What is the MacBook notch actually for, and what can you do with it

Every MacBook Pro since 2021 and every MacBook Air since 2022 has a notch: a black cut-out at the top centre of the screen. Apple has never explained it in much detail, so here is what it is, why the space beside it looks wasted, and what you can do about that.

What's in it

The camera, and that's nearly all. The MacBook notch holds the 1080p FaceTime camera, its indicator light, and the ambient light sensor that adjusts brightness and True Tone. There is no Face ID hardware in it, which is why the notch on a Mac is wider and shallower than an iPhone's Dynamic Island: it only has to fit a camera, and Apple used the freed-up width to push the display further up.

That last part is the point. The screen didn't lose a strip to the notch. The strip beside the notch is extra display that older MacBooks didn't have. The menu bar lives there, and the area under the 16:10 line is the same as before.

Why apps can draw there

macOS treats the notch as an opaque part of the menu bar. Menu bar items flow around it and never sit behind it. But the screen pixels on either side are ordinary pixels, and an app can put a window there like anywhere else. Apple even exposes the notch's exact size and position, so an app can draw a black shape that matches it and appears to grow out of it.

That is all a notch app is: a small always-on-top window, black to match, that opens when your cursor reaches the notch. The trick works on any Mac, because on a display without a notch the app just draws a small black tab at the top centre instead.

The five useful things it can hold

There is no shortage of notch apps, and they cluster around five ideas.

1. Now playing. Album art and controls in the closed notch, the way an iPhone shows them in the island. boring.notch and Notchy do this well, and it is the feature people most associate with the notch.

2. A shelf. Drag a file onto the notch, do something else, drag it back out or AirDrop it. Handy when you're moving things between apps that won't drag directly.

3. System overlays. Replace the big square volume and brightness pop-ups with a small animation in the notch. Cosmetic, but people love it.

4. Today's plan. A task list or calendar in the notch, so the next thing is one hover away. NotchOwl is built around this.

5. Small tools. A scratchpad, clipboard history, timers, a water log, habits. Things you'd otherwise keep in four menu bar icons or a browser tab. This is what NotchMan is for.

Most apps do one or two of these. None do all five, and none can share the notch, so you end up choosing what you want that space to be.

Can you hide it instead?

Yes, sort of. A wallpaper with a black band across the top makes the notch disappear into the menu bar, and macOS lets you set the menu bar to dark. Some people prefer that. You lose nothing, since the menu bar was going to be there anyway.

The more interesting answer is that the notch is a fixed landmark on the screen, at a spot your cursor can reach without looking. Hitting the top edge of a screen is the easiest mouse movement there is, which is why menus live there. A hover target at the top centre is nearly as easy. That is what makes it a good place for something you reach for twenty times a day.

What we did with it

We built NotchMan for the fifth idea. Hover the notch and you get nine tools: Scratchpad, Clipboard, Timers, Hours, Screen Time, Hydration, Calories, Breathe and Habits. Move away and it closes. Everything stays on your Mac, and it asks for no permissions. If you'd rather have music and a shelf, here is how the other apps compare.