Make Your Mac Notch Useful with BoringNotch Like Dynamic Island
- Mustafa Ramadan
- Jun 28
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 9
If you’ve got a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air with a notch, you’ve probably thought:
“Why is this space just sitting there doing nothing?”
BoringNotch+ changes that: It’s like Dynamic Island for macOS — turning your Mac’s notch (or top menu bar) into a smart, interactive productivity hub. From Apple Music & Spotify controls to a Pomodoro timer, clipboard history, calendar events, and even a camera mirror preview, this app transforms unused space into something beautiful and useful.
BoringNotch is a beautiful, open-source macOS app that turns your Mac’s notch into a smart and useful experience, Like Dynamic Island for macOS. From media controls to calendar peeks and now a new mirror feature — this app makes the notch worth the notch.
What is BoringNotch?
BoringNotch is a lightweight, open-source utility designed to add playful and functional features to the MacBook notch. Like Dynamic Island for macOS It lives in the background and turns the top-center area of your screen into something fun and practical, that notch app transforms your screen notch (or top menu bar) into something useful, beautiful, and interactive. Whether you’re a productivity geek or a minimal design lover, BoringNotch brings real-time widgets right into your notch — making your Mac feel more personal and powerful. Whether you’re using a MacBook with a physical notch, or just want a smarter menu bar on any Mac — BoringNotch brings that Dynamic Island feel to your desktop.
Key Features of BoringNotch:
Now Playing
See what’s playing on Apple Music or Spotify, with album art, track name, and artist — all displayed directly in your notch. It updates live as your music changes.
Mirror Preview
Want to check your look before a video call? Instantly preview your Mac’s camera from the notch — with a built-in toggle (made by me) to turn it on/off without restarting the app.
Pomodoro Timer (New – built by me!)
Boost your focus with a full Pomodoro timer built right into the notch. It shows work phases, breaks, and smart reminders — with sneak peek support every few minutes.
Clipboard 2.0 (Also coded by me!)
Access your last 48 copied apple devices items, grouped by app. Re-copy anything with one click. Includes smooth animations, search, and pin/unpin support.
Battery Info
Keep an eye on your battery level, charging state, and remaining time — all inside a clean notch icon.
Calendar & Date
Stay on top of your day with real-time date and your next macOS calendar event.
Sneak Peek System
Widgets appear automatically every few minutes to gently remind you — without being distracting. You can even customize the timing and duration.
My Contributions In BoringNotch App:
While exploring Swift and SwiftUI, I wanted to contribute to something real. I found the BoringNotch project on GitHub and decided to jump in.
I’ve added major upgrades to BoringNotch:
Full Pomodoro Timer with visual/audio alerts
Clipboard Monitor 2.0 with pin/unpin & search
Live toggle controls (no restart needed)
Performance fixes & smoother UI
Mirror Toggle Feature
My contribution was a Mirror Toggle Button — a small but useful UI enhancement that lets users easily toggle the camera preview (mirror) on or off from the interface.
This was my first time diving deeper into Swift, and I learned a lot about:
Working with SwiftUI views and layout
Handling state with @Default and @Binding
Contributing to a large open-source project
Releasing installable macOS app
Clipboard Tab
In my latest addition brings a beautiful Clipboard Monitor directly into the notch. This feature tracks your copied text in real time and displays it along with the originating app’s icon. You’ll see a sleek “Clipboard” tab appear once enabled, giving you a searchable, scrollable history of your last 48 copied items. Re-copy anything with one click, pin, unpin or remove and get instant visual feedback. The best part? You can toggle it on or off live, without restarting the app. Built for productivity, designed for elegance on boringNotch.
New Feature: Pomodoro Timer
In my latest update to boringNotch, I’ve added a beautifully integrated Pomodoro Timer right into the notch. I built it to help you stay focused using the proven Pomodoro technique — complete with animated phase transitions, real-time countdowns, and automatic cycle tracking. It supports short and long breaks, plays subtle sounds, and even gives you a visual celebration when you complete a focus session. Everything is adjustable from the settings updates live and feels right at home inside the notch. Built for deep focus — crafted with care.
With Minor UI polish, shadow tweaks, bug fixes, Improved performance + animations,.
Want to Try It? Download it now:
You can download my enhanced version of BoringNotch with all the new features I’ve added:
⚠️ This is not a paid product. Your support is a donation to help cover my time, testing, and the cost of an Apple Developer account needed to keep my fork running. Think of it as buying me a ☕ if you found my work helpful — thank you! ❤️
💖 Support This Project & Skip the Hassle Fixing bugs and building new features took a lot of love, time, testing, and even money — including paying for an Apple Developer account to sign and distribute builds safely. This project is still free and open-source, but if you found it useful, you can support my work by grabbing the ready-to-use version on Gumroad. Your support is a donation to help keep my fork alive, maintained, and improving over time. It’s a one-click download that helps keep the ☕️ flowing, the Mac happy, and the updates coming 😄
Prefer to Build It Yourself?
No problem — my full source code with all my features is available on GitHub.
You’re welcome to compile it yourself or even contribute back!
Enjoying my new features?
If this made your Mac a bit more productive (or prettier :D), feel free to Buy me a coffee!
Every little bit helps keep the magic alive — and my brain awake 😅
The Official project on Github: https://github.com/TheBoredTeam/boring.notch
The Official website: theboring.name
Join the Community
BoringNotch is open-source and built by passionate developers. Whether you’re a designer, developer, or curious user — you’re welcome to contribute.
Final Words
I had a great long time contributing to BoringNotch. If you’re learning Swift or just want to help improve a cool Mac app — this is a perfect project to get involved in.
Let’s make the notch useful, together.