BlogRelease notes7 October 20264 min read

What's new in NotchDude 1.11

NotchDude 1.11 is about the little things you reach for many times a day. Notes are rebuilt from scratch, with reminders and a shortcut that works from any app. The Focus timer learns proper Pomodoro breaks. And the closed notch, the part you see all day, is now yours to design.

Notes, rebuilt

Notes now looks like Notes on the Mac: your list on the left, the note you're reading on the right. Click a note and type; it saves as you go, and the first line becomes its title. Long notes finally have room, and five or so fit in the list at a glance.

• Search your notes from the magnifier above the list.
• Pin the ones you need often, like a Wi-Fi password, and they stay at the top.
• Copy a note in one click, without it landing in your Clipboard history.
• Undo a delete for a few seconds, or press ⌘Z.

Remind me about this

Click the bell on any note and pick a time: in 15 or 30 minutes, in 1 or 3 hours, this evening, or tomorrow morning. When it's due, the notch pops up with the note and a chime, and opening it takes you straight to that note. The list shows the reminder time beside the note, so you can see what's coming.

A note from anywhere: ⌃⌥N

Press ⌃⌥N in any app and the notch opens on a fresh note, ready to type. No clicking, no switching apps. It needs no extra permissions, and you can turn it off in Settings › General.

A Focus timer that knows Pomodoro

The timer has a new look: a ruler whose lit ticks show the time left, with the finish time and the next break spelled out beside it. Under the hood it got smarter too:

• Long breaks: every fourth session earns a 15-minute break, and the track at the bottom shows where you are in the set.
• Breaks start on their own when a session ends, because the point is to step away. Want to keep going? Skip it.
• Exact time, even if your Mac sleeps mid-session or is busy.
• Today's count survives a restart and starts over at midnight.
• Click the time or the ruler to start and pause, and drag it to set the length.

Make the closed notch yours

The closed notch is the part of NotchDude you see all day, so now you decide what it shows when nothing else is happening. In Settings › Appearance › Closed notch, a preview of your notch sits on top; pick a side and choose.

• Left side: NotchDude's logo, any of two dozen symbols, an emoji, your own image, or nothing at all. Add a short message, like “deep work”, and the notch widens just enough to fit it.
• Right side: the battery, the time, the date, the date and time, your next calendar event, a countdown to your next note reminder, or nothing.
• Colour: any of nine colours for either side, or your own from the colour picker.

A low battery still shows up whatever you choose, and music, the timer, and coding agents still take over while they're running.

Refine with Apple Intelligence, in Pro

Pro members can tidy up a note with Apple Intelligence, entirely on their Mac. While it works, the notch's edge glows in Apple Intelligence's colours. Buttons for Pro features now show a small lock instead of fading away, so it's clear what they are.

A more reliable screenshot thumbnail

Some of you told us the screenshot thumbnail never appeared. Three fixes:

• NotchDude now spots new screenshots straight from the folder macOS saves them to, so it works even when Spotlight is off, still indexing, or kept out of that folder.
• It catches screenshots that macOS finishes by renaming a temporary file, which it used to miss now and then.
• The thumbnail appears on the screen you're using, not always the built-in one, so it's no longer out of sight on an external display.

Still not seeing it? The guide covers the remaining cases, like screenshots copied to the clipboard.

Smaller touches

• Click anywhere outside the open notch to close it, whether it opened on hover or on a click.
• After you click a button in the notch, moving the pointer away closes it again, as you'd expect.
• The closed notch no longer grows taller when the pointer rests on it.
• Tooltips now float above everything, so they're never cut off by the notch or hidden behind a note.

Updated in 1.11.3: previews where you expect them

The screenshot preview now appears at the bottom right of the screen you’re using, in the familiar macOS position. It stays above app windows and the notch. Hover for your four quick actions, or drag the screenshot into another app.

Windows opened from the notch—including Settings, What’s New, and browser setup—also stay above the panel, so their content remains visible when the windows overlap.

What’s New has a refreshed layout with the real NotchDude logo, clearer headings, and larger screenshots without extra frames. It shows this release series’ content offline. Find it in Help in the notch’s ··· menu or the menu bar menu; the Guide is there too.

New in 1.11.4

Edit a screenshot right from its preview

With Pro, hover the screenshot preview and choose Edit to mark it up without opening another app. Point with arrows, box or circle what matters, add text in any font size and numbered steps, resize anything from its handles, highlight a line, blur passwords and email addresses, or spotlight one area and dim the rest. Crop it, then add a gradient or solid background with padding, rounded corners, and a shadow, in a shape that fits a post or a slide. Save & Close saves over the screenshot; Copy, Drag, and Save Copy… are there when you'd rather keep the original. The guide has the details, and How to annotate a screenshot on your Mac walks through it.

Easier Home editing

Click the edit button beside ··· on Home (or hold a tile) and the tab bar turns into a tray of widgets that aren't on Home yet. Drag one up to place it, or click it to add it at the end. The panel widens while you edit, and Home now continues onto up to three pages that scroll sideways. Click the checkmark or press Return to keep your changes, or × or Esc to put Home back as it was.

Mirror flips and zooms

Mirror shows you like a real mirror. Hover the notch and use the button in the top-left corner to flip it and see yourself as others do on a call, or set it in Settings › Mirror. Pinch to zoom up to 3×, then swipe with two fingers or drag to look around.

Also in 1.11.4

• Settings › Music lists your browsers as connected or not for browser media, with Connect Browser… beside them.
• Windows opened from the notch stay above it only while it's open. Once it closes, Spotlight and other apps can cover them again.
• Clicking a Teams message goes straight to that message, and WhatsApp opens the chat when the sender is shown by phone number.

How to update

Choose Check for Updates… from the menu bar icon or the notch's ··· menu to get 1.11.4 right away. New here? Download NotchDude and every Pro feature is unlocked for your first 48 hours.