Release notes
What's new
Every NotchDude release, newest first. NotchDude updates itself; to update now, choose Check for Updates… from the menu bar icon or the notch's ··· menu.
- Pro: choose Edit on a screenshot preview to add arrows, shapes, text, numbered steps, highlights, blur, and spotlight, crop it, and add a background.
- Edit Home from the button beside ···: drag widgets in from a tray, use Cancel or Done, and spread tiles over up to three pages.
- Mirror can flip the image and zoom up to 3× with a pinch.
- Settings › Music shows which browsers are connected for browser media.
- Windows opened from the notch no longer stay above other apps after the notch closes.
- Windows opened from the notch stay above it, including Settings, What's New, and browser setup.
- Screenshot previews appear at the bottom right, like macOS, and stay above other app windows.
- What's New has the real NotchDude logo, a clearer layout, larger screenshots, and offline content matching the running version.
- What's New and the Guide are in the notch's ··· menu and the menu bar menu.
- The update window now opens in front of the app you're using, instead of behind it.
- Notes, rebuilt: your notes beside an editor that saves as you type, with search, pin, copy, and undo.
- Remind me: the bell on any note brings it back on the notch, with a chime, right when you need it.
- Press ⌃⌥N in any app to start a new note.
- Focus: a longer break after every fourth session, breaks that start on their own, and a new look.
- Choose what the closed notch shows: a logo, symbol, emoji, image, or message on the left, and the battery, time, date, next event, or reminder on the right, in any colour.
- Refine notes with Apple Intelligence (Pro). The notch glows while it works.
- The screenshot thumbnail appears more reliably, and on the screen you're using.
- Click outside the notch to close it, and tooltips are never cut off.
- A cleaner Music player: the browser name sits neatly beside the playing bars, without an extra icon.
- A tidier Music widget: the browser name under the title only becomes a menu when there's another tab to switch to.
- Connect browser… is now also in Settings › Widgets, so you can add another browser any time.
- Browser media now works in every Chromium browser with the Chrome Web Store extension: Chrome, Arc, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Opera, and Chromium.
- Ready for Firefox: NotchDude connects to the NotchDude Media add-on for Firefox once it's available on Firefox Add-ons.
- Connect browser now offers three choices: Chrome (for all Chromium browsers), Firefox, and Safari.
- A simpler browser extension popup: connection status, the current site, and one Turn on or Turn off button.
- NotchDude recognises Chrome and Arc by itself, so there's no browser to choose.
- The NotchDude Media browser extension popup now shows the NotchDude name.
- Browser media: control YouTube, YouTube Music, and other sites you allow from the Music widget, in Chrome, Arc, and Safari.
- The Safari extension comes with NotchDude. Choose Connect browser… in Music to turn it on.
- Pick which browser tab to control when several are playing; 10-second skips and mute for browser media.
- A refreshed welcome window in notchdude.com's colours, and an app icon in About that tilts as you move the pointer.
- Clearer onboarding with solid charcoal backgrounds and opaque cards, so your desktop no longer competes with the text.
- Larger, brighter descriptions and more space between card titles and details.
- A frameless welcome window, a clearer final step, and scrolling for longer permission descriptions.
- Improved visibility of the NotchDude logo on the Pro membership card.
- A new look for Settings › Pro: a membership card with the NotchDude logo, gold accents, and a clearer comparison of Free and Pro.
- Pro owners see their plan and licence on the card, and can copy their licence key in one click.
- Pro settings now carry a refined PRO badge.
- Want new features early? Turn on Get beta updates in Settings › General to try new versions a few days before everyone else.
- Updates now arrive gradually over about a day and a half, so if something slips through, it reaches fewer people before it's fixed. Check for Updates always gets the newest version straight away.
- Behind-the-scenes markers that help me find what's slow.
- If NotchDude crashes or freezes, it can now tell me which version and where in its code, so I can fix it sooner. This is part of the analytics you can turn off in Settings › Privacy, and never includes your content.
- Messages uses less energy: it now checks for new WhatsApp, Slack, and Teams messages only when macOS records a notification, instead of every moment.
- Under-the-hood tidying and smaller downloads on the website.
- New screenshot thumbnail under the notch: hover it to Copy, Keep, AirDrop, or open More, or drag it into any app. Choose its four actions in Settings › Files.
- New screenshots and recordings can go on the File Shelf by themselves, or move off the Desktop onto it. Choose in Settings › Files.
- Hold a drag over the notch to pick what happens: Keep, or actions that suit the files, such as Zip, Copy Text, Cut Out, To JPEG, Merge PDFs, or Make PDF, with AirDrop always at the end. The actions you use most come first.
- The File Shelf can merge PDFs and make a PDF from images.
- Pro's File Shelf has no item limit.
- A cleaner look over bright apps: no shadow around the notch.
- Fixed the open notch staying dimmed after a drag was cancelled.
- Calendar now shows the month beside your day: dots mark busy days, and clicking a day lists its events.
- Events use their calendar's colours, show locations and all-day events, and a line marks the current time.
- Join Zoom, Meet, Teams, and Webex calls in one click.
- Works fully with the keyboard and VoiceOver: arrow keys move between days, Page Up and Page Down change the month, and T returns to today.
- Resize the open notch: drag either bottom corner to make it wider and taller. It stays centred, remembers its size, and a double-click puts it back.
- Widgets use the extra room: Home's tiles grow, the File Shelf becomes a grid, and bigger panels get roomier layouts.
- Hold a tab to edit the tab bar, as on Home: remove tabs, or add them back with the + button.
- New Pro widget, Messages: new WhatsApp, Slack, and Teams messages appear right in the notch. Click one to open its chat.
- Turn off those apps' Desktop alerts and messages show in the notch alone.
- Messages needs Full Disk Access, now part of the welcome window. Messages stay in memory and are never saved or sent.
- New black-and-silver NotchDude logo for the app icon, menu bar, and idle notch.
- Home shows live tiles for your widgets. Drag them into place, or hold one to resize or remove it.
- AI Usage follows Claude Code and Codex sessions as they work, and shows when one is waiting for you.
- Keep Mac Awake from the menu bar icon: 30 minutes, 1 or 2 hours, or until you turn it off.
- Switch where sound plays (speakers, headphones, AirPlay) from Music.
- File Shelf quick actions: zip files, convert images, copy the text from an image or PDF, and lift a photo's subject.
- Arrange the notch's tabs and AI Usage cards by dragging, and set Glass and Tint for the open notch.
- Pro is 30% off until November 30: $6.99, regularly $9.99.
- Settings now opens above other apps' windows instead of behind them.
- Volume and brightness changes no longer appear in the notch; macOS shows its own indicator.
- Display brightness changes now appear in the notch with a live percentage and one progress bar.
- Volume and system activity notifications use a shorter single-row layout, without duplicate icons or progress indicators.
- Clipboard history no longer saves passwords copied from password managers or other copies marked private.
- The Pro screen now shows the real clipboard (100 items) and File Shelf (20 items) limits.
- Settings now uses the current macOS look, without the stray black lines.
- Switches in Settings no longer repeat their labels, and Pro sits with the other settings.
- Clearer, more accurate wording throughout the app.
- Check for Updates no longer freezes NotchDude. Update messages now always appear on the screen you're using.
- If Spotify isn't installed, Music offers a quick way to get it.
- New Pro Teleprompter: read your script right under the camera, with adjustable speed and text size.
- The closed notch now shows charging within seconds of plugging in, without opening it.
- A plug icon shows when your Mac is on power but not charging.
- Tools added in an update now stay switched on after you restart NotchDude.
- A redesigned welcome window with simple steps.
- Allow Calendar, music controls, live Claude limits, and Camera from one place during setup.
- Settings switches keep their colour when the window is in the background.
- More room above the tab bar in the open notch.
- A redesigned File Shelf: drop files, screenshots, images, links, or text onto the notch, then preview, share, or drag them back out.
- A glass look for the open notch.
- Refreshed Settings and onboarding.
- The Pro trial now lasts 48 hours.
- Clearer wording in the Pro thank-you message, terms, and privacy policy.
- Open panel shadow no longer clipped into a rectangle.
- In-app feedback, feature request, and problem report form (Settings › Support and menu bar).
- Anonymous app usage analytics are on by default. Turn them off anytime in Settings › Privacy.
- Privacy-conscious analytics for the website, and optional anonymous app usage events.
- Quit button in the notch panel.
- Notarized DMG installer with redesigned drag-to-Applications window.
- Improved About window and open-source licences.
- New app icon and Pro icon.
- More reliable hover.
- The notch opens top to bottom, then widens.
- New animation settings.
- Settings comes to the front when you open it.
- Battery percentage no longer wraps in the compact notch.
For a closer look at the bigger updates, read What's new in 1.8 and What's new in 1.5.
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