoken warnings that kept going in shared battles that run in the background. The old mute only set a volume that the engine sound then glided back up.

Mac 2.0.100 · Windows 1.99.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · Battle: flying trees and wildfire

• Battle explosions are now dramatic: a missile, bomb, rocket, shell, grenade or a burning depot throws the trees near its middle into the air (they tumble and some are on fire, and a flaming one can set the ground where it lands alight), and sets trees further out on fire.
• Burning trees give off flames and smoke for 9 to 16 seconds and then fall, and fire jumps from tree to tree, so a wildfire can spread through a wood after a missile lands close to it. On foot, standing next to a burning tree hurts.
• Every player's game picks the same trees to throw and burn, so the fire looks the same for everyone. Heat vision shows the flames through the smoke.

Mac 2.0.99 · Windows 1.98.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · Battle: breakable trees and rolling hills

• Trees break when you hit them: a plane's wing or nose, a tank or a van that runs into a tree breaks it (leaves fly and there is a crack), and it is gone from the picture for the rest of the battle. A strong Battle plane slows down but flies on; trees grow back in the next battle.
• The battlefields are no longer pancake flat: gentle rolling hills (up to about 40 m high, slopes of 5 to 10 degrees) so there are ridges to hide behind and to fly over, still easy for tanks and soldiers to cross.
• Automatic flying with heavy planes (the B-52) banks a little less and rolls back the short way, which fixes a rare tumble into the ground.
• In shared battles a broken tree breaks for everyone: when one player breaks a tree it falls on every other player's screen too, and players who join later see the trees that are already down.

Mac 2.0.98 · Windows 1.97.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · Battle: a simpler screen

• Battle looks simpler in a small window: the weapon buttons shrink to an icon with its key count so they all fit and cover less, the Vote and Leave buttons move to the bottom-left corner and the room text is hidden when there is no space, the radar shows just your height, and ground target labels no longer print on top of each other (two at most).

Mac 2.0.97 · Windows 1.96.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · 📶 Same Wi-Fi, same private room code

• Friends on the same Wi-Fi now get the same private room code. The Battle menu shows it as "This Wi-Fi", Host uses it and the Join box is filled in with it. The first to press Host opens the game and the others press Join; if two press Host at once, one joins the other automatically. (The Online button already puts everyone in one open game.)
• This needs the licence server update (it works out the code from your public network address and stores nothing). Until that is live, Host gives a random code as before.

Mac 2.0.96 · Windows 1.95.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · Battle: friends meet in the same open game

• Friends now meet in the same open game even if they picked different battlefields. Online used a separate room for each battlefield, so one friend landed in the "Green Plains" room and the other in "Island Fortress". There is now one open room: the battlefield is the one the first player picked, and you can vote for another with U. Both of you need this version. To play in a private game instead, use Single player and share its room code.

Mac 2.0.95 · Windows 1.94.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · Battle: hold R on foot to respawn

• On foot, tap R to reload and hold R for 1.5 seconds to respawn in the same wave (a progress message shows while you hold). Same score, same wave, nothing restarts for anyone else.

Mac 2.0.94 · Windows 1.93.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · Battle: open games start as Co-op

• Open games now start as Co-op, so a friend who joins is on your team (green) and not an enemy. Before, a game inherited whatever the host had picked last, and if that was Fight every other player was an enemy.
• The room bar now says which it is: "CO-OP: all one team" or "FIGHT: players are enemies", with the room code and how many are playing. Vote with U to switch.

Mac 2.0.93 · Windows 1.92.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · Battle: heat vision

• New heat vision in Battle (press Y or the Heat vision button): the picture goes grey, smoke, dust and haze disappear, and people, vehicles, aircraft and fires glow white so you can see them through smoke.

Mac 2.0.92 · Windows 1.91.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · Flight and Battle: Y levels and clearer readouts

• New Y levels: Battle markers for teammates, enemies and your wingman now show their height and how far above (+) or below (-) you they are (for example "Bob 422 m Y578 (+127)"), and your own Y is shown under the radar.
• In free flight the traffic box shows YOU Y and THEM Y heights.
• The airfield and traffic readouts use words (AHEAD, BEHIND, TO THE LEFT, TO THE RIGHT, ABOVE, BELOW, LEVEL) instead of arrows, because an up arrow made it look like the plane was climbing.

Mac 2.0.91 · 21 October 2026 · 📈 Claude usage no longer announces rises that did not happen

• The closed notch no longer pulses "usage went up" when it had not. It compared one Claude account's percentage with another's (or with an unstable order of accounts) and read the difference as a rise; each account is now compared only with its own last reading.

Mac 2.0.90 · Windows 1.90.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · Battle: working votes and obvious teammates

• Fixed the vote panel: none of its buttons worked, because the panel was being rebuilt many times a second, so a click never landed. Voting for teams, enemies, field and pause works again.
• Teammates are now easy to spot: in Co-op they show in bright green with a star, a double green bracket and their name always visible, their plane or soldier is tinted green, their names in the player list are green, and they are big green dots on the radar (with a "GREEN = YOUR TEAM" note). In Fight everyone keeps their own colour.

Mac 2.0.89 · Windows 1.89.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · Battle: loot, healing and a Fortnite-style soldier

• Loot drops: glowing boxes with a tall beam (grey, blue, purple, gold) lie around the battlefield each wave and enemy soldiers drop some when they die. Walk over them to pick up rifle ammo, rockets, grenades, bandages, shield potions and medkits; a rarer colour gives more. The host decides who gets each one, so two players never take the same box.
• Healing on foot: H bandage (+15 health up to 75), J shield potion (+50 shield), K medkit (full health). The soldier now has a shield bar over the health bar that soaks up damage first.
• Fortnite-style walking: an over-the-shoulder third-person camera by default (first person in the scope), Space jumps, Shift runs, Ctrl or V crouches, and you aim with the cursor. Fire is now click or Enter.

Mac 2.0.88 · Windows 1.88.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · Battle: R respawns you instead of restarting

• Pressing R in a battle now puts you straight back in your vehicle in the same wave, with the same score and kills. It no longer restarts the whole battle for everyone. On foot, R still reloads: use Respawn in the pause menu.

Mac 2.0.87 · Windows 1.87.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · Battle: a growing battlefield

• For soldiers, tanks and helicopters the battlefield now starts small (40% of its radius) and grows with every wave until it is the full size at wave 7. A message tells you when it grows; at the edge you get a warning.
• The host decides the size and tells everyone each wave, so all players share the same field, and players who join later get the current size. Jets keep the full battlefield.
• The landing map shows the current play area as a white circle.

Mac 2.0.86 · Windows 1.86.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · Battle: parachute start with a map, and a military van

• Soldier battles now start with a parachute jump from the bus: a map shows the battlefield, you click where to land (25 seconds, then it jumps for you), float down and steer a little with W A S D.
• A military van waits beside you when you land. Walk up and press E to get in: W/S drive, A/D steer, Shift boost (up to about 115 km/h), E to get out when stopped. Other players see your van, parked or driving.

Mac 2.0.85 · Windows 1.85.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · 🚁 Battle: land a helicopter, get out, and RPGs

• New Helicopter vehicle (an Apache): land and stop, press E to step out as a soldier, and press E beside it to climb back in. Other players see it parked. If your soldier is lost you get a new helicopter in the same wave.
• Soldiers now carry an RPG: press 2 for the RPG (a big rocket that kills a soldier outright, 4 at a time, 2 more each wave) and 1 for the rifle.
• Enemy soldiers carry RPGs too. From wave 3 one in each squad fires rockets at you or your low-flying helicopter, and helicopter waves now include squads on foot.

Mac 2.0.84 · Windows 1.84.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · 🎨 Browser freeze fix, lock on ground targets, guided missiles, accent-coloured popups

• The calendar countdown ("French in 10m"), message popups and Clipboard Link popups beside the closed notch now use the accent colour you chose in Settings → Appearance instead of a fixed teal.
• Battle: the lock button (T) now also locks on to ground targets: bases, tanks, guns, trucks and fuel depots.
• Battle: new guided missiles (G): you fly the missile with the mouse or arrows while your plane flies itself, then detonate it with Space, a click or G. Two per round; in shared battles for now only the host can use them.
• Windows: opening a page in the Browser tab no longer freezes or crashes the notch. The window is now created off the main thread, where Windows used to deadlock. The lyrics overlay had the same flaw and is fixed too.

Mac 2.0.83 · Windows 1.83.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · 🌐 Battle: online by default, exact bombs and a lock button

• Battle now puts you in an open game: press Start and you join the wave being played, or open one if nobody is there. Single player still opens your own game and shows its room code so others can join any time.
• You must type your name before starting; it shows above you and in the player list. Players are labelled before the computer fighters.
• In shared battles the game keeps running while the notch is closed. Players can vote to pause the round (press U) and vote again to play on.
• Soldier: aim with the cursor. The crosshair follows it and the view turns when the cursor reaches the screen edge; in the scope the cursor turns the view slowly.
• Bombs land exactly on the yellow diamond where it was when you pressed B, a quick tap always drops one, and Easy and Automatic snap to a target within 45 m.
• New lock button (T): lock on to the fighter nearest your nose and keep it locked until you press T again.
• Pro: the plane now turns itself back when it heads out of the battlefield (from about 85% of the radius, earlier when fast).
• Mac: Keep Awake (Lid Closed) can switch itself off after a time you type in hours, minutes and seconds (numbers only).

Mac 2.0.82 · Windows 1.82.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · 🪂 Battle: eject works in shared battles

• Eject (J) now also works in shared battles with friends, and it always tells you what is stopping it (not in a jet, already on foot, the jet already crashed) instead of doing nothing.

Mac 2.0.81 · Windows 1.81.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · 🪂 Battle: eject, parachute and rifle

• Eject: a new button (or J) in the Battle jets. The jet goes down in flames and you float down on a parachute, then fight on foot with the rifle. When the jet is badly damaged or on fire the screen says EJECT: PRESS J. A jet that crashes and stops now lets you climb out and keep fighting on foot. If the pilot is lost on foot, a new jet comes back in the same wave.
• Ramming works: flying low into a ground target destroys it (at a cost to your jet), as hitting an enemy fighter already does.
• Two small buttons by the ? button turn spoken calls (Pull up, ATC) and TCAS traffic calls on or off while you fly. TCAS is on by default and has its own switch in the pause menu settings (a reply to the Pull up request).
• Fixed the vote card in shared battles: clicks on it no longer fire your guns, and U now opens it without the key leaking to the game.
• Fixed the airliner and slow-computer handling from last time: airliners answer the controls sooner, and a slow computer draws fewer pixels instead of flying in slow motion.

Mac 2.0.80 · Windows 1.80.0 BETA · 21 October 2026 · ✈️ Battle: fighters fly like jets

• Easy and Automatic fighters now bank into their turns: the jet leans in and levels out instead of snapping left and right, and the turn gets wider at high speed.
• Diving is much quicker: the F-16 and F-15 can now go down about three times as fast as they climb, and a hard bank lets the nose sag a little.
• Q quick turn now ends after exactly 180°. Airliners respond faster to the controls.
• Smoother game: scenery builds faster, sound updates less often, and slow computers draw fewer pixels instead of flying in slow motion.

Mac 2.0.79 · Windows 1.79.0 BETA · 20 October 2026 · 🎖️ Battle: Soldier on foot, two new planes

• New Soldier vehicle: walk, run, strafe and crouch with mouse look, a first- or third-person view (C), and a low-poly soldier avatar.
• The rifle has 30-round magazines (R reloads), a 4x and 10x scope on right-click or Z with range marks for bullet drop, a rifle sway that settles when still or crouched, and grenades on G.
• Enemy riflemen march at you in squads, stop to shoot and miss a lot. Your rifle does twice their damage. Multiplayer works: other players see your soldier, teammates are green.
• New war planes: the Interceptor (fastest, 12 missiles, no bombs) and the Heavy Striker (16 bombs, tough, slow to turn).
• The bomb countdown is smaller and no longer covers your plane. In Pro, a plane that leaves the battlefield now turns back by itself.

Mac 2.0.78 · Windows 1.78.0 BETA · 20 October 2026 · 🎯 Battle: lock-on, descending and teammates

• Fixed planes refusing to go down: the pull-up assist now only steps in when you are about to hit the ground, and diving is faster in Easy and Automatic.
• Lock-on is clearer: a box and a filling ring on the target, LOCK: PRESS N when a missile can fire, and the lock stays on while the target is roughly ahead.
• Teammates show in bright green with a star; players you are fighting show in red.
• New notifications (Notifications add-on) pop up beside the closed notch with the sender or app name.

Mac 2.0.77 · Windows 1.77.0 BETA · 20 October 2026 · 🪖 Battle is easier to fly and fight

• Easy and Automatic fly arcade style: quick smooth turns, steady climbs, no stalls or snapped wings. Q does a quick 180° turn. Pro is unchanged.
• Enemies miss more; flak is gentler. Enemy bases stand in a row ahead, the battlefields are bigger and the edge is more forgiving.

Mac 2.0.76 · Windows 1.76.0 BETA · 19 October 2026 · 🪖 Shift boost for Battle tanks

• Hold Shift while driving a tank in Battle to boost its acceleration and raise its top speed from 13 to 20 m/s. The wave briefing now shows the boost control.

Mac 2.0.75 · Windows 1.75.0 BETA · 19 October 2026 · 🎮 Battle, Plane and Games, easier to use

• Battle now has default-on Over-G effects with an off switch, plus a self-destruct button or X that respawns you without losing your current wave or score. The limited mouse aim ring and red boundary warning remain in place.
• Open Plane full screen from the menu or with F11. Games adds play-money Texas Hold’em against the computer.
• Claude Usage scrolls within smaller windows; the Gemini model picker handles repeated model results and overlapping refreshes safely.

Mac 2.0.74 · Windows 1.74.0 BETA · 19 October 2026 · ⚔️ Battle is clearer and sturdier

• Battle aircraft no longer lose wings to over-G, overspeed or wingtip scrapes; speed and load are capped, and a hard nose-first ground crash remains fatal.
• Easy and Automatic warn and help pull up near the ground; Pro gets a low-altitude warning. Battle targets now have stronger markers, enemy aircraft trail smoke, and the HUD shows wave objectives, next-target direction and a short briefing.
• Fixed multiplayer wave progression getting stuck on wave 1 by resending authoritative wave snapshots to clients. (Issue #22.)

Mac 2.0.73 · 19 October 2026 · 🧭 Clearer Battle radar help

• The Controls help now says the radar is always visible in the top-right and explains its colours. Removed the misleading Radar key-style badge, which looked like a button. (Reported in issue 24.)

Mac 2.0.72 · Windows 1.73.0 BETA · 19 October 2026 · 🌐 Battle with friends

• Play Battle with friends: host a game and share the 6-letter code, or join with a friend's. It works on the same Wi-Fi or far apart, and Mac and Windows can play together.
• Co-op or Fight, with the same battlefield and the same enemies for everyone. In Fight the first to 10 kills wins.
• Vote to change the match (press U): Co-op or Fight, enemies on or off, the battlefield. A change passes with more than half the players. If you are shot down you are back in five seconds.
• How it works: the room code is hashed and used as a room name on the same live relay the Clipboard Link uses; the relay only passes frames between the people in the room and stores nothing. The people in the room can see your name, vehicle and position.

Mac 2.0.71 · Windows 1.72.0 BETA · 19 October 2026 · ⚔️ Battle: a tank, flat battlefields and Automatic flying

• Air War is now Battle, and much simpler: pick a vehicle (fighter, gunship, bomber or tank), one of three flat battlefields (Green Plains, Desert Dunes, Island Fortress), and how you want to play.
• Drive a tank: W/S drive, A/D turn, the mouse or arrows aim the turret and gun, Space or a click fires an exploding shell, B the machine gun. Enemy tanks drive at you.
• Automatic, Easy or Pro: Automatic flies the plane for you and drops bombs only when they would hit; Easy helps your aim; Pro is full control. Co-op or Fight, and enemies on or off for target practice.
• Not yet: playing with other people (coming next).

Mac 2.0.70 · Windows 1.71.1 BETA · 19 October 2026 · 🎮 Clear Plane controls, and the game is kept

• Controls for every Plane mode: a card at the start of each flight says what to press and what it does (press ? or click the round ? button to see it again), the menu has a "How to play" box, and the Controls tab has the full list for each mode.
• Air War is easier: Space or a click fires the guns, B bombs, N a missile, L flares, plus clickable weapon buttons with ammo counts.
• The Plane game is kept when you close the notch or switch tab. It is paused while you are away and put back exactly as it was; it is let go of after an hour.

Mac 2.0.69 · Windows 1.71.0 BETA · 19 October 2026 · 💣 Air War

• Air War, a new mode in Plane: bomb tanks, trucks, bunkers, fuel depots and AA guns and shoot down enemy fighters, in waves, with a computer wingman (Co-op) or computer aces hunting you (Versus), on Easy / Normal / Hard.
• Real weapons: bombs with gravity, drag and wind and a bombsight that shows where one would land; a cannon (Enter or click); bombs (Z, hold for a stick); heat-seeking missiles (N); flares (L); a radar.
• New aircraft: the B-52 heavy bomber (40 bombs, tail gunners) and the A-10 gunship. Any aircraft can fight. Four new challenges.
• Not in this version: driving a tank or other ground vehicle, and fighting other people (the "Fly with others" sky is still look-only).

Windows 1.70.1 BETA · 16 October 2026 · 🃏 Blackjack: no more empty bank

• Fixed Blackjack getting stuck at a bank of 0 after losing everything and quitting. The table now refills to 500 chips when it opens.

Windows 1.70.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · 🔧 Clipboard sync, messenger and speed test work again

• Fixes clipboard sync, the messenger and the network speed test being blocked by the app's connection rules in the installed app.

Windows 1.69.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · ✨ Smoother feel on Windows

• Tabs, buttons, tiles and list rows give a little under the cursor on press, not only on release.
• With Reduce Motion on, tiles no longer lift or shrink. Frosted menus and toasts become solid when transparency is reduced, and with high contrast the secondary text is brighter and borders firmer.

Mac 2.0.68 · 19 October 2026 · 📊 Claude usage animates the closed notch

• Every whole percent of 5-hour or weekly use pulses the closed notch with how much is left of both; the numbers now refresh every minute in the background and on wake instead of going stale.

Mac 2.0.67 · 19 October 2026 · 🍪 Cookie Clicker: start over works

• Fixed Start over closing the notch without resetting Cookie Clicker. The confirmation now stays inside the notch, where you can cancel or reset your progress. (Reported in issue 15.)

Mac 2.0.66 · 16 October 2026 · 🃏 Blackjack: no more empty bank

• Fixed Blackjack getting stuck at a bank of 0 after losing everything and quitting. The table now refills to 500 chips when it opens. (Reported in issue 14.)

Mac 2.0.65 · 14 October 2026 · ✨ Smoother, and kinder to Reduce Motion

• Reordering modules, the tour, theme choices, Home and Claude usage settle without a bounce, and use a quick fade when Reduce Motion is on.
• The website responds to a tap at once, follows Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast, and its chat panel opens out of its button.

Mac 2.0.64 · Windows 1.68.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · 🎥 The printer's camera

• Printer Status has a Camera card. On P1 and A1 printers (the A1 mini, for example) Open camera shows the live picture, over your own network: nothing goes through the internet or a server, and nothing is saved.
• The X1, P2 and H2 printers send H.264 video the app cannot play yet: Copy video address gives the address to open in VLC (switch on LAN Only Liveview on the printer first; it does not turn the cloud features off).
• Account-connected printers use the printer's address from its reports and its access code from your account's list. Based on community documentation and tested against a simulated printer, not a real one.

Mac 2.0.63 · Windows 1.67.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · 🖨️ Find your printers again

• After signing in with your Bambu account, Find printers on my account lists your printers again with the saved sign-in: no need to sign out and in. If you are signed in and have added none, the list appears by itself.
• Use your token (advanced): for Google, Apple or Facebook sign-ins when no email code arrives, paste the token cookie from makerworld.com instead.

Windows 1.66.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · 📜 The Windows app is MIT

• The Windows app (the NotchWindows folder) is released under the MIT licence again, so the official Windows builds can be signed with a free open-source code-signing programme. The Mac app, the licence server and the website keep the source-available licence. See NotchWindows/NOTICE.md.

Windows 1.65.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · 🔒 Windows hardening

• The Windows app's web view now has a content security policy: it can only load its own files and talk to the services it needs.
• A request that carries a password, a token or a cookie never follows a redirect to a different site.
• The Windows build runs in a protected release environment (tags only) with a pinned build tool.

Mac 2.0.62 · Windows 1.64.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · ✈️ Clean start, and a security pass

• Clean start on the flight simulator's home screen: spawn on the runway with the battery, beacon and engine off, and do the whole start-up yourself (Y battery, O beacon, S throttle idle, I engine, then flaps, gear, brake). The checklist on screen walks you through it. Off, you spawn ready to roll.
• Hardening from a full review: the shared-flying relay is rate-limited per address and shows only pilots in the same part of the world, a fresh random id is made for every flight session, other pilots' data is validated, the Bambu sign-in handles redirects, sign-out and retries more carefully, and the website's admin page has a content security policy.

Mac 2.0.61 · Windows 1.63.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · 🖨️ Bambu sign-in without a password

• Signed up to Bambu with Google, Apple or Facebook? Use Email me a code instead in Printer Status: no password needed.

Mac 2.0.60 · Windows 1.62.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · 🖨️ Bambu account sign-in

• Printer Status can sign in with your Bambu account, so the printer does not need LAN Mode (and keeps its cloud features).
• The password goes only to Bambu and is never saved; signing out deletes the saved token.

Mac 2.0.59 · Windows 1.61.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · 🖨️ Printer Status note

• Printer Status explains that LAN Mode turns off the printer's cloud features (Bambu Handy, remote printing, print history).

Mac 2.0.58 · Windows 1.60.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · ✈️ Fly with others, procedures, night lights

• Fly with others (opt-in): see other Notch pilots with their callsigns.
• Step-by-step procedure for take-off, climb-out, approach and landing.
• Runway and aircraft lights glow at night.

Mac 2.0.57 · Windows 1.59.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · ✈️ Messages fit the screen

• The take-off and landing configuration warnings are shorter, and long on-screen messages wrap instead of running off the edge.

Mac 2.0.56 · Windows 1.59.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · ✈️ Cold and dark start, ATC, night and fog

• Every flight starts on a runway (the apron start is gone).
• Optional cold-and-dark start with a checklist; I starts the engine.
• Air traffic control clearances for take-off, approach and landing, spoken.
• Dawn, dusk and night, and haze or fog.

Mac 2.0.55 · Windows 1.58.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · ✈️ ILS approaches and wider taxiways

• ILS on every runway: an on-screen box with the localiser and glideslope needles, and J lets the autopilot fly the approach down to 45 m.
• Wider taxiways, and fast ground turns can no longer tip a jet over.
• The autopilot holds its speed properly.

Mac 2.0.54 · Windows 1.57.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · ✈️ Plane autopilot and solid aprons

• Autopilot for fixed-wing aircraft: K holds heading, height and speed; , . turn 5°, [ ] change height 50 m.
• Aprons at the new airfields are paved ground, so the nose wheel no longer breaks when turning sharply there.
• Other aircraft show their wheels when low.

Mac 2.0.53 · Windows 1.56.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · ✈️ Plane fixes, ground crew and traffic; your feedback

• No more crash on start. The bigger fighters (F-15, F-22, Su-27) were dropped onto the runway from too high because the start height ignored the model's size, so they hit it as a crash. Every aircraft now sits down cleanly (a test checks all of them). A helicopter stays put on its pad until you lift off.
• Ground crew. Stopped on an apron: 1 refuel, 2 catering, 3 baggage, 4 pushback (a tug pushes you back). Service trucks stand on the aprons. Airliners, business jets and turboprops now start at the gate by default (the Start at row has an Automatic setting).
• Traffic. Other aircraft cross the sky. They have diamond markers with distance, a TRAFFIC readout and "Traffic" call-outs; a pass within 120 m is a Close call challenge, and a collision tears a wing off yours and sends the other aircraft down burning. Switch it off in the Fly tab.
• Configuration errors. Rolling for take-off or landing without flaps in an airliner, business jet or turboprop gives a "Config, flaps" call-out, and a landing without flaps costs points in Landing mode.
• Feedback. About every three to four weeks the open notch asks for an idea, a problem or praise (Not now skips it; it is sent only when you press Send). Settings → Help & Feedback → Count this Mac in the user numbers (Windows: Settings → Feedback and numbers) is off until you say yes and sends only a random id, the app version, the OS version and your plan. The website has a What people are asking for page.

Mac 2.0.52 · Windows 1.55.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · 🏝 A much bigger Plane map, and a security pass

• More airfields. Four new ones: Seaside on the southern plain, and Coral Island, Palm Atoll and Lighthouse Cay, each on its own hilly island in the sea to the south. Each has a runway with markings and lights, an apron with a hangar, a windsock and a helipad (helicopters start there when you choose it).
• Start anywhere. A new Start at row in the Fly tab picks the airfield for Free Flight. The screen shows the nearest airfield, how far it is and which way to turn.
• Hardening. A full code review found and fixed: links such as notchapple://keepawake?minutes=… could crash the app with a huge or invalid number; an unreadable saved-keys file could wipe every saved key (a copy is kept now); a restored settings backup could change where your Home Assistant token is sent; PairDrop accepted unlimited sizes and skipped macOS's download warning; plugins could be asked to run every second. On Windows, backups no longer carry tokens or printer codes (and restoring one can't overwrite them), the web helper no longer accepts look-alike local addresses or redirects, only data files can be saved to the temp folder, and VPN profiles lose any lines that could run programs.

Mac 2.0.51 · Windows 1.54.0 BETA · 14 October 2026 · 🔄 Updates work again, and helicopters fly properly

• Updates. "Couldn't reach GitHub" came from GitHub allowing only 60 anonymous requests an hour per address, which a shared network uses up. Notch Apple now reads the newest release from a small file on its website, then from GitHub's release feed, and only then from the API.
• Helicopters. The stick now leans the helicopter and it settles at that lean (right goes right, up goes forward), the collective (W / S) stays where you leave it, the rotor damps vertical motion so a steady collective gives a steady climb, the tail rotor turns at a sane rate, and the blades lie flat in the disc instead of standing up.
• Helipads. A helicopter now starts on a helipad (one at the airfield, one on the mountain plateau). Landing mode asks you to land on the H. New challenges: Hover steady, On the H, Top of the world.
• Mountain strip. Landing and stopping there now counts however you got there (it used to need a take-off from the runway first).
• Printer Status. The Bambu tab is now called Printer Status, its settings screen is laid out properly, and it lists the steps to connect a printer.

Mac 2.0.50 · Windows 1.53.0 BETA · 13 October 2026 · 🖨 Bambu Lab printers, and helicopter emergencies

• Bambu Lab tab. Watch your 3D printer from the notch, straight from the printer on your Wi-Fi (IP address, access code and serial number from its LAN mode screen). Green printing, yellow paused, blue idle, gray offline; the file, a progress bar, time left and live nozzle and bed temperatures. While a print runs it shows beside the closed notch. One printer is free; more need Pro.
• Safe by default. The printer signs its own certificate, so Notch Apple remembers the first one it sees and refuses a different one (Trust new certificate after a firmware update). Nothing leaves your network; the access code is kept in a file only you can read.
• Warnings and sounds. A red glow and a notification when the nozzle is over 300°, the bed over 110°, a heater runs 15° over its target, or the hotend keeps heating with the heater off (heat creep). A soft sound and a tap when a print pauses, finishes or fails. Both can be turned off.
• Plane: emergency landing. In a helicopter press H: it levels the disc, controls the descent, flares and sets down gently, then hands the controls back (H again to take over). A new helicopter panel shows height, climb rate, ground speed, collective and rotor speed.
• Flight Simulator in the menu bar. Right-click the menu-bar icon: Launch Flight Simulator, then Pause or Resume. Also notchapple://flight and notchapple://flight/pause.
• Fixes. A crash that could happen while a small overlay window (the peek, the command palette, the ruler, full-screen lyrics) resized. The app is written Notch Apple everywhere. The website now lives in this repository, in web/.

Mac 2.0.49 · Windows 1.52.0 BETA · 10 October 2026 · 🌬 Plane: weather, touchdowns and crashes

• Weather in the Plane menu. A Weather panel with a 0–90 kt crosswind (left or right), a headwind / tailwind slider and turbulence from None to Extreme, plus presets (Calm, Breezy, Crosswind landing, Storm, Hurricane, Random). The panel's wind box shows the wind, gusts, cross and head components and your ground speed.
• Touchdowns and gear. Each wheel is a tyre on an oleo strut (stiffens as it compresses, damps harder going down, can bottom out), with real tyre side force so a crabbed crosswind landing squeals and straightens. Spin-up chirp and smoke, skids and burst tyres (light planes), differential braking, nosewheel steering, ground spoilers, reverse thrust (X) and tilting bogie trucks on the big airliners. Bounces, porpoising, one-wheel rolls, wingtip scrapes and strut damage depend on how you land, and every touchdown gets a rating.
• Crashes, even more real. The plane breaks into a nose, fuselage, tail, wing panels, engines and gear legs that tear off where they really would; shallow impacts skip before breaking up; fire needs a torn tank and a spark; wrecks leave a gouge, smoke drifts with the wind, a ditched plane floats then sinks. Slow-motion at the big impact, layered crash sounds, and a more detailed crash report.

Mac 2.0.48 · Windows 1.51.0 BETA · 10 October 2026 · Six more fighter jets

• Plane: six more fighters beside the F-35: F-16 Falcon, F-15 Eagle, F/A-18 Hornet, Eurofighter Typhoon, F-22 Raptor and Sukhoi Su-27. Each has its own wing shape, tail (single, twin or canted), colours, afterburner and retractable gear; the Typhoon is a delta with canards; the twins have two nozzles. Like the F-35 they only say "Pull up".
• Flaps: press F again after the last notch and they come back up.

Mac 2.0.47 · Windows 1.50.0 BETA · 10 October 2026 · ✈️ Plane Sim: far more realistic

• Flying that behaves. A proper stall (buffet, then a wing drops), spins in the light planes, ground effect, induced drag, wind, gusts and turbulence (worse near the ground and over hills, with a wind arrow), thinner air with height (true versus indicated speed), and heavy planes that respond slowly. Pull too hard or go too fast and the g-limit matters: a g readout with a vignette, and wings that fail past it.
• Real landings. Each wheel has a spring and damper: a hard landing bounces, the nose gear can collapse, tyres can burst, tails can strike, and crosswinds push you sideways. Different surfaces (runway, grass, mud, sand) grip differently.
• Crashes like real life. What happens depends on speed, angle and what you hit: gear damage, belly slides with sparks, wings and tail shearing off on a rough field, a fireball, scattered debris and a burning wreck after a fast impact, ditching in water. The wreck keeps its momentum and tumbles until it stops. A crash report says what went wrong and whether it was survivable.
• A new world. A much bigger island: mountains to 1.9 km with snow, a lake, rivers, beaches, farmland, forests, villages, a town, a city, roads, pylons, wind turbines, a lighthouse and the bridge; detailed rock and snow, a real sky with haze and a sun, clouds, and water with sun glint and shore foam.
• A real airfield. Runway markings and numbers, edge, threshold and approach lights, PAPI lights that turn red or white with your glide angle, taxiways, hangars, a tower, a terminal and windsocks.
• Better models and seven new aircraft. Rebuilt planes with rounded fuselages, swept wings, engines with fans, moving flaps, ailerons and rudders, folding gear and working lights. New: Cirrus SR22, Pilatus PC-12, Cessna Citation, Embraer E175, Airbus A220, Boeing 787 and the F-35 Lightning (afterburner, 9 g). 15 planes in all, sorted by kind.
• The fly-over cities (Dubai, London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Sydney, Cairo, San Francisco, or your location) and the leaderboard work in the new world.

Mac 2.0.46 · Windows 1.49.0 BETA · 10 October 2026 · Drop zones as cards

• The Shelf, Convert and Share drop zones are now cards: an icon tile, "Drop a file here" and "or click to browse". Drag a file within about 180 points and the card leans towards it, glows and says "Bring it closer"; over it, "Let go to add it".

Mac 2.0.45 · 10 October 2026 · Files can reach the notch

• A dragged file no longer slides underneath the notch. With Keep the notch visible in full-screen apps on, the notch sat above the layer macOS draws dragged files on, so it never received them. While you drag a file the notch now steps below that layer, then goes back up when you let go.

Mac 2.0.44 · 10 October 2026 · Drop anywhere on the open notch

• A file dropped anywhere on the open notch goes to the Shelf (or Convert when that tab is showing), not only inside a tab's own drop area. Drag events are now logged so a drop that fails can be traced.

Mac 2.0.43 · 10 October 2026 · Dragging a file to the notch, for real

• Drag a file to the top centre of the screen and the notch opens for the drop, from a Finder window or the desktop. The 2.0.38 attempt never fired (macOS sends no mouse events to other apps during a drag); it now watches the pointer.

Mac 2.0.42 · 10 October 2026 · Drops work again

• Dropping files onto the notch works again (Shelf, Convert, Share, Launcher, Wallpaper, AI). 2.0.37's new drop handling stopped drops registering; the glow and label stay, on the standard handler.

Mac 2.0.41 · 10 October 2026 · Cassette mode redone, and a pin that holds

• Cassette mode is now the big tape on the Now Playing tab with the controls beside it, and a Cassette mode in Now Playing switch in Settings → Extras keeps it on or off for good.
• The pin holds: a pinned notch stays open when you click the desktop or another app; only Esc, the close button or the shortcut close it.

Mac 2.0.40 · 10 October 2026 · The AI provider picker

• The AI tab's provider list is now a searchable picker with a hover preview (free or paid, on this Mac, ready or needs a key), matching the model picker.

Mac 2.0.39 · 10 October 2026 · Cassette mode on the Now Playing tab

• The Now Playing tab has a tape button next to Open Player (and Home's card has one too): it swaps the cover for a cassette.

Mac 2.0.38 · 10 October 2026 · Dragging files to the notch

• Drag a file to the top centre of the screen and the notch opens for the drop, even when its closed shape is hidden, covered by a full-screen app or under another window (before, the drag just carried on across the desktop).

Mac 2.0.37 · Windows 1.48.0 BETA · 10 October 2026 · 🧲 A nicer feel, and two card games

• Magnetic drop zones (Shelf, Convert, Share, Launcher, Wallpaper, AI tab): the target leans towards the file you drag, with a glow and a label.
• Hold to clear the Shelf or finished to-dos, with an Undo that counts down.
• Searchable model picker in the AI tab, with a preview card for each model.
• Cassette mode for the music player.
• Blackjack and Solitaire in Games.
• The pricing page now prints a receipt after a confirmed payment.

Mac 2.0.36 · Windows 1.47.0 BETA · 10 October 2026 · ✈️ A bigger Plane world and a world leaderboard

• About three times more map, with plains, ranges and a sea beyond the valley.
• Fly somewhere real. On the Fly tab pick Dubai, London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Sydney, Cairo or San Francisco, press My location, or type a city or country (matched to the nearest scenery we have). Each has its landmark beside the runway: Burj Khalifa, Tower Bridge and Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, Tokyo Tower, the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, the pyramids, the Golden Gate Bridge.
• World leaderboard. Tick 🌍 when you save a score to post your name, plane and score to a shared top 100 per challenge (all time or this week). Only those three things (and the place you flew) are sent, and only when you choose; the server keeps nothing else. Scores are checked for plausibility, not proven.

Mac 2.0.35 · 10 October 2026 · 🖼 Live wallpaper (Pro)

• A video as your wallpaper. The new Wallpaper tab plays a video behind your desktop icons on every display and every desktop. Add your own (up to 60 seconds, up to 4K, drop it on the tab) or get one of six free NASA clips (public domain, downloaded from NASA only when you press Get). It pauses on battery, in Low Power Mode, on sleep or lock, and when windows cover it; it is silent. macOS can't play video on the lock screen, so a still from the video becomes the system wallpaper, and your old wallpaper comes back when you turn it off.

Mac 2.0.34 · Windows 1.46.0 BETA · 9 October 2026 · Notch Apple AI, included with Pro and Ultimate

• Notch Apple AI (included): choose it in Settings → AI and ask, with no API key to set up. The request goes to Notch Apple's licence server, which checks your key and answers with the project's own AI account (Pro 60 messages a day, Ultimate 200). Your own keys still work with no limit. A copy of the app without a real key can't use it. It needs the server's AI key to be switched on first.

Mac 2.0.33 · Windows 1.45.0 BETA · 9 October 2026 · Ultimate modules go private

• The Ultimate modules (Mac: Convert, Smart Home, Claude usage, Do It, Purge; Windows: Convert, Smart Home, Claude Usage, Do It) now live in a private repository and are built into the official releases only; they work as before for you. A build from the public source runs without them and those tabs say so. See docs/PROTECTING_PAID_FEATURES.md.
• Flight Radar's header fits on the Mac.

Mac 2.0.32 · Windows 1.44.0 BETA · 9 October 2026 · A new licence, and more of the paid value on the server

• Source-available licence. The code is now under the Notch Apple Source-Available License (copyright Aditya Jain): read it, build it, help improve it; no reselling or redistributing it and no unlocking paid features without a key. Versions before 9 October 2026 were MIT and stay MIT for those who have them.
• Server-held content. A real key on a registered device gets short-lived signed tokens from the licence server. They unlock four premium Klick sounds (Cherry MX Black, Gateron Ink, Alps, Buckling spring), downloaded on demand and never in the repository, and are required for Clipboard Link on the relay. Both devices need this update to link. How it works and what is and isn't protected: docs/PROTECTING_PAID_FEATURES.md.

Mac 2.0.31 · Windows 1.43.0 BETA · 9 October 2026 · 🪄 Do It, and lyrics on your screen

• Do It (Ultimate): the AI does the task on your screen. A new Do It tab: describe what you want ("fill in this worksheet", "find the cheapest option"), press Start, and the AI looks at your screen and clicks, types, scrolls and presses keys, one step at a time, telling you what it's doing. A bar at the bottom of the screen shows progress with a Stop button, and Ctrl+Option+Esc (Mac) / Ctrl+Alt+Esc (Windows) stops it from any app. It asks first before anything that sends, buys, deletes, posts, or involves passwords and payment, and never types passwords or card numbers; Confirm every step lets you approve each action; it stops after 40 steps. It needs a vision-capable model chosen in Settings → AI (Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT…) and, on the Mac, Screen Recording and Accessibility. Screenshots go to your chosen AI provider while it works, and only then.
• Lyrics on the side of your screen (Pro). In Now Playing, switch on Lyrics on screen: synced lyrics float along the left or right edge of your screen, Spotify-style (the current line big and bright, the lines around it dimmer), above your other apps and ignoring the mouse, fading away when nothing plays. Off by default.

Mac 2.0.30 · Windows 1.42.0 BETA · 9 October 2026 · GPWS callouts, and games that fit

• Realistic GPWS and callouts for the airliners in the Plane game, spoken with your computer's own voice: take-off calls (One hundred knots, V one, Rotate, Positive rate), radio-altimeter calls on the approach (One thousand … Ten, Minimums, Retard) and warnings (Sink rate, Terrain terrain, Pull up, Too low gear / terrain / flaps, Glideslope, Bank angle). A GPWS voice switch is in Controls.
• Games no longer cut off in the notch: the Mac list scrolls and keeps Sound in view; on Windows every game scales to fit.

Mac 2.0.29 · Windows 1.41.0 BETA · 9 October 2026 · Flight Radar, Airbus aircraft and retractable gear

• Flight Radar tab: a round radar centred on you with every aircraft around you, live (adsb.lol's free feed). Ranges of 25 to 200 nm, click a plane for callsign, type, registration, height, speed and heading. Your location is rounded to about 1 km, and it only asks while the tab is open.
• Airbus A320, A350 and A380 in the Plane game, and retractable landing gear on the airliners (G): raise it after take-off, lower it to land, with gear lights, a "too low" warning and belly landings if you forget.

Mac 2.0.28 · Windows 1.40.0 BETA · 9 October 2026 · Plane: a proper cockpit

• Round airspeed and altimeter dials that change with the aircraft (coloured arcs for flaps, normal flying, caution and the never-exceed line; three altimeter hands), an engine gauge (rpm or jet N1 %), fuel and flaps position.
• Engines that sound like engines: a piston with a propeller beat on the Cessna and Piper, a spooling jet on the 737, 747 and 777, plus wind, tyres, a stall horn and an overspeed warning.
• Tail strikes: rotating too steeply scrapes and damages the tail (weaker pitch and rudder; a hard scrape breaks it off). Flaps go down in notches (F / V), fuel runs out, and airliners call ROTATE.

Windows 1.39.0 BETA · 9 October 2026 · Updates once a week, if you want

• Update at most once a week, like the Mac: off by default, and after updating the notch opens once on a card with the switch so you can turn it on or leave it off. With it on, the notification and the Update button/pill come once a week for the newest version; required security updates still appear straight away and Check now always shows the latest. Change it any time in Settings → Updates.
• This build also brings the Windows app level with the Mac: Klick keyboard sounds (including the Mechanical sound), Convert, and the Plane game fixes from Windows 1.37.0 and 1.38.0, which were built but not released on their own.

Mac 2.0.27 · 9 October 2026 · Updates once a week, if you want

• Update at most once a week. Releases have been coming often, so there is now an option to be asked about updates only once a week instead of for every release. It is off by default; after updating, the notch shows it on the "What's new" card so you can switch it on or leave it off, and you can change it any time in Settings → Notch → Updates or Settings → Updates. With it on, the notification, the Update button and the reminders in the notch appear once a week for the newest version. Required security updates still appear straight away, and Check now always shows the latest.

Mac 2.0.26 · 9 October 2026 · Top bar, ⌘E / ⌘J, calmer Tools

• Bordered group for the always-there header buttons, and a Choose your top bar step after installing or updating (also in Settings → Notch).
• ⌘E opens and closes the notch, ⌘J hides and shows it. Swipe up on the top bar closes the notch. Settings opens on the desktop you are on.
• Tools is a set of tiles: tap one to open it.

Mac 2.0.25 · 9 October 2026 · ⌨️ Klick: a Mechanical sound

• Klick has a Mechanical sound. The classic clacky keyboard: a sharp click, a hard clack as the key bottoms out, a ring from the case and a crisp click on release. First in the list, with its own volume. Windows 1.38.0 has it too.

Mac 2.0.24 · 9 October 2026 · ⌘J opens and closes the notch

• ⌘J is now the shortcut that opens and closes the notch, for everyone (it replaces ⌘E and ⌃⌥N; anyone still on those moves to ⌘J once, a shortcut you recorded yourself is kept). Change it in Settings → Shortcuts & Hotkeys. While it's on, other apps don't get ⌘J.

Mac 2.0.23 · 9 October 2026 · ☕ Coffee button, tidier Tools

• Coffee button. A cup beside the pin: click it to keep your Mac awake until you click it again (the same Keep Awake as in Tools).
• Tools is tidier. The two Keep Awake cards became one (a switch, with Options for the time limits and Allow lid-closed running), leaving three roomy cards.
• Convert accepts drops from the notch. Dragging a file onto the notch while on Convert stays on Convert, the whole tab takes drops, and Shelf files have Convert… in their menu. Windows 1.38.0 has the same fix.

Mac 2.0.24 · Windows 1.38.0 BETA · 9 October 2026 · 🔁 Convert

• Convert (Ultimate): turn any file into another kind. A new Convert tab: drop files on it (or click Choose files). Each file gets a From picker (what it is, worked out from its name, and changeable) and a To picker (what it should become). Click Convert, or Convert all. The result is saved next to the original ("Report.pdf"), never over anything, with Open and Show buttons.
  • Pictures: PNG, JPEG, HEIC, WebP, GIF, BMP, TIFF, ICO, SVG, AVIF → PNG, JPG, HEIC (Mac), WebP, GIF, BMP, TIFF, ICO or PDF, and several pictures → one combined PDF.
  • PDF → a PNG or JPG of every page, or its text as Word, RTF, a web page, Markdown or text.
  • Documents: Word, Pages (Mac), RTF, OpenDocument, web pages, Markdown and text → PDF, Word, RTF, a web page, Markdown, text or Pages (Mac).
  • Presentations: PowerPoint and Keynote (Mac) → PDF, PowerPoint, Keynote (Mac), or a picture of every slide.
  • Tables: Excel, Numbers (Mac), CSV, TSV and JSON → Excel, CSV, JSON, TSV, a web page, PDF or Numbers (Mac).
  • Audio and video: MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC, AIFF, Ogg, Opus; MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, AVI; the sound of a video on its own; a video as a GIF.
  • Zip any file or folder, or unzip one. Make them all sets one target for every file in the list.
• How it converts. As much as possible is done by the computer itself. On the Mac that means Image I/O, PDFKit, the macOS text system, afconvert and AVFoundation, plus Keynote, Pages and Numbers when they're installed. On Windows it's done right in the app (pictures, text, Markdown, Word text, CSV/JSON/Excel tables, audio to WAV), plus Windows' own PDF and picture readers, and Word, PowerPoint and Excel when they're installed. LibreOffice (free) and FFmpeg (free) add old Office formats and every audio and video format. The tab shows which of these your computer has. When a file needs one, it says so, with a link (and on the Mac, brew install ffmpeg; on Windows, winget install Gyan.FFmpeg).
• Windows 1.38.0 also includes 1.37.0's changes (Klick and the Plane fixes, below).
• Mac release check fixed. The new launch check now starts the app from inside the DMG people download, so releases go out again.

Mac 2.0.21 · 9 October 2026 · Klick asks for the permission it needs

• Klick asks for Input Monitoring as well as Accessibility. After an update, some Macs stayed silent because macOS wants both for hearing keys in other apps. Klick now asks for both, shows which one is missing with a button for each, and explains how to reset a permission that looks on but doesn't work after an update.
• Klick skips a click instead of erroring when the sound output is busy or changing (headphones connecting).

Mac 2.0.20 · Windows 1.37.0 BETA · 9 October 2026 · ⌨️ Klick, and Plane controls that make sense

• Klick (Pro): your keyboard sounds like a mechanical one. A new Klick tab: switch it on and every key you type, in any app, plays a switch sound. Choose from Cream (deep, smooth thock), Holy Panda (bassy, tactile), Blue (loud and clicky), Red (light and linear), Brown (gentle bump), Topre (muted rubber-dome thock), Typewriter (metal clack, with a bell on Enter) and Bubble (playful pops). Click a sound to choose it and hear it, and the chosen one gets its own volume slider (each sound remembers its own volume). The space bar and Enter sound bigger, like real stabilised keys, and there is an optional key-up sound. Hearing keys in other apps needs Accessibility on the Mac; only the fact that a key was pressed is used, never what you type, and nothing leaves your computer. The sounds are made by scripts/klick_sounds.py and shared by both apps.
• Plane: up climbs. Moving the cursor up now climbs and down dives, and ↑ climbs too. Invert in Controls brings back the flight-stick way.
• Plane: the mouse stays on the notch. It steers inside a small ring in the middle of the view: the edge of the ring is full stick, so a short move is enough (higher sensitivity makes the ring smaller). It takes control once you move the cursor into the middle, so a cursor left anywhere after Take off can't tip the plane, and it lets go when the cursor leaves the game.
• Plane: keys always work on the Mac. The arrows, W/S and the rest reach the game even when the notch's keyboard focus is somewhere else.

Mac 2.0.19 · 9 October 2026 · Fixes the app not opening

• Fixed: 2.0.17 and 2.0.18 crashed at launch (the lid-closed Keep Awake tool). If Notch Apple won't open, download this DMG and replace the app.

Mac 2.0.18 · 9 October 2026 · Lid-closed Keep Awake asks only when used

• The password prompt for Keep Awake (Lid Closed) appears only when you flip the switch; cancelling doesn't repeat it, and opening Tools never asks.

Mac 2.0.17 · 9 October 2026 · Keep Awake (Lid Closed)

• New tool in Tools: Keep Awake (Lid Closed) keeps the Mac running with the lid shut (pmset disablesleep). Asks for your password, auto-off under 15% battery, restored on quit.

Mac 2.0.16 · 9 October 2026 · ⌥A turns the keyboard light off too

• ⌥A now also switches the keyboard backlight off and brings it back with the screen. Settings → Reset keyboard brightness fixes it if it is ever left dark.

Mac 2.0.15 · 9 October 2026 · Edit Home in the notch, AirDrop rebuilt

• Edit Home in the notch: the sliders button on Home lets you move, resize (Small / Medium / Large), collapse, remove and add widgets without opening Settings.
• AirDrop rebuilt: it now opens from its own anchor window, reports progress, and offers "Open AirDrop window instead" if the system picker still won't show.
• Up/down scrolling now matches left/right on the closed notch and the tab bar.

Mac 2.0.14 · Windows 1.36.0 BETA · 9 October 2026 · PairDrop between Mac and Windows

• Fixed: PairDrop could not be found. The Mac only listened while its Share tab was open. It now runs from launch (while the Share module is on), so another device can always send to it or start a chat, and a notification says when something arrives.
• Windows has a real PairDrop now (it used to just open a website): Receive shows your 6-digit code, Send takes theirs plus files or folders (any size, with a progress bar, drag and drop, or Choose a file/folder), and Chat opens a private conversation. You can set the name others see. It speaks the same protocol as the Mac and finds it over Bonjour, so Mac and Windows can send to each other.
• Tested with the real code on both sides, both ways (up to 30 MB, empty files, wrong codes, chat), and the release pipelines now run those tests. Windows may ask about its firewall the first time: allow private networks.

Windows 1.35.0 BETA · 9 October 2026 · The Mac 2.0 calculator and to-do priorities

• An algebra calculator in Tools → Calculator (ported from the Mac): one step per line, values and functions you define (a = 5, f(x) = x^2 + 1), equations (2x + 3 = 11), quadratics with exact or complex answers, higher degrees, systems (x + y = 5; x - y = 1), solve(a x + b = c, x), expand, factor and diff.
• Tools has three pages: Utilities, Calculator and the Translator (which used to be its own tab; the tab still works).
• To-do priorities. Pick High, Medium or Low with the flag, or type !!! / !! / ! or high: / med: / low:. High priority is red and pinned to the top (switch "Sort by priority" off for the old order). Your existing tasks keep working as Medium.
• The release pipeline now runs the calculator and to-do tests, and a smoke test of the real screens, before it builds.

Mac 2.0.13 · Windows 1.34.1 BETA · 8 October 2026 · ⌨️ Plane: M switches the mouse off

• In the Plane game, press M to turn mouse steering off and fly with the keys only (arrows, A/D rudder, W/S throttle); press it again to turn the mouse back on. The menu is on the pause screen (P).

Mac 2.0.12 · Windows 1.34.0 BETA · 8 October 2026 · ✈️ Plane: crashes, failures and a bigger world

• Fixed: the plane kept rolling to the right by itself. Mouse steering read where the cursor rested, so a cursor left off-centre (often after clicking Take off) kept the plane banking. The mouse is now a self-centring stick: move it to roll or pitch, and it springs back to the middle when you stop. Hands off, the wings roll back to level on their own. Keys can no longer get stuck "held" when the game loses focus.
• Realistic damage. Clip a tree, a building, a wind-turbine blade or the ground with a wingtip and that wing tears off; the plane rolls hard towards the stump. Hit something with the nose or tail, or the ground too hard, and the plane breaks up: the wings, tail and fuselage tumble, bounce and burn, and the camera follows the wreck.
• Failures. Engine failure (glide to a field) or a bird strike that leaves it running rough, with smoke trailing behind. Too fast and the wings come off (overspeed); pull far too hard and one snaps (over-G). A hard landing collapses the undercarriage into a belly slide with sparks. A damage panel shows what still works, and failures can be set to off, rare or often in Controls.
• A much bigger world. Real terrain: rolling hills and forests, a ring of snowy mountains, a river canyon to fly down, a strip on a plateau in the hills, a wind farm with turning blades, a radio mast, a town with streets and taller blocks, and a bridge to fly under. Land in the lake and you ditch.
• New challenges: Canyon run, Mountain strip, Glider pilot, One-winged and Walked away.

Mac 2.0.11 · Windows 1.33.1 BETA · 8 October 2026 · ✈️ Plane: mouse flying and new aircraft

• Fly with the mouse. Move the cursor left or right to bank and turn, down to pull the nose up (up pushes it down). W and S are throttle. Games → Plane → Controls lists every key and has a mouse sensitivity slider, Invert Y and a switch to turn mouse steering off.
• New hangar: Cessna 172, Piper PA-28, Boeing 737, 747 and 777 (replacing the earlier four). Airliners turn slowly, so plan ahead.

Mac 2.0.9 · Windows 1.33.0 BETA · 8 October 2026 · ✈️ Plane, speaker balance and a lyrics view

• Plane, a 3D flight game (Games → Plane). Pick a plane: the Sparrow trainer, the Mustang warbird, the Falcon jet or the Stunt Bipe. Each flies differently. Then choose a challenge:
  • Hoop Rush: 90 seconds, 1 point for every hoop you fly through, and the hoops keep coming.
  • Time Trial: 12 hoops in order around the valley; fastest time wins.
  • Landing: you start on final approach; land softly on the centre line and stop. Points for a gentle, centred touchdown.
  • Free Flight: take off from the runway and explore the valley, the town, the lake and the mountains. Fly under the bridge!
• Realistic, but not too realistic. Lift comes from speed and angle of attack, so pulling too hard or flying too slow stalls the wing. You turn by banking, flaps add lift and drag, and touchdowns need to be gentle. A friendly autotrim holds your climb or descent when you let go. Chase, cockpit and orbit cameras, engine sound, a horizon, and STALL / PULL UP warnings.
• Leaderboards and challenges. A top 10 for each challenge with your name, plane and date, plus 14 challenges to unlock (a loop, a barrel roll, a butter landing, a low pass, flying under the bridge…). Everything stays on your computer.
• Speaker balance in Now Playing. While music plays, a slider sends the sound to the left or right speaker, and snaps back to the centre. It uses your Mac's own balance setting (the channel levels on Windows).
• A lyrics view like Spotify's. Click the song in Now Playing to see the cover, a progress bar and controls beside big synced lyrics that scroll with the song. The lyrics are Pro; the cover, progress and controls are free.

Mac 2.0.6 · Windows 1.32.1 BETA · 8 October 2026 · Required bug-fix and security update

This is a compulsory update: every Mac on an earlier version is asked to install it.

• The notch can always be closed with the mouse again. Pinning it kept it open for good, so clicking outside never closed it, even after a restart. The pin now lasts only until you close the notch (Mac and Windows).
• A close button on every notch screen, including the lock, update, tour and what's-new screens, which hide the tab bar. Clicking in Settings or another Notch Apple window also closes the notch now.
• Security: the hide shortcut moved from ⌘O to ⌃⌥O. As a global shortcut, ⌘O took "Open…" away from every other app, and pressing it to open a file could hide the notch instead. If you were on ⌘O, you're moved over once. Change it in Settings → Shortcuts & Hotkeys.
• The Non-Necessities tab no longer shows twice. Rearranging tabs could save a tab twice. Saved orders are cleaned up, and a tab can't be saved twice any more.

Mac 2.0.5 · Windows 1.32.0 BETA · 8 October 2026 · 🎾 Tennis

• A new Tennis tab, on for everyone (Mac and Windows). Every ATP and WTA match of the week, live, coming up and finished, with set-by-set scores, tiebreaks and who's serving.
• Men, Women and Mixed tabs, each with All, Singles and Doubles. Several tournaments in a week? Pick one from the row of chips.
• Grand Slams go red: the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open get a red banner, a 🏆 Grand Slam badge and a red glow.
• Go back in time: ‹ and › move a week at a time, and 🏆 Slams jumps to any of the last four Grand Slams (or the next one).
• ATP and WTA top 20 with points and how many places each player moved. If ESPN's rankings can't be reached, a saved list is shown instead.
• Favourite players: star them in the top 20, click them in any match, or type a name. Their matches come first, and while one of them plays, their live score shows beside the closed notch (or on the Windows pill), in red during a Grand Slam.
• Free, no account: ESPN's public feed, like Sports and F1. Turn it off in Settings → Modules (Mac) or Settings → Tabs (Windows).

Mac 1.33.0 · Windows 1.31.0 BETA · 7 October 2026 · Meeting summaries

• Meeting summaries (Ultimate): record a calendar meeting from Today, get it transcribed, and an AI summary with Decisions, Action items and Open questions. One click adds it to the meeting's note. It records your microphone only (not other people's audio on a call), shows a reminder to tell everyone, and sends only the transcript to the AI you chose on the Mac (the audio to Gemini on Windows).
• Windows: Messenger now shows by default, like on the Mac.

Windows 1.30.0 BETA · 7 October 2026 · Smoother tab switching and screen fixes

• Smoother tab switching: the highlight glides between tabs, the tab name opens and closes smoothly, and the page slides in from the direction you're going. It also works in Lite mode. (Issue #6.)
• Fixed: overlapping cards in Tools, a stray "null" in VPN, a squeezed output box in Translator, and cut-off hourly weather labels in Today.

Windows 1.29.0 BETA · 7 October 2026 · Brightness gauge and notification peek

• Brightness gauge (laptop screens, off by default): shows the brightness on the pill when it changes.
• Notification peek (experimental, off by default): flashes the newest Windows notification beside the pill. It reads Windows' own notification list on your PC, read-only, and stores or sends nothing. It may not work on every PC; if it can't, it turns itself off and says why. Both are in Settings → General → On the pill.

Mac 1.32.0 · Windows 1.28.0 BETA · 7 October 2026 · Pinned notes, emoji search, named timers

• Pinned notes on Today: pin a note in Notes and it shows on Today (up to three).
• Emoji and symbol search: in the command palette type emoji heart or :fire; Return (Enter on Windows) copies it.
• Pro: named timers (Pasta 10m, Egg 1:30), focus time by project, meeting notes started from a calendar event, and full-screen lyrics (a full-screen window on the Mac; on Windows the lyrics fill the notch).
• Links shelf: Shelf → Links saves a link to read later. Only web addresses are accepted and nothing is fetched.

Mac 1.31.0 · 7 October 2026 · Claude usage, Smart Home and more

• Claude usage tracker (Ultimate): your current 5-hour window, today and this week, read from Claude Code's own logs on your Mac. Weekly budget alert and a daily summary.
• Smart Home (Ultimate): lights, switches and scenes from Home Assistant on your own network.
• Clipboard link: send copied text between your Mac and Windows PC with a shared code, sealed end to end. Anything that looks like a secret is never sent.
• Developer tools, wellbeing (breaks, breathing, bedtime) with a habit tracker (Pro), daily focus goal, countdowns, music sleep timer, quick capture (⌃⌥J), panic hide (⌃⌥⇧P) and quick answers in the command palette.
• Light/dark switch for macOS in the notch menu and command palette.
• Optional screen flash for Claude Code (Settings → Extras → Claude Code, off by default): a half-second green or yellow wash over every screen.
• Keys record a generic device label ("Mac (macOS 26.0)") so the admin panel can tell devices apart. Your computer's own name is never sent.

Windows 1.27.0 BETA · 7 October 2026

Claude Code dot, Claude usage tracker, Smart Home, clipboard link, developer tools, wellbeing and habits, panic hide, quick capture, Cookie Clicker, Runner, Breakout and Memory, repeating to-dos with snooze and a "3 due" badge, stay-awake presets, snippet variables, quick answers, text size and skins, and low-battery, low-disk and internet warnings.

1.24.0 · 4 October 2026 · Notch Apple on your iPhone

• Ultimate · iPhone companion: send text and links to the notch, see the Mac's battery and music, and control music, timers and Keep Awake. It works over your Wi-Fi with no server, and every message is encrypted.
• Shortcuts on iPhone: "Send to Mac notch" and "Get Mac status", including from the share sheet.
• Pro · Browser video: speed (0.5× to 3×) and skip 10 seconds for video and podcasts in Safari, Chrome, Arc, Brave or Edge.
• Support email: [email protected].

1.23.1 · 4 October 2026 · Pro and Ultimate are on sale

• Buy Pro ($1) or Ultimate ($5) on the pricing page. Your signed key is shown and emailed, and works on up to 3 Macs.
• Every future update is included for buyers, 2.0 and beyond. Add an optional tip at checkout if you'd like.
• Students can ask for a free Pro promo code.

1.23.0 · 4 October 2026 · The finishing touches

• Peek: rest the pointer on the closed notch for a one-line glance (what's playing, your next event or the weather). Click to open.
• Swipe down to open (Settings → Notch), and a countdown beside the notch 15 minutes before your next event.
• Undo for deleting notes, to-dos, clipboard items, shelf files and Home widgets (⌘Z works too).
• Focus: with a Shortcuts automation the notch stays quiet or steps aside while a Focus is on; with Pro it switches to the matching profile. How.
• AppleScript: tell application "Notch Apple" to run notch command "timer?minutes=5".
• Pro: Do Not Disturb toggle, send to-dos to Things or Todoist, drag-and-drop in Home.

1.22.0 · 4 October 2026 · Trust, and a few more extras

• Settings → Privacy: every permission, everywhere Notch Apple can connect to and when, and what it keeps on this Mac, with Delete buttons.
• Settings → Help & Feedback: feedback, and a bug report you read in full and submit yourself on GitHub.
• Crash reports, off by default: after a crash, review the macOS report (name and home folder removed) and send it if you like.
• Pro: a 12-hour and 7-day forecast for up to six cities, a meeting-time planner in World Clock, mic mute, and top apps by CPU.
• Ultimate: beta channel, priority support, and notes and to-dos synced through iCloud.

1.21.0 · 4 October 2026 · Make it yours

• Pro · Home: a dashboard tab of widgets (clock, weather, battery, next event, Now Playing, timer, to-do, markets) in small, medium or large.
• Pro · Profiles: Work, Study, Gaming or your own; each chooses your tabs and theme and switches by the app in front or the time of day.
• Pro · Per-app rules: hide the notch in an app, or open a tab when an app comes forward.
• Pro · Style: animation styles and speed, open/close sounds and haptic feel, rounded/serif/monospaced text, menu bar icon.
• Ultimate · Plugin SDK: plugins show beside the notch (activity: lines), become Home widgets and keep running in the background.
• Ultimate · Plugin gallery: install community plugins from plugins/ in one click, after reading their source.

1.20.0 · 4 October 2026 · Get more done

• To-do list in the Notes tab, saved on this Mac.
• Pro · Notes and Reminders: Markdown preview and #tags; your Apple Reminders in To-do, ticked off right there.
• Pro · Command palette (⌃⌥P): search and run tabs, timers, snippets, saved prompts, apps and Settings, or ask the AI.
• Pro · Text expander: give a snippet an abbreviation like ;sig and type it in any app (off until you turn it on; needs Accessibility).
• Pro · Screen tools: screenshot markup, a screen ruler, and unit and currency conversion in the calculator (5 km to mi, 100 usd to eur).
• Pro · Shelf and clipboard: shelf folders, auto-expiry and Share; up to 5,000 clipboard items and apps whose copies are never saved.
• Ultimate · Scripting: scripts/notch for Terminal and more notchapple:// commands.

1.19.0 · 4 October 2026 · A smarter assistant

• Apple Intelligence as an AI provider: free, private, on this Mac (macOS 26+ with Apple Intelligence on).
• Pro · Web search with sources: turn on the globe and answers search DuckDuckGo first, then cite what they used. Only your question is sent to DuckDuckGo.
• Pro · Personas and saved prompts: Tutor, Concise, Code reviewer, Writing coach, or your own.
• Pro · Slash commands: /summarize, /explain, /eli5, /fix, /translate fr: …, /code, /web, /persona, /help.
• Pro · Voice: dictate questions (on this Mac when supported) and have answers read aloud.
• Pro · Clipboard AI: summarise, fix, translate or explain a copied item; the result is copied back.
• Ultimate · Automations: prompts that run on a schedule (say a weekday-morning calendar summary), delivered as a notification and saved in History.

1.18.0 · 4 October 2026 · More live activities

• Meeting pulse: a soft glow beside the notch when a video call is about to start, with Join one click away.
• Pro · Markets: a watchlist of stocks and crypto with today's change and a chart; pin one beside the notch.
• Pro · Live flight status: altitude and speed of a tracked flight while it's in the air, pinned beside the notch.
• Pro · More teams: follow up to five more teams in Sports; live scores take turns beside the notch.
• Ultimate · Live Activities API: show your own builds, uploads or anything else beside the notch from Terminal, Shortcuts or an app.
• Ultimate · Two at once: two activities share the notch, one in each ear.

1.17.0 · 4 October 2026 · A notch that fits how you work

• Settings → Notch: hover delay, hide in fullscreen apps (videos, games, presentations), and optionally hide while the screen is recorded.
• Keyboard and gestures: ⌘1–⌘9 jump to a tab, ⌘[ / ⌘] step through them; long-press the closed notch for quick actions; swipe on the tab bar to change tabs, swipe up to close.
• Welcome tour for new installs in four steps: permissions, your tabs, your look, quick tour.
• Search in Settings, optional sounds and trackpad haptics (off by default), stronger contrast with Increase Contrast.
• Pro: resize the open notch with a live preview (or pinch it), edge trigger zones, tabs per display, remappable gestures, eight new themes (22 in all) and a theme editor with import/export (.notchtheme).

1.16.0 · 4 October 2026 · Free, Pro and Ultimate

• Three tiers, each paid once. Free stays complete. Pro is $1 and Ultimate is $5, with no subscription, no account and every future update included. Compare tiers.
• AI is free now: ask anything, follow-ups, Markdown/math/code rendering, with your own free key or on-device Ollama. Asking about your screen (⌃⌥S), selected text, images and PDFs, and AI History are Pro.
• Signed product keys (NTCH-PRO-… / NTCH-ULTM-…), checked on your Mac, offline. They're shown at checkout and emailed to you, work on up to 3 Macs, and can be activated with one click (notchapple://activate?key=…).
• Settings → License: your tier, the key, Deactivate this Mac, Lost my key?, Upgrade to Ultimate ($4), Compare tiers, Terms and refunds.
• Locked features say what they do and which tier they need, with a small 🔒 PRO badge, and never block anything free.
• Moved to Pro: Launcher, Snippets, Mirror, Focus timer, meeting alerts, download progress, rain alerts, lyrics, and automatic sync across Macs. Backup and restore, F1, sports, clipboard history, window snapping, AirDrop, screenshots, Shortcuts and the world clock stay free.
• Already bought Pro? Your NOTCH-… key or access code keeps working as Pro. Donors and anyone who paid $2 get Ultimate free; ask here.

1.15.3 · 3 October 2026

• Clearer cricket scores: each side's score under its name, LIVE or Result between them, and the match status ("West Indies require 166 runs") on its own line.

1.15.2 · 3 October 2026 · Windows, charts and a full view

• Window capture: hold the capture button and pick Window under the pointer (or make it the default in Settings → AI). Captures just that window, even if others overlap it.
• Charts and tables are recognised ("Looks like a chart or table") and suggest Explain, Summarize and Extract.
• Open full view: the conversation in a resizable window for long answers.
• First-run setup in the AI tab: pick free Gemini or private Ollama, Test connection, then try your first capture.
• Settings → AI → Temperature, and Settings → Appearance → Settings window (System, Light or Dark).

1.15.1 · 3 October 2026 · Match day, cricket and games

• Sports: match alerts (a notification 30 minutes before kick-off, and a flash in the notch on goals and at full time), a league table next to the fixtures, and match details (goalscorers, cards and lineups); click any score.
• Cricket: India's internationals and the IPL. National teams: World Cup, qualifiers, Nations League, Euro, Copa América, Asian Cup and friendlies.
• If ESPN is down or changes, Sports says unavailable instead of showing an empty tab.
• Notch Games (add-on): 2048, Snake and a reaction test for short breaks.
• Fixed: an old "Update available" notification could stay after you'd already updated.

Sports: your team, fixtures and a league table	Match details: goals, cards and lineups
League table next to the fixtures	Cricket: India's internationals and the IPL
Notch Games: 2048, Snake, reaction test

1.15.0 · 3 October 2026 · See it, capture it, understand it

• Capture anything with ⌃⌥S (change it in Settings → Shortcuts & Hotkeys): a region on the display under the pointer, Retina-sharp with the exact size shown, the whole display, or every display. Esc or right-click cancels.
• Any input: paste an image or text (⌘⇧V), drop an image or PDF on the AI tab, or use the text selected in another app.
• Modes: Solve, Explain, Explain simply, Answer only, Hint, Summarize, Translate, Extract text (on your Mac), Rewrite, Code and Ask, with suggestions from a quick on-device look at the capture.
• Streaming answers with Stop (keeps what's written), Retry (with a new provider if you switched), Edit, Copy and export to Markdown or text. Follow-ups remember the image.
• Readable maths instead of raw LaTeX, code blocks with Copy, and tables.
• History keeps the image, mode and model; search it, reopen and continue, export, and pick how long to keep it.
• Settings → AI: Test connection, a "reads images" badge, a Privacy summary and capture defaults. Retired models switch to a current one automatically.
• F1: a favourite team; qualifying gaps and best laps.
• What's New in Settings → About, shown once after updating.

New in 1.34.1

• PairDrop transfers complete (1.34.0 dropped every file partway). Tested over real loopback connections, and the release pipeline now runs that test.

New in 1.34.0 — HUGE UPDATE for Efficiency & Modular Design

• Home replaces Today: always-on Devices, Notifications and Quick Add, optional Claude usage, and Clipboard, Now Playing and Quick Notes that open on click.
• Claude usage as green / yellow / red lights for the 5-hour window and the week, a detail arrow, a 5-second notch badge, and Pin to Home.
• Algebra calculator (equations, systems, factor, diff, variables) and the Translator inside Tools.
• Non-Necessities: ten rarely-used tabs in one; Settings → Modules & Layout to place every feature.
• PairDrop rebuilt (any size, folders, progress, confirmed delivery, wrong-code limit), plus private chat and a custom name.
• A compulsory guided tour after updating, ending with the layout chooser.

New in 1.33.2

• Update works from anywhere. Fixed "Can't write to …/AppTranslocation/…": when Notch Apple is opened from the DMG or Downloads, the update now installs into Applications.

New in 1.33.1

• Patch log in the notch. After an update the notch opens on what changed, with switches for new optional features and a Got it button. No separate window.
• Gemini fallback. A failed Gemini request is retried on the next Gemini model (up to four), with a short notice in the chat and a toast in the notch.

New in 1.32.5 (includes 1.32.1 to 1.32.4, which never built)

• ⌥A blacks out the screen and brings it back; update reminders every 4th or 5th notch open; a what's new window with switches after updating; and no more locked permission screen.

New in 1.32.4

• No more locked screen. The required-permission screen is removed; the notch always shows your tabs. Turn Accessibility on in Settings → Permissions for the volume and brightness gauge, ⌥A and window snapping.

New in 1.32.3

• Update reminders. With an update waiting, every 4th or 5th time you open the notch it offers Update or Skip for now. Required updates have no skip.

New in 1.32.2

• Required updates. A release can be marked required; the open notch then shows only an Update now screen until you update. Settings and the menu bar keep working, and being offline never blocks you.
• "What's new" window after updating with a switch for each new optional feature, shown once.

New in 1.32.1

• ⌥A blacks out the screen and brings it back. Option+A takes the built-in display's brightness to zero; press it again to restore the previous level. Switch it off in Settings if you type "å".
• Fixed "Accessibility needed" when it was already on. After an update macOS kept a stale entry; Notch Apple now clears it once per version and asks again. There is also an It's already on: fix it button on the setup screen.

New in 1.30.3

• Add your VPN app, nothing else. In the VPN tab click VPN app and pick the app you already use (Proton VPN, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Mullvad, Surfshark, WireGuard, Tunnelblick, Tailscale… or any app). The power button opens it and turns green when your Mac has a VPN tunnel up. The custom address/username/password form is gone.
• A required setup step. Notch Apple needs the Accessibility permission (the volume and brightness gauge, window snapping, snippets and selected text depend on it). Until it is on, the open notch shows a setup screen; once granted, the gauge starts straight away.

New in 1.30.2

• Fixed the notch sitting below the top of the screen (1.30.0 and 1.30.1). A window-level change made for full-screen apps had lowered it under the menu bar; it is flush at the top again.
• Fixed double volume and brightness pop-ups. Notch Apple's gauge no longer shows on top of the macOS pop-up when "Hide the macOS pop-ups" is on but Accessibility isn't allowed yet.

New in 1.30.1

• Cookie Clicker buildings unlock as you bake (locked goals first, like the original).

New in 1.30.0 — a huge update

• Claude Code status dot. Green for 4 seconds when a Claude Code task finishes; yellow for 4 seconds when it needs your input or approval, or finishes with warnings or errors. Beside the closed notch and in the open notch's header. Settings → Notch Extras → Claude Code adds the two hooks to ~/.claude/settings.json (after saving a copy); scripts can use open -g "notchapple://claude-code?status=done" or status=attention.
• Pin in the notch header: keeps it open while you drag files in.
• A new VPN page: one big power button, a discreet server picker, your own custom VPNs (IKEv2, OpenVPN, WireGuard) with passwords kept in Notch Apple's private file. The VPN badge is removed from the header.
• AirDrop: drops work anywhere on the card, files from Finder and the Desktop are read correctly, errors are shown, and a new Text / code tab sends strings and snippets (as text or a file).
• Two new games: Cookie Clicker (click multipliers, auto-clickers, saved progress) and an arcade Runner.
• Live scores are now inside the Sports tab; the Live tab is now Parcels & Flights (off by default; "Not recommended - limited usefulness for most situations, low compatibility").
• Full-screen apps: the notch is re-asserted as a full-screen transition settles and can't be hidden with the app, including on Macs without a hardware notch.

New in 1.29.0

• Lid Fold (off by default). Fold your desktop like a closing laptop lid: it tilts, frosts and dims, then returns. Settings → Lid Fold has Preview, a timed demo and a ⌃⌥F fold-and-hold hotkey; on MacBooks with a lid-angle sensor, Follow the lid folds as you close the screen. Click, Esc or the hotkey always removes it; folds end by themselves (Preview about 4 s, demo 12 s, hotkey 30 s); errors, sleep, lock and display changes remove it too. It takes one still snapshot per display (needs Screen Recording; without it Preview uses a plain backdrop) and nothing leaves your Mac.
• Acknowledgements in Settings → About, with the licences of the projects Lid Fold builds on: Still (MIT) and LidAngleSensor (Apache 2.0). See LICENSES/.

New in 1.28.1

• Smoother window switching. Switching tabs now has the Duo blur-morph: the new page slides in from the side it sits on in the tab bar, coming into focus out of a blur, while the old page blurs and fades away. The two overlap while they swap, so nothing jumps. (Duo animations off or Reduce Motion on keeps the plain switch.)

New in 1.28.0

• Choose and arrange your tabs by dragging. The welcome tour asks which tabs you want and lets you put them in order by dragging cards: the other cards make room as you drag, + adds a tab, ✕ removes one, and a card dragged up into the row lands exactly where you drop it. No up and down arrows. The same organizer replaces the arrows in Settings → Appearance → Notch tabs and order, and it is the same list as Settings → Modules.
• Purge menu. The Purge tab is now a small menu: Free up space opens Purge, Review removed apps opens Purge's leftovers review, and if Purge isn't installed the tab asks Do you want to install Purge? Cleaning itself still happens inside Purge (it has no way for other apps to start a clean).

New in 1.27.3

• Duo animation fixed. Opening and closing the notch now has the Dynamic Island blur-morph: the shape grows out of the notch with a soft overshoot while its contents come into focus out of a blur, and on closing the contents blur away quickly as the notch tucks back in (no bounce). Reduce Motion still gives a plain fade.

New in 1.27.2

• Notch switches in Settings → Modules. Use iPhone Duo animations and Keep the notch visible in full-screen apps are now at the top of Settings → Modules as well as in Settings → Notch, so they're easy to find. Both are on by default.

New in 1.27.1

• The notch stays visible in full-screen apps, by default. Keep the notch visible in full-screen apps (Settings → Notch → Stepping aside) is now on out of the box, so the notch stays put when an app goes full screen, including on Macs without a hardware notch like the base M1. Turn it off there if you'd rather it step aside.

New in 1.27.0

• Tidier Settings. Permissions and Privacy are now one entry, Privacy & Permissions: choose it and pick which one to open (a switch at the top moves between them). Focus timer settings moved into Notch → Focus, so there is one sidebar row fewer to scroll past. Old links still open the right page.
• Snake without the lag. Quick taps are queued in order (two turns per move) instead of dropped, keys are read directly from the system, the game ticks off the main thread, and the board is one fast canvas.
• Two new games: Breakout (mouse or ← → moves the paddle, click or Space launches, three lives, faster levels) and Memory (repeat the pattern of lights, one more each round). Every game keeps its best score, and one Sound switch in the Games sidebar covers them all.

New in 1.26.1

• Purge instead of our own cleaner. The Ultimate Cache Cleaner tab from 1.26.0 is now the Purge tab: it opens the Purge app (a separate disk cleaner) from the notch, or links you to it if it isn't installed. Notch Apple no longer scans or deletes anything itself.
• Tab-bar swipe fixed. A two-finger sideways swipe over the tab bar used to scroll the tabs and switch to the next one. It now only scrolls. Prefer the old behaviour? Settings → Notch → Swipe on the tab bar switches tabs.

New in 1.26.0

• iPhone Duo animations (on by default). The open panel springs out of the notch with a soft bounce, the highlight slides between tabs as one shape, and the page you switch to scales and de-blurs into place, like the Dynamic Island. Turn them off in Settings → Notch → Use iPhone Duo animations. With Reduce Motion on, everything is a short fade.
• Cache Cleaner (Ultimate). A new tab that scans app caches, Xcode derived data, logs and old temporary files, shows a storage bar split by category, and clears what you tick in one click, keeping a running total of the space freed. It only touches those four places in your own folders, and never Apple's own caches. Switch it on in Settings → Modules or in the welcome tour. Without Ultimate the tab shows what it does and how to unlock it.
• Keep the notch visible in full-screen apps (Settings → Notch → Stepping aside). For Macs without a hardware notch, like the base M1, where the notch used to disappear when an app went full screen: it now stays on top of full-screen Spaces.
• Welcome tour: the tab picker also offers Translator, Mac Stats and Cache Cleaner, and your choices are the same switches as Settings → Modules.

New in 1.25.0

• Your own hot corners. Settings → Notch → Hot corners: push the pointer into any corner of the screen to open a website, an app, a file or folder, run a Shortcut, open Mission Control, or open and close the notch. Choose a different action for each corner, how long the pointer must rest there, and optionally a key to hold (⌥, ⌘, ⌃ or ⇧) so you never trigger one by accident. A corner fires once per visit; move out and back to fire it again. Corners where two displays meet are ignored. They work next to macOS's own hot corners: in System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Hot Corners, set a corner to “–” if you give it to Notch Apple. Free for everyone.

New in 1.24.3

• Anonymous rooms work again. The free public relays were refusing messages (ntfy.sh's daily quota) or unreachable on many networks. Rooms now go through Notch Apple's own relay (a Cloudflare Worker that forwards encrypted messages live and stores nothing), with the public relays as backups. Everyone in a room should update.

New in 1.24.2

• Messenger rooms fix: everyone in a room now sees everyone's messages, even when their networks block different relays. Each Mac connects to all relays at once and drops duplicates. Works with people still on older versions too.

New in 1.24.1

• Bug fix: Messenger and AI chat now open scrolled to the latest message instead of the oldest.

Windows 1.26.5 BETA

• Choose your features on first launch, one at a time. A welcome flow goes through the tabs one by one: a picture of what it does, what plan it needs, and Turn on or Not now (with a progress bar and a Back button). Pro and Ultimate tabs are shown too; turning one on tells you it has to be bought, with the price, the flyer and a link to the website (and a box for your key if you already have one). Run it again any time from Settings → Tabs → Choose with pictures….
• No more jumping at startup. The notch used to appear at Windows' default spot and move twice before settling. It now stays hidden until its final position is applied.
• Opening no longer flashes the wrong size. The notch now waits until the page has actually reached its new size before showing the content, on opening and closing.
• Updates are more reliable. The installer now starts a couple of seconds after the app closes, so it can no longer fail with "Failed to kill Notch Apple".
• Glass (see-through notch) stays off by default.

Windows 1.26.4 BETA

• Fixes 1.26.3: the pill could turn into a solid black rectangle after the notch closed, and the open notch could look see-through without being blurred. Glass is now an opt-in experiment, and turning it off keeps the window transparent.
• Adds the blur-to-focus transition when opening and switching tabs.

Windows 1.26.3 BETA

• It grows out of the notch. Opening now morphs the panel out of the pill's own shape (and closing shrinks it back in), instead of the window just jumping to full size. Performance mode Lite and Animations Off skip the motion.
• Fades and blur. Opening fades and scales the notch in (and closing fades it out), and switching tabs fades the old page out as the new one fades in, all in about a quarter of a second. Content also comes into focus out of a soft blur as the notch opens and as you switch tabs, like the Mac, and menus, toasts and dialogs get a real backdrop blur. Glass (the desktop showing through behind the open notch, Settings → Appearance → Style) is experimental and off by default: Windows does not let an app blur the desktop behind a custom rounded window the way macOS does.
• A proper notch. The closed pill now has squircle bottom corners and concave "ears" that flow into the top edge of the screen, and the time is crisp white, semibold and exactly centred. When something is playing or running, it shows on the left and right as before.
• Settings stays put. The Settings gear is pinned at the top right of a fixed header, so it never scrolls away with the tabs. The tab strip scrolls on its own and fades at the edges.
• Softer, rounder look. Cards, buttons and menus use larger continuous (squircle) corners, the open notch has a layered material with a top highlight, and a soft diffused shadow separates it from the desktop. Margins are roomier (24 px).
• Update button, like the Mac. When a new version is ready, an Update button (and Not now, which hides it for that version) appears in the open notch, next to the notification and the card in Settings → Updates.
• Windows cannot blur your desktop behind a rounded, shadowed window the way macOS does, so the material is drawn in layers instead of using Mica or Acrylic.

Windows 1.26.2 BETA

• Updates install in one step. Install and restart now runs the installer with just a progress bar and reopens Notch Apple when it finishes, instead of walking you through the installer pages again. The "update ready" notification now points to Settings → Updates.
• Lighter on small machines. On a PC with 6 GB of memory or less (including small virtual machines), Notch Apple starts its web engine in a low-memory mode: smaller caches and a cap on the page's JavaScript heap. Site isolation stays on.

Windows 1.26.1 BETA

• Smoother and lighter. The notch opens and closes without the jump: the window now resizes in one step, and the pill and panel are hidden while it does, so neither is ever drawn at the wrong size. Switching tabs no longer animates layout, and the playing-bars animation no longer re-lays out the page every frame.
• Performance mode (Settings → Appearance → Style). Auto measures how fast your screen draws right after the first open and, on slow graphics (a virtual machine, an old laptop), turns off the glows and looping animations by itself. Choose Full or Lite to force it.
• Frame readout: press Ctrl+Shift+F to show frames per second, the slowest recent frame, long tasks and memory, so slowness can be measured and reported.

Windows 1.26.0 BETA

• Looks like the Mac app: a new tab bar with one consistent icon set (the open tab shows its name), a Settings sidebar with coloured section tiles, rounder cards, and 20 tabs on by default instead of 9.
• Updates have their own section (Settings → Updates): current version, Check now, release notes and Install and restart. Beta builds now count as updates, so you'll be offered every new Windows build automatically.
• Sports: cricket (India's internationals and the IPL) and badminton (the BWF World Tour calendar). The "Next match" card no longer squashes over the fixture list.
• Smoother start: background services now start one at a time instead of all at once. The theme picker no longer jumps back to the top when you pick a colour.
• Mac only: iCloud and Apple Reminders sync, trackpad gestures, the screen ruler and the iPhone companion (7 of the 64 Pro and Ultimate features need Apple services).

Windows 1.25.0 BETA

The Windows app is rebuilt from scratch to match the Mac app. It's a beta: please report anything that doesn't work to [email protected].

• New tabs: Now Playing (with lyrics), F1, Timer, Games, Markets, Home, Audio (volume per app), Snippets, Voice Notes, Screen Time, Quick Add, Messenger (encrypted rooms that work with the Mac app), Mirror, VPN, Devices, Live, Actions, Plugins, Share and window snapping.
• Like the Mac: live activities on the closed pill (timer, music, live scores, meetings, downloads), the Windows Hello lock, the Ctrl+K command palette, 22 themes plus your own, in-app updates, and backup and restore.
• Fixed: clipboard history now records in the background (text, images and files); Focus and Timer keep running when the notch is closed; Keep Awake holds; the pill hides over fullscreen videos and games and can sit left, centre or right; clicking elsewhere closes the panel; opening the app twice no longer makes a second pill; AI, weather and sports are no longer blocked; real app icons and Store apps in the Launcher; instant search.
• Free, Pro and Ultimate match the Mac. Clipboard, Translator, PC Stats and Shelf are now free on Windows too.
• Mac only: iCloud and Apple Reminders sync, trackpad gestures, the screen ruler and the iPhone companion.

Windows 1.24.0

• Free, Pro and Ultimate on Windows too. The Windows app no longer needs a code to open. Free covers Today, AI, Sports, Browser, Search, To-do, Notes, World Clock and Tools; Pro adds Launcher, Clipboard, Focus, Translator, PC Stats and Shelf.
• One key for Mac and Windows: NTCH-PRO-… / NTCH-ULTM-… keys from the website work in Settings → Access (3 devices per key). Old NOTCH-XXXX-XXXX codes still work as Pro.
• New: a To-do tab, a unit converter in Tools, and a Ctrl + K command palette.

The full list for every release is on the website and in the GitHub releases.

New in 1.14.6

• Sports (Mac and Windows, on for everyone): follow your team and everything it plays. Everyone tracks Barcelona by default, with the next match and a countdown, every competition it plays in (La Liga, Champions League, cups), recent results, and the live score beside the closed notch during the match. Pick any other team in Change, or tap a team in the fixtures list. Browse the next two weeks of fixtures and scores in La Liga, the Premier League, Serie A, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1, the Champions League, the Europa League, Liga Portugal, the Eredivisie, MLS, the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL. Free, no account (ESPN's public feed).

New in 1.14.5

• F1 (add-on): Formula 1 in the notch: the live running order during sessions, then the full classification with gaps, tyres, laps and the flag, plus the weekend schedule in your time zone with a countdown, and driver and team standings. Click a driver to follow them, and during a session their position and the lap show beside the closed notch.
• Updates: when a new release is out you get a notification, an Update button in the notch and a card in Settings → Updates: choose Update or Not now. Turn automatic checks off there if you prefer.
• Donate in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana or Litecoin: see Donate.

New in 1.14.3

• Same features as 1.14.2, with the short-lived free trial build replaced. Nothing that was free became paid.

New in 1.14.2

• Nothing that was free became paid. Now Playing, windows, clipboard, shelf, focus, tools and the rest stay free forever; Pro is the same features as before.
• Get Pro on the website: a product key for $1 in crypto (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana or Litecoin) (or $2 to cover fees and support the high school developers), or free with a promo code. Keys are made instantly, work once, on one Mac. Get Pro →
• Product keys (NOTCH-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX) are checked online and re-verified against the blockchain; older access codes keep working.

Features

Every module is optional and can be switched on or off in Settings → Modules. Pro features (AI, Messenger, Audio, VPN, Voice Notes, Screen Time & Focus Blocker, Quick Add) need an access code; everything else, including Now Playing, is free.

Module	What it does
☀️ Today	The date, current weather, your next calendar events (with a Now badge for meetings in progress) and battery at a glance.
⏱ Focus	A Pomodoro timer: 25-minute focus sessions and 5-minute breaks, with a long break every 4th session. While it runs, the countdown shows beside the closed notch. You get a notification and a sound when each session ends. Lengths are adjustable in Settings → Focus.
🔋 Charging	Plug in or unplug the charger and the notch briefly shows your battery level. Turn it off in Settings → General.
✨ AI	Press ⌃⌥S to capture part of any screen (or paste, drop an image or PDF, or use selected text) and pick a mode: Solve, Explain, Explain simply, Answer only, Hint, Summarize, Translate, Extract text (on your Mac), Rewrite, Code or Ask. Answers stream in with readable maths; Stop, Retry, Edit, Copy and follow-ups that remember the image. Free AI (Gemini, Groq, OpenRouter, or Ollama on your Mac) or your own Claude, ChatGPT or DeepSeek key. See AI in the notch.
🪟 Windows	A split-screen window manager. Drag any window up to the notch and a strip of snap zones drops down: halves, quarters (4 windows on one screen), thirds, two-thirds, fill and center. Or snap from the Windows tab, or with ⌃⌥ + arrow keys. Arrange all tiles every window on the screen at once (split screen, 3 columns, a 4/6/9 grid, main + stack, cascade). Save a whole layout and put every window back in one click. See Window management.
🧰 Tools	Text Grab copies the text from any area of the screen (even images and videos), recognised on your Mac. Keep Awake stops your Mac sleeping for 30 minutes, 1 or 2 hours, or until you turn it off. Color Picker picks any colour on screen and copies its hex code (right-click a swatch for RGB). Calculator answers as you type ((12.5 + 7) × 3), and Return copies the result.

Live activities: like the iPhone's Dynamic Island, the closed notch shows small indicators on either side:

• the focus countdown
• battery when charging, plus a low battery warning at 20% and 10%
• a purple dot for unread messages
• timers and the stopwatch
• the screen recording timer
• download and copy progress (Safari, Chrome, Finder, AirDrop)
• the Keep Awake countdown
• "Join" from 2 minutes before a Zoom, Meet, Teams or Webex call in your calendar (click the notch, then Join)
• "rain in 15 min"
• the mic or camera being in use
• a followed team's live score
• new notifications

Choose which ones show in Settings → Notch Extras.

Gestures: scroll with two fingers on the closed notch to change the volume, and swipe sideways to skip to the next or previous track.

External displays: the notch can live on your built-in display, on the display with the pointer (it follows you from screen to screen), or on the main display. Displays without a notch get a virtual one. Set this in Settings → Notch Extras.

Also new in 1.14:

• Screen recording:
  • pause and resume
  • a live timer beside the notch
  • the notch is left out of the video
  • a trim step when you stop
• Synced lyrics in Now Playing (from LRCLIB), plus previous, play/pause and next buttons.
• Rain alerts and Join buttons for video calls in Today.
• Paste straight from Clipboard history.
• AirDrop everything on the File Shelf.
• A 7-day focus chart, and Do Not Disturb during focus sessions (via a shortcut; see Settings → Focus).
• A RAM graph and heat level in Mac Stats.

Open the notch by clicking it, pressing ⌘J (changeable in Settings → Shortcuts & Hotkeys) in any app, or dragging a file onto it. Press Esc or ⌘E, or click anywhere else, to close it.

Open on hover (optional, off by default): turn it on in Settings → General. The notch then opens when the pointer rests on it and closes when the pointer moves away. Click inside to keep it open while you type or drag. With the option off, hovering only highlights the notch.

⌘J is a system-wide shortcut registered through Carbon, so it needs no Accessibility permission. While it's on, other apps won't receive ⌘J (it is Downloads in Safari and Chrome, and View Options in Finder). You can turn it off in Settings → General.

Hide the notch with ⌃⌥O (change it in Settings → Shortcuts & Hotkeys): press it from anywhere to make the notch and its menu-bar icon disappear, and press it again to bring them back. Everything keeps running while it's hidden (music, timers, Messenger), and ⌘E also brings it back. Settings → Shortcuts & Hotkeys shows whether it's visible or hidden and has the on/off switch.

When the VPN module is on, a VPN On/Off pill in the notch header shows the tunnel status. The full VPN setup (importing profiles and loading free servers) is under Settings → VPN.

Window management

The Windows module arranges your app windows without leaving the notch. It needs one permission: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility → Notch Apple (the Windows tab has a button that takes you there).

• Drag to the notch: start dragging any window by its title bar and move the pointer up to the notch. Snap zones appear underneath; move onto one (its name lights up) and let go.
• Snap from the notch: open the Windows tab and click a layout. It applies to the window you were just using.
• Arrange all windows: Split screen (2 side by side), 3 columns, Grid (4, 6 or 9 windows, depending on how many are open), Main + stack (one large window with the rest stacked beside it), or Cascade.
• Saved layouts: press + to remember where every window is, and click the saved layout later to put them all back. Apps that aren't open are skipped.
• Next display moves the window to your other screen, keeping its relative size and position.
• Undo puts the last snapped window back where it was.

Shortcut	Action
⌃⌥← / ⌃⌥→	Left / right half
⌃⌥↑ / ⌃⌥↓	Top / bottom half
⌃⌥↩	Fill the screen
⌃⌥C	Center
⌃⌥⌫	Undo the last snap

The gap between windows, the drag-to-notch zones and the shortcuts can be changed in Settings → Windows. If you allowed Accessibility for a version before 1.12.0 and snapping doesn't work, remove Notch Apple from the Accessibility list with −, then turn it on again. From 1.12.0 the permission carries over to future updates.

Other things new in 1.11: the notch remembers the last tab you had open. Notch Apple is no longer sandboxed, because macOS only gives Accessibility to sandboxed apps from the App Store. Your settings, notes, clipboard and AI history are moved over automatically the first time 1.11 opens.

File Search

The Search tab searches your Mac with Spotlight, the same index Finder and ⌘Space use, so it's instant and never walks folders on its own. Start typing and it shows the 30 best matches: exact names first, then names that start with what you typed, with apps ranked higher. Hidden files, caches, node_modules, build folders and system folders are skipped.

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Move the highlight
Return or click	Open
⌘R or ⌥-click	Reveal in Finder
Drag	Drop onto the File Shelf, or into any app

Settings → File Search turns the tab on or off, sets the scope (User home folder only, the default, or Entire Mac) and picks the file types to include. With every type ticked, folders and all other files are included too.

If macOS stops Notch Apple reading Downloads, Documents or Desktop, a warning appears with a Grant Full Disk Access in System Settings button that opens the right page.

Other things new in 1.12: no more keychain password prompts. Earlier versions saved API keys and face-unlock data in the login Keychain, and because the app is ad-hoc signed, macOS asked for your login password again after every update. They're now stored in a private file only your user account can read. After updating, paste your AI API keys again and set up face unlock again.

Backup and sync your setup

Settings → Backup & Sync keeps your whole notch setup safe:

• Notch Apple account: Continue with Google (Sign in with Apple is coming) and your setup and access code are saved to your account, then restored on any Mac you sign in on, with Pro unlocked. It's stored in Firebase, where only you can read it; the access code is kept as a secure fingerprint, never the code itself. You'll find it in Settings → Backup & Sync and Settings → License & Activation.
• Sync with your Apple ID: turn on Keep my notch setup in iCloud and it's saved to iCloud Drive → Notch apple every time you change something. On a new Mac, install Notch apple, open this page and click Restore from iCloud. There's no separate account to create.
• Backup file: Export settings… saves a .notchsettings file, and Import settings… brings it back, on this Mac or another.

It covers your modules, tab order, theme, shortcuts, Notch Extras, snippets, launcher apps, cities and more. AI keys, your access code and your Messenger identity are never included.

Plugins

Put a script in ~/Library/Application Support/Notch apple/Plugins (or click Add example in the Plugins tab), and its output shows as a card in the notch. Any language works: shell, Python, Ruby, anything with a #! line.

• The first line of output is the card's headline; the other lines are its text.
• Add | href=https://… to a line to make it a link, or | run=command to run a shell command when it's clicked.
• The file name sets how often it runs: weather.10m.sh, cpu.5s.py, news.1h.rb (default every 5 minutes). Scripts are stopped after 10 seconds.

#!/bin/zsh
echo "Disk: $(df -h / | awk 'NR==2 {print $4}') free"
echo "Uptime $(uptime | sed 's/.*up \([^,]*\),.*/\1/')"
echo "Open GitHub | href=https://github.com"

The full format, the SDK (Ultimate) and how to add a plugin to the gallery: docs/PLUGINS.md.

iPhone companion

Ultimate. An iPhone app that talks to your Mac over Wi-Fi, with no server in between.

From the iPhone you can:

• send text and links to the notch (text lands on the Mac's clipboard),
• see the Mac's battery and what's playing,
• play, pause or skip music,
• start a timer or Keep Awake,
• open the notch.

Install (it isn't on the App Store, which needs the paid developer program):

1. Download NotchAppleCompanion.ipa from the latest release.
2. Install it with Sideloadly and your Apple ID. With a free Apple ID, iOS asks you to reinstall it every 7 days.
3. On the Mac: Settings → iPhone, turn on the iPhone companion, press Pair an iPhone, and type the 12-character code (letters and numbers) on the phone. Use the iPhone app from the same release as the Mac app: phones paired before keep working, but a new pairing needs the new app.

How it works:

• Both devices need to be on the same Wi-Fi.
• Pairing uses a code that works once, lasts 2 minutes and stops working after 5 wrong tries. It is long enough that a recording of the pairing can't be cracked later, and the key exchange uses fresh keys, so learning the code afterwards doesn't help either.
• Every request after that carries a counter, so a captured request can't be played back.
• After that, every message is sealed with a key only your phone and Mac have.
• In Shortcuts you get Send to Mac notch and Get Mac status.

Focus

macOS doesn't tell apps when a Focus turns on, so a Shortcuts automation does it:

1. Open Shortcuts → Automation → New Automation → Focus, pick a Focus (say Work) and When Turning On.
2. Add Open URLs with notchapple://focus?on=1&profile=Work.
3. Make a second automation for When Turning Off with notchapple://focus?on=0.

Choose what happens in Settings → Notch → Focus:

• carry on as usual,
• stay quiet (no alerts or flashes),
• or hide the notch.

With Pro, the profile with that name (Settings → Profiles & Rules) switches on too.

AppleScript

tell application "Notch Apple" to toggle notch
tell application "Notch Apple" to run notch command "open/ai"
tell application "Notch Apple" to run notch command "timer?minutes=25"
tell application "Notch Apple" to run notch command "ask?q=What's on today?" -- Ultimate

Any notchapple:// command works, with the same tier rules as links and scripts/notch.

Performance

Measured on Apple silicon with the notch closed and Sports, F1 and Timer on: 0.05% CPU on average (0.3% peak) over a minute, about 80 MB of memory. There's no polling while idle:

• Live tabs only fetch while they're open, or on a slow heartbeat (every 30 seconds, slower in Low Power Mode).
• Animations follow the display (up to 120 Hz on ProMotion) and stop when nothing moves.

Live activities API

Ultimate. Show your own live activity beside the closed notch, from Terminal, Shortcuts or your own app. Activities only exist on your Mac, in memory.

open -g "notchapple://activity?id=build&title=Build&text=42%25&symbol=hammer.fill&progress=0.42&color=34C759&seconds=600"
open -g "notchapple://activity/end?id=build"

Or use the helper in scripts/notch-activity (also notch activity … in scripts/notch, which can open tabs, start timers, ask the AI, add notes and to-dos, and switch themes):

scripts/notch-activity build --title Build --symbol hammer.fill --progress 0.3
scripts/notch-activity build --end

From an app, post a distributed notification named com.notchapple.activity with the same keys in userInfo (add end: true to remove it).

Key	Meaning
id	Required. Updating the same id replaces it
title	Up to 14 characters, left ear
text	Up to 16 characters, right ear
symbol	Any SF Symbol name
progress	0 to 1; without text it draws a bar
color	RRGGBB
seconds	How long it stays (default 10 minutes, up to 12 hours)

Up to five at a time; the most recently updated one shows (two with Two activities at once).

Control the notch from Shortcuts

Use the Open URL action in Apple Shortcuts (or open in Terminal) with these links:

Link	Does
notchapple://open/timer	Opens the notch on a tab (any tab name: today, claude, snippets…)
notchapple://toggle, close, hide, show	Opens / closes / hides / shows the notch
notchapple://timer?minutes=10, timer/stop	Starts or stops a timer
notchapple://stopwatch, stopwatch/stop	Starts or stops the stopwatch
notchapple://focus/start, focus/stop	Starts or pauses a focus session
notchapple://keepawake?minutes=30, keepawake/off	Keep Awake on (optionally for a while) or off
notchapple://snippet?name=Thanks	Pastes a saved snippet
notchapple://record, screenshot	Starts or stops a screen recording, or takes a screenshot

Updates

Mac: from 1.12.0, Notch Apple updates itself from this repository's GitHub releases. (On Windows, download and run the newest installer instead: see Install on Windows.)

• When a new release is published, you get a notification ("Update available. Would you like to update?"), an Update button appears in the notch, and Settings → Updates shows a badge with the release notes.
• Press Update and it downloads the new DMG, checks the app inside is genuine Notch Apple, replaces your copy and reopens. Your settings and data are kept.
• Press Not now to skip that version. You'll only be asked again when a newer one comes out.
• Don't want updates at all? Turn off Check for updates automatically in Settings → Updates. You can still press Check now any time.

Checking only asks GitHub for the latest release. Nothing about you is sent.

Notch Apple for Windows

The Windows version lives in NotchWindows/. It is a separate app, not a port of the Swift code (built with Tauri 2: a Rust shell plus a web UI), because the macOS app is almost entirely SwiftUI and AppKit, and none of those exist on Windows.

Windows PCs have no camera notch, so the collapsed state is a slim pill pinned to the top centre of your screen. Clicking it drops the panel down, the same way the Mac version opens out of the notch. Download it here.

What's in it

Tab	Notes
☀️ Today	Date, clock, local weather (free Open-Meteo, no key), battery, uptime
✨ AI	Gemini, OpenRouter, Groq, Ollama, ChatGPT, Claude. Asks about your screen by taking a screenshot. Carries over the OpenRouter retry/fallback, so a busy free model switches to one that works
🎾 Tennis	Same as macOS: every ATP and WTA match in Men, Women and Mixed, Grand Slams in red, earlier weeks, the top 20, and favourite players' live scores on the pill
⚽ Sports	Your team (Barcelona by default): next match with a countdown, every competition it plays in, recent results, and the live score on the closed pill while it's on. A league picker shows the next two weeks of fixtures for the big football leagues, NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL; tap any team to track it
🌐 Browser	Address bar + search (DuckDuckGo, Google, Bing, Brave, Ecosia). Pages open in a separate always-on-top window, because the panel is only ~450 px tall
🚀 Launcher	Pick from everything in your Start Menu, click a tile to open it
🔍 Search	Finds files and folders in Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music, Videos and OneDrive
📋 Clipboard	History of what you copy while the app runs
📝 Notes · ⏱ Focus · 🕐 World Clock · 🛠 Tools	Same as macOS
🈯 Translator	7 languages with a pronunciation line (pinyin, Latin for Arabic/Hindi)
📊 PC Stats	Live RAM, CPU, network speed, disk and battery
🗂 Shelf	Drop files to keep them handy
⚙️ Settings	All 14 colour themes, module switches, AI keys, access code (with Remove access), shortcuts

Notch Apple for Windows is locked until you enter an access code. Nothing opens, and no tab loads, without one: every tab shows the lock screen, and the pill reads 🔒 Locked. Once a valid code is entered, the whole app unlocks. The same 50 codes work on Windows and macOS; the app ships only their SHA-256 hashes, exactly like the Mac build, so the codes themselves are never stored in it.

To remove access: open Settings → Access → Remove access & lock, then confirm. That deletes the code from this PC and locks the app straight away. Tick Also erase everything I saved to wipe your notes, AI keys, clipboard history and settings too.

Windows shortcuts

Keys	What it does
Ctrl + Alt + N	Open or close the notch, from any app
Ctrl + Alt + O	Hide or show the notch completely
Esc	Close the notch while it is open

Windows reserves most Win-key combinations, so Ctrl + Alt is used instead of the Mac's ⌘J / ⌃⌥O.

What doesn't carry over

Feature	Why
AirDrop	Apple-only. PairDrop could be added later; it is web-based
Face unlock	Built on Apple's Vision framework; Windows Hello is not open to apps the same way
Notification Center widget	Windows widgets are a different system entirely
Window snapping	Windows already has Snap Layouts and PowerToys FancyZones
Per-app volume	Windows has this built into the volume mixer
VPN tab	Tunnelblick is macOS-only; use the OpenVPN GUI for Windows

Want a lighter version?

Every feature is optional, so the easiest way to slim Notch Apple down is to turn off what you don't need in Settings → Modules. Turned-off modules disappear from the notch and stop running in the background.

Older versions (1.15.3 and earlier) are no longer available to download: they were made before Free, Pro and Ultimate. Every current version includes everything they had. All releases since 1.16.0 are on the releases page.

Permissions

On first launch, Notch Apple opens Settings → Permissions. It shows everything in one place, with a switch or Allow button for each, and all of it is optional:

• Open at login / run in the background: registers Notch Apple as a login item. If macOS asks, approve it under System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions ("Allow in the Background").
• Notifications: messages and focus timer alerts.
• Location: local weather in Today and the widget (approximate location only). Without it, weather uses the city you choose in Settings → Widget.
• Calendars: your next events.
• Camera: only for face unlock.

The table below lists when each is asked for.

Permission	Used by	When it's asked
Screen Recording	AI capture (⌃⌥S), "what's on my screen?", Text Grab	The first time you capture. macOS applies it after Notch Apple restarts; the AI tab offers Open System Settings and Relaunch if it's missing
Local Network	PairDrop, Messenger (Nearby Wi-Fi)	The first time either looks for nearby devices
Calendars	Widget	When the widget first loads
Touch ID / password	Biometric Lock	Each time you open the notch while the lock is on
Location	Weather	The first time you open Today (approximate location, weather only)
Camera	Face unlock	When you set up or use face unlock. Only a face template is saved, never photos
Full Disk Access (optional)	Search, Notifications add-on	Never asked automatically. Only if you choose to, so Search can include protected folders, or the Notifications tab can read Notification Center's list
Automation (Music, Spotify, Messages)	Lyrics, iMessage replies	The first time lyrics look up the song position, or you send a reply
Microphone status	Devices add-on	Never asked: it only checks whether the mic is in use, and never records
Accessibility	Windows (snapping and tiling), Snippets and Clipboard paste, AI → Use selected text	When you first use the Windows tab. Used to move and resize windows, to paste snippets into the app in front, and to read the text you selected. Copy and paste works without it
System audio recording	Audio → per-app volume / EQ	The first time you change an app's volume or EQ. Audio is processed on your Mac and never recorded or sent anywhere

AI in the notch

Capture → pick a mode → answer

1. Capture. Press ⌃⌥S in any app (or the viewfinder button in the AI tab). The display under the pointer freezes: drag a box, click for the whole display, or press Esc / right-click to cancel. Hold the viewfinder button for the window under the pointer, the whole display or all displays. Or paste (⌘⇧V: an image, copied file or text), drop an image or PDF on the AI tab, or Use selected text.

2. Pick a mode. The first suggestions come from a quick look at the text on your Mac ("Looks like math", "Looks like an error message"…), never a guess presented as fact:

   Mode	What you get
   Solve	Short numbered steps and a final Answer: line
   Explain / Explain simply	A clear explanation, or a beginner one with an example
   Answer only	Just the answer
   Hint	One hint, without giving the solution away
   Summarize	A few bullets and what matters most
   Translate	Detects the language and translates into yours
   Extract text	Done on your Mac with Apple's text recognition; nothing is sent
   Rewrite	A clearer version of the text
   Code	What the code or error means, then a fixed version
   Ask	Your own question about the input

3. Keep going. Answers stream in with readable maths, code blocks with Copy, and tables. Stop keeps what's written, Retry asks again (with the provider you switched to, if any), Edit puts your question back, and follow-ups like "why?" or "explain step 3" still see the capture. More copies the whole conversation, exports it as Markdown or text, or opens it in a resizable full view window.

Questions not about the screen work too: just type. Ask "what's on my screen?" and a screenshot is attached for you (the notch itself is left out).

Choose your AI

The first time, the AI tab walks you through it: pick free Gemini or private Ollama, Test connection, then try a capture. Later, change provider in the notch or in Settings → AI (where you can also set the temperature). A badge shows whether the model reads images, and On this Mac shows when Ollama is answering locally.

Provider	Cost	Get a key	Notes
Notch Apple AI	Included with Pro and Ultimate (Pro 60 messages a day, Ultimate 200)	No key: choose it in Settings → AI	Answered by Notch Apple's server with the project's own AI account; reads images. Your own keys below have no limit.
Google Gemini	Free tier, no billing	aistudio.google.com/apikey	Fast; reads images. The default (gemini-3.8-flash).
Groq	Free tier, no billing	console.groq.com/keys	Very fast open models (Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek-distilled and more).
OpenRouter	Free models, no billing	openrouter.ai/keys	Only the free models are listed. The selection changes over time.
Ollama	Free, runs on your Mac	No key. Download Ollama	Private and offline. For images run ollama pull gemma3:4b once; text-only models like llama3.2 work for text.
DeepSeek	Paid, low cost (top up a balance)	platform.deepseek.com	The official DeepSeek API (deepseek-chat, deepseek-reasoner). Text only.
Claude	Paid (your Anthropic account)	console.anthropic.com
ChatGPT (OpenAI)	Paid (your OpenAI account)	platform.openai.com	The OpenAI API has no free tier.

Free OpenRouter models are shared and often busy, and many can't read images: Notch Apple picks an image-capable free model, retries once if the host is busy, then falls back to other free models and tells you which one answered. If a saved model is retired by its provider, Notch Apple switches to a current one and says so.

History

Every task is saved in Settings → AI History, on your Mac only: the image (up to 1600 px, so you can continue later), the mode, your questions, the answers and the model that wrote each one. Search questions, answers, modes and dates; Continue, Copy, Export as Markdown, or delete one or all. In the menu at the top, turn saving off, stop keeping images, or delete chats automatically after 1, 7 or 30 days.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Does
⌃⌥S	Capture for AI, from any app (even with the notch hidden)
⌘J	Open or close the notch (it was ⌘E or ⌃⌥N before 2.0.24)
⌃⌥O	Hide or show the whole notch (⌘O before 2.0.6)
⌃⌥ + arrows, ↩, C, ⌫	Snap the front window: halves, maximise, centre, restore
Esc	Close the notch, or cancel a capture
In the AI tab: ↩	Send / run
⌘⇧V	Paste an image or text as the input
⌘. · ⌘R	Stop · Retry
⌘⇧C · ⌘N	Copy the answer · New task

Change the three global shortcuts in Settings → Shortcuts & Hotkeys. They use macOS's built-in hot keys, so they need no Accessibility permission and work in full-screen apps.

Pro and Ultimate

Notch Apple is free, and the free tier is complete. Two one-time upgrades add more:

	Free	Pro · $1 once	Ultimate · $5 once
The notch, Now Playing, timers, calendar, weather, clipboard, shelf, F1, sports, games, window snapping, backup	✓	✓	✓
AI: ask anything with your own free key or Ollama	✓	✓	✓
AI about your screen (⌃⌥S), selected text, images and PDFs; AI History		✓	✓
Messenger, Audio, VPN, Voice Notes, Screen Time, Quick Add, Launcher, Snippets, Mirror, Focus		✓	✓
Meeting alerts, download progress, rain alerts, lyrics, sync across Macs		✓	✓
Home, profiles, per-app rules, command palette, text expander, markup, web search, personas, voice, Markets, flight status, more themes		✓	✓
Live Activities API, two activities at once, AI automations, plugin SDK and gallery, scripting, notes sync, beta channel, priority support			✓

The full feature-by-feature plan is in docs/TIERS.md.

• Buy on the pricing page, in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana or Litecoin. Each order gets its own exact amount, which is how the payment is matched to you. Your key is shown straight away and emailed.
• Activate in Settings → License (paste the key) or with the Activate in Notch Apple link. The key is checked on your Mac against a public key built into the app, so it works offline. It works on up to 3 of your Macs; Deactivate this Mac frees a slot.
• Upgrade from Pro to Ultimate for the $4 difference. Your Pro key keeps working until you activate the new one.
• Lost your key? Use Lost my key? on the pricing page; it's emailed to the address you bought with.
• Keys from before tiers (NOTCH-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX and access codes) keep working as Pro.
• Refunds are case by case; see the terms.
• Questions about a purchase: [email protected].
• How the paid features are protected, and what a modified copy can and can't do: docs/PROTECTING_PAID_FEATURES.md.
• The license server's source is published too: server/license-worker. Its signing key and admin codes are never in the repository.

Troubleshooting

• Captures show only the wallpaper, or say Screen Recording is needed. Turn on Notch Apple in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording, then relaunch it (the AI tab has both buttons). After an update, if it still fails, remove Notch Apple from that list with − and add it again.
• ⌃⌥S does nothing. Another app may own the combination: Settings → Shortcuts & Hotkeys shows a warning; pick another shortcut.
• "Can't read images". The selected model is text only. Pick a vision model (any Gemini model, or gemma3:4b in Ollama).
• "Isn't available" / "rate-limiting you". The model was retired (Notch Apple switches automatically) or the free tier is busy: wait a minute and press Retry, or switch provider.
• Ollama isn't running. Install it from ollama.com, open it, and run ollama pull gemma3:4b.
• macOS says the app can't be opened. It isn't notarized: right-click → Open, or System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.
• A payment for Pro couldn't be verified. Use the Need help? link under the error on the Get Pro page; it fills in your transaction ID.

Face unlock

Unlock Notch Apple by looking at your Mac's camera.

1. Go to Settings → Authentication and turn on Lock Notch Apple.
2. Click Set up face unlock… and allow camera access. Follow the prompts (look straight, turn slightly left and right, tilt up and down) while it takes six photos.
3. Click Test… to check it recognises you. Good, even lighting helps.
4. Now when you open the notch, a Face ID-style animation asks you to look at the camera and blink. It turns into a green check with a trackpad tap when it recognises you, and shakes red if it doesn't. Use Touch ID is always there as a fallback.

How it works: Apple's Vision framework finds your face in each photo and turns it into a feature print (a list of numbers). Only those numbers and a match threshold calibrated from your own photos are saved in a private file on this Mac that only your user account can read. The photos themselves are never saved or sent anywhere. Unlocking needs several matching frames and a blink, which stops a printed photo from working. Delete face data… removes the template; it asks for Touch ID or your password first.

Limits: a regular FaceTime camera is 2D, unlike Apple's Face ID, which uses a 3D depth camera. Someone who looks like you, or a good enough video, might get through, so treat face unlock as a convenience rather than strong security. It unlocks Notch Apple only. macOS doesn't let third-party apps unlock the Mac itself or replace its login.

Using Messenger

Open the notch and click the 💬 tab. Your handle (for example MistyOwl#769) is shown top right; change it in Settings → Messenger.

Nearby Wi-Fi. Anyone on the same network with Notch Apple and Messenger open appears automatically ("2 people nearby on Wi-Fi"). Just type. This uses Apple's MultipeerConnectivity with encryption required, and works without internet.

Create a room. In Anonymous room mode, press New room. Notch Apple makes a private, hard-to-guess code (like ember-puffin-4576-2rjc), joins it, and copies it to your clipboard. Paste it to your friends; they paste it into the room box and press Join. Copy code copies it again at any time.

Join a room. Type any room code and press Join. Everyone who enters the same code (#Cafe-Study, cafe-study and CAFE-STUDY all count as the same) is in the same room and shown as "3 online".

How rooms stay private:

• The code is hashed on your Mac with SHA-256 into two separate values: a topic name for the relay, and a 256-bit AES-GCM key.
• The relay only ever sees a random-looking topic and encrypted bytes. It never sees the room name, your handle or your messages.
• Messages are relayed live through the free, open-source ntfy.sh service over HTTPS (port 443, so it works on school and office Wi-Fi). Each message is sent with Cache: no, so the relay stores nothing. Public MQTT brokers are used as a fallback.
• Chat history only lives in memory. Settings → Messenger → Clear chat history and disconnect wipes it.

Anyone who knows the code can join the room, and short numeric codes are easy to guess. For a private chat, use New room, which makes a code with about a trillion possibilities.

Notifications. When someone messages you while the notch is closed or you're on another tab, you get a macOS notification (sender, message and room), the closed notch grows a small purple dot, and the Messenger tab shows a badge. Click the notification to jump straight to the chat. Messenger keeps listening in the background, rejoining your last room when Notch Apple starts. Turn notifications or message previews off in Settings → Messenger.

Turn off Allow local network discovery in Settings → Messenger to stay invisible on your Wi-Fi.

Using the VPN

Notch Apple doesn't run any VPN servers. It organises free VPN profiles and connects them for you. A profile is a small text file that says which server to connect to and how: .ovpn for OpenVPN or .conf for WireGuard.

Notch Apple hands the profile to a VPN helper app that makes the actual connection. You don't need to download anything yourself: the free, open-source Tunnelblick installer (notarized by its developer) is included inside Notch Apple.

Step 1: One-time setup (automatic)

The first time you click Connect on an OpenVPN server, Notch Apple shows "One-time setup: install the VPN helper". Click Install, follow Tunnelblick's installer, and Notch Apple finishes connecting your server automatically once it's installed. After that, every Connect goes straight through.

You can also install it with Homebrew: brew install --cask tunnelblick. For WireGuard .conf profiles, Notch Apple offers the free WireGuard app from the Mac App Store the same way.

Step 2: Turn on the VPN module

Go to Settings → Modules and switch VPN on. A VPN tab and a VPN on/off pill appear in the notch.

Step 3: Pick a free server (nothing to download)

1. Open the notch and go to the VPN tab. The Free library list loads automatically. It has about 270 free OpenVPN servers from github.com/Zoult/.ovpn, grouped by country. Type in Search country to filter.
2. Click Connect. Notch Apple downloads that server's .ovpn, saves it to Downloads, and opens it in Tunnelblick or OpenVPN Connect.
3. In Tunnelblick, click OK / Install, then click Connect.
4. If it asks for a username and password, use the login for that provider:

Server label	Username and password
IPSpeed	None needed
VPNBook	Shown on vpnbook.com/freevpn. It changes regularly, so copy it fresh
FreeVPN4You	Shown on that country's page at freevpn4you.net
FreeOpenVPN	Shown on that country's page at freeopenvpn.org
VPN Gate (second tab)	vpn / vpn

Notch Apple opens the right login page for you when you click Connect. Click ☆ to keep a server in My profiles.

Or use your own .ovpn / .conf

• VPN Gate website: at vpngate.net, click OpenVPN Config file next to any server and download the TCP or UDP .ovpn. The login is vpn / vpn.
• Proton VPN free plan (most reliable): create a free account at protonvpn.com. Then go to Account → Downloads, choose OpenVPN configuration files (macOS, a free server) or WireGuard configuration. For OpenVPN, log in with the OpenVPN / IKEv2 username shown in your account, not your normal login.
• Work or your own server: use the file your admin gives you.

Import it with VPN → + in the notch, or Settings → VPN → Import .ovpn or .conf file…, then click Connect.

Check it's working

Tunnelblick or WireGuard shows Connected, and whatismyipaddress.com shows the server's country. Disconnect from Tunnelblick or WireGuard.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
"One-time setup: install the VPN helper"	Click Install and follow the Tunnelblick installer (Step 1).
A server won't connect	Free servers come and go. Try another, or switch between TCP and UDP.
"Auth failed"	The password has changed. Copy the current one from the provider's page (see the table above).
The server list won't load	GitHub or vpngate.net may be blocked on your network. Import a Proton VPN file instead.

Privacy note: free public servers are run by third parties and may keep logs. They're fine for getting around region blocks or on public Wi-Fi, but use a provider you trust for anything sensitive. The server list is fetched live from GitHub; no configs are bundled in the app.

Build from source

Releasing? Always build the DMG with ./scripts/build_dmg.sh. It signs the app with a stable identity, so permissions like Accessibility and Screen Recording keep working after people update. A DMG built another way makes macOS treat every build as a new app, and approved permissions stop working.

Requirements: Xcode 16 or later, and XcodeGen (brew install xcodegen).

git clone <this repo>
cd NotchApples
xcodegen generate
open NotchApple.xcodeproj

To build a DMG:

scripts/build_dmg.sh

The DMG is written to dist/.

Run the tests (pure logic: readable maths, answer parsing, input suggestions, provider errors). They don't launch the app:

xcodebuild test -project NotchApple.xcodeproj -scheme NotchAppleTests

Retake the README and website screenshots (needs Ollama with ollama pull gemma3:4b; it builds a separate demo copy with sample data and captures only its windows):

scripts/screenshots.sh --site web

Add promo codes for Pro (codes go to the git-ignored private/ folder; only hashes are published). Add the new hashes to PROMOS in server/license-worker/src/worker.js too, then redeploy the license server:

python3 scripts/promo_codes.py --add 25 --site web/pro.html

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome.

1. Open an issue first for anything bigger than a small fix, so we can agree on the approach.
2. Keep each module optional and off the main thread; follow the surrounding code's style and comments.
3. Run the tests and build the app before opening a pull request. If you change the UI, run scripts/screenshots.sh and include the updated screenshots.
4. Never commit API keys, promo codes or anything from private/.

Building from the public source: the Ultimate modules are not in this repository (they are in a private one and built into official releases only). Everything else builds and runs; the Convert, Smart Home, Claude usage, Do It and Purge tabs show a note saying they are in the official build.

Build the Windows app

The frontend is plain HTML/CSS/ES modules — no Node, no bundler, no build step. Only Rust is needed.

cargo install tauri-cli --version "^2" --locked
cd NotchWindows/src-tauri
cargo tauri dev     # run it
cargo tauri build   # installers in target/release/bundle/

A Windows build cannot be produced on a Mac. Push a tag starting with win-v (or run the Windows build workflow by hand from the Actions tab) and GitHub Actions builds the .exe and .msi on a real Windows runner — see .github/workflows/windows-build.yml.

That tag also refreshes the one-click link behind the Download for Windows button (the windows-latest release, with the fixed file name NotchApple-Windows-Setup.exe), so the README never needs editing for a new version.

Mac project layout

NotchApple/
  App/        AppDelegate, NotchPanel + window controller (click-only notch)
  Core/       SettingsManager (module toggles), secret storage, Theme
  UI/         NotchRootView (glass shell), SettingsView
  Modules/
    Biometrics/  LocalAuthentication gate + Vision webcam face unlock
    Claude/      Messages API client, ScreenCaptureKit capture, chat UI
    Search/      Spotlight (NSMetadataQuery) file search + results UI
    Shelf/       Drop zone + security-scoped bookmarks
    Sharing/     AirDrop + PairDrop (Network.framework / Bonjour)
    Messenger/   Nearby Wi-Fi chat (MultipeerConnectivity) + encrypted rooms (CryptoKit, ntfy / MQTT relay)
    Audio/       CoreAudio routing, native process-tap volume + EQ, BackgroundMusic fallback
    VPN/         NetworkExtension manager, free server library, VPN Gate, profile import
    NowPlaying/  Music / Spotify distributed-notification monitor
    Windows/     Accessibility window snapping, drag-to-notch snap zones, tiling, saved layouts
NotchWidget/  WidgetKit extension
Shared/       Code shared by the app and widget (weather, shared store)

Windows project layout

NotchWindows/
├── src/                     frontend (no build step)
│   ├── index.html
│   ├── css/app.css          shell, pill, tab bar, shared widgets
│   └── js/
│       ├── app.js           tab routing, collapse/expand, feature gating
│       ├── themes.js        the 14 colour themes
│       ├── license.js       access-code hashes, shared with macOS
│       ├── store.js         persistence + DOM helpers
│       └── modules/         one file per tab
└── src-tauri/               Rust
    ├── src/main.rs          commands, tray, global shortcuts, window placement
    ├── src/system.rs        RAM, CPU, network, disk, battery
    ├── src/apps.rs          installed apps (Start Menu on Windows)
    └── src/files.rs         file search

Why some features need a paid Apple Developer account

Notch Apple is built to cost nothing, so the public DMG is ad-hoc signed. A few Apple capabilities are only available to builds signed by a paid developer team. The free build handles each of these gracefully:

Capability	Free build	Signed build
VPN tunnels (Network Extension entitlement)	Hands the profile to the free WireGuard, Tunnelblick, or OpenVPN Connect app	Connects natively. Add a Packet Tunnel Provider target (com.notchapple.app.tunnel, for example with wireguard-apple) and the Network Extension entitlement
WeatherKit	Uses Open-Meteo, which is free and needs no key	Add the WeatherKit capability and set the Swift flag -D WEATHERKIT
App Group (widget now-playing)	The widget shows weather and calendar only	Add group.com.notchapple.shared to both targets

Included third-party software

Software	Why	Licence
Tunnelblick 9.0.1 installer, unmodified and notarized by its developer	Connects OpenVPN profiles	GPL-2.0 (licence and source link shipped in the app)
BackgroundMusic 0.5.0 installer, unmodified	Optional per-app audio on macOS 14.0–14.1	GPL-2.0
f1-circuits map data by Tomislav Bacinger	The real F1 circuit layouts in the Racing game	MIT

Per-app audio on macOS 14.0–14.1

Per-app volume and EQ use Core Audio process taps, which arrived in macOS 14.2. On 14.0–14.1, install the BackgroundMusic audio driver from Settings → Audio → Install BackgroundMusic driver… (it's included in the app) to get per-app volume. BackgroundMusic is © Kyle Neideck and contributors, GPL-2.0, and is included unmodified with its licence. Source: kyleneideck/BackgroundMusic.

Privacy

• Everything runs on your Mac. Settings → Privacy shows all of this live. The only network requests are:
  • the AI provider you chose (Gemini, Groq, OpenRouter, DeepSeek, Anthropic or OpenAI), using your own key, and only when you ask: your question, the image you captured or pasted, and that conversation. With Ollama or Apple Intelligence nothing leaves your Mac, and the notch shows On this Mac
  • api.github.com to check for updates (can be turned off) and github.com to download one you accept
  • open-meteo.com for weather (and the cities you add to the forecast, Pro)
  • site.api.espn.com for public scores in Sports, Live, F1 and Tennis, and api.jolpi.ca / api.openf1.org / F1's public timing archive for F1: nothing about you is sent
  • the plugin gallery's list and the plugins you choose to install, from raw.githubusercontent.com (Ultimate)
  • iCloud Drive, only for settings, notes and to-dos you choose to sync
  • your own iPhone on your local Wi-Fi, only if you turn on the iPhone companion (Ultimate); nothing leaves your network
  • api.github.com / raw.githubusercontent.com for the free VPN server list, and vpngate.net, only when you open the VPN tab
  • open.er-api.com for currency rates, only when you convert a currency (Pro)
  • DuckDuckGo, only when you turn on web search in the AI tab (Pro): just your question
  • CoinGecko and Yahoo Finance for Markets (Pro), ADSB.lol for live flight status (Pro) and the Flight Radar tab: only the symbols and flight numbers you add, and your location rounded to about 1 km while the Flight Radar tab is open
  • Apple's speech recognition when you dictate (on this Mac when your Mac supports it)
  • your plugins, which run whatever their scripts do (you install them)
  • GitHub, only when you choose to send feedback, a bug report or a crash report (you review it and submit it yourself)
  • your own Home Assistant on your local network, only if you set up Smart Home (Ultimate): the token is kept in the Keychain
  • the clipboard link relay (notchapple-rooms, Cloudflare), only if you set a link code: it forwards sealed bytes it cannot read and stores nothing; secrets are never sent
  • speed.cloudflare.com for the speed test and a tiny Cloudflare page for the internet-drop check, only when you run them or turn the check on
  • Windows only, if you turn on the experimental notification peek: Windows' own notification list on this PC is read (read-only) to flash the newest notification beside the pill. It stays on the PC: nothing is stored or sent, and the temporary copy used when Windows has the list locked is deleted straight away

Thanks to the collaborators 🙏

Notch Apple is built by a small group, and every one of them has shaped it:

• Aditya Jain
• Viraj Singh Chadha
• Saigamer007pro

Thank you. 💜

Donate 💜

Notch Apple is free and made by three high school developers. Donating is completely optional: it doesn't unlock anything, it just supports continued development. If it's useful to you, you can donate any amount in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana or Litecoin. Send on each coin's own network (not a token):

Coin	Address
Bitcoin (BTC)	bc1q6n68e5pkteuvs9fj38an340yj9vz5h84gu0gz5
Ethereum (ETH)	0x7CB03e86d62939C6BB743529Ba19E665a31dbCc5
Solana (SOL)	8Ri5sCbpdPRVz8rmrirJWH6hv7ZAKLcdb7AgJFfekpFC
Litecoin (LTC)	ltc1qymlmvkdmvpk5f90esthzgwaw6w0tuzq6tdr6kf

(The Ethereum address also receives USDC on Ethereum, and the Solana address USDC on Solana, if you prefer a stable coin.)

Every bit helps and is hugely appreciated. Want more too? Pro is $1 and Ultimate $5, each paid once. Donated already? Ask for a free Ultimate key.

License

Notch Apple Source-Available License. You can read, build and learn from the code and help improve it; selling or redistributing it, or unlocking the paid features without a key, is not allowed. Versions published before 9 October 2026 were MIT and stay that way for anyone who has them (the MIT text). Third-party parts keep their own licences (see LICENSES/).