Getting more out of the MacBook notch

Every modern MacBook has a black cutout at the top of the screen housing the camera: the notch. On its own, macOS does very little with that space beyond hiding the menu bar behind it. A category of small Mac apps has grown up around turning that otherwise-dead strip of screen into somewhere useful to glance and click. Here's what the notch actually is, what it's good for, and where a few different apps, Cupola included, take it.

What the notch is, technically

The notch is a camera housing, not a special piece of software real estate: it exists because Apple moved the webcam into the top bezel starting with the 2021 MacBook Pro, carved out of the display itself rather than sitting in a separate bezel strip. By default, macOS routes the menu bar around it and otherwise leaves it alone. The "notch apps" category exists entirely because third-party developers noticed that unused black rectangle and built UI that expands out of it on hover; none of it is an Apple-provided feature, and macOS itself doesn't offer notch-based widgets.

What built-in macOS already gives you

Before reaching for an app, it's worth knowing what's already there: the menu bar itself (clock, Control Center, background app icons), Notification Center (swipe in from the right edge of the trackpad or click the clock), and Stage Manager or Mission Control for window management. None of these live in the notch specifically: they're the existing macOS surfaces a notch app is usually trying to make faster to reach.

The categories of notch apps

Most notch apps fall into a handful of buckets, and most people end up wanting more than one:

• Calendar and tasks. Upcoming events and to-dos, a hover away, sometimes with a way to add new ones by typing.
• Clipboard history. A running list of what you've copied recently, searchable, so you don't lose something you copied five minutes and three copies ago.
• Media controls. Now Playing info and playback controls for whatever's playing, without switching apps.
• File shelf. A temporary drop zone for files you're moving between apps or about to AirDrop, so you don't need a Finder window open the whole time.
• Timers and quick utilities. A Focus or Pomodoro-style timer, system HUDs for volume/brightness, that kind of thing.

Where Cupola fits

Cupola covers the first, second and fifth of those: five tabs under the notch, Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Clipboard and a Focus timer, backed by your real Apple Calendar, Reminders and Notes (not a separate data store), plus a local clipboard history that remembers text, links, images and files you copy. It also opens into a full app window for anything that needs more room than a hover panel. It's a native Mac app, $20 once with a 7-day free trial, installed with one Terminal line; see installing Cupola for the details.

It doesn't do media controls, system HUDs, or a general file shelf; if those are what you're after, they're not what Cupola is built for.

Other notch apps exist

Cupola isn't the only option, and it's worth knowing the shape of the category before picking one:

• NotchNook leans into media controls (Spotify/Apple Music/Now Playing), a calendar view with meeting-join buttons for Meet/Zoom/Teams/Webex, a file tray, camera mirror, and volume/brightness HUDs, with Shortcuts integration. It's a paid app (lifetime or monthly license, per its pricing page) and runs on macOS 14.6 or later, Apple silicon or Intel.
• Boring Notch is a free, open-source app focused on media controls, a file shelf, system HUD replacement, and calendar display, distributed via GitHub Releases or Homebrew. It runs on macOS 14 or later and isn't signed with an Apple Developer certificate, so macOS shows an unidentified-developer warning on first open that its docs walk through clearing.

See the full side-by-side breakdowns at Cupola vs. NotchNook and Cupola vs. Boring Notch.

Picking one

If what you want from the notch is your actual Calendar, Reminders and a clipboard history, that's Cupola's lane. If you want media controls and a file shelf as the centerpiece, NotchNook or Boring Notch are built around those instead. Nothing stops you running more than one: they occupy the same screen real estate but aren't mutually exclusive beyond that.

Try Cupola free for 7 days if calendar, reminders and clipboard are what you're after.

Sources

• NotchNook, official site
• Boring Notch, GitHub repository
• Boring Notch, official site