QuartzNotch

A macOS notch companion with media controls, Live Activities, calendar events, quick tools, and Lock Screen integrations.

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About

QuartzNotch turns the area around your MacBook notch into a small interactive space for everyday controls and glanceable information.

It includes a compact media player, customizable pages, a shelf for files, quick timers, clipboard tools, calendar events, camera preview, Live Activities, Lock Screen widgets, and a Liquid Glass-inspired visual style.

QuartzNotch started as a fork of Boring Notch and has since evolved with a redesigned interface, new Lock Screen features, custom layout behavior, and many visual refinements.

Features

• Compact notch interface with multiple customizable pages
• Music controls and Now Playing information
• Lock Screen Live Activities for music and timers
• Fullscreen album artwork on the Lock Screen
• Calendar and reminder events inside the notch
• File shelf and quick sharing tools
• Quick timers and clipboard utilities
• Camera preview with configurable click behavior
• Bluetooth, battery, focus, timer, shelf, and media Live Activities
• Liquid Glass-style appearance option
• Light/Dark adaptive app icon support
• Customizable toolbar and page order

What’s New in 0.3

• Completely redesigned Settings window
• Lock Screen Live Activities for the music player and timers
• Fullscreen Lock Screen album artwork
• Reorderable pages
• Adaptive app icon for Light and Dark mode, plus a new optional icon
• Fully redesigned Calendar module
• Clickable camera preview for taking photos
• Improved readability in Liquid Glass mode
• Many layout fixes, visual refinements, and stability improvements
• Simplified GitHub bug report forms

Requirements

• macOS 14 or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel Mac
• Xcode 16 or later if you want to build from source

Download

The latest release is available from GitHub Releases:

https://github.com/Clayton630/QuartzNotch/releases

Important

Current builds are not notarized with an Apple Developer ID. On first launch, macOS may block the app as coming from an unidentified developer. If you trust the build, open System Settings > Privacy & Security and choose Open Anyway.

Build From Source

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Clayton630/QuartzNotch.git
cd QuartzNotch

Open the project in Xcode:

open boringNotch.xcodeproj

Then build and run the boringNotch scheme from Xcode with Cmd + R.

You can also build from Terminal:

xcodebuild \
  -project boringNotch.xcodeproj \
  -scheme boringNotch \
  -configuration Debug \
  build

Release Packaging

Release builds are generated with the release script:

bash Configuration/release/make_release.sh \
  --version 0.3 \
  --build 1032 \
  --oss \
  --sparkle-account quartznotch_clayton

This creates the app, packages it into a DMG, and prints the Sparkle appcast enclosure metadata.

Repository Structure

boringNotch/              Main macOS app source
BoringNotchXPCHelper/     Helper service used by the app
QuartzNotchScreenSaver/   Screen saver / backdrop component
Configuration/            Release, DMG, and Sparkle tooling
mediaremote-adapter/      MediaRemote bridge used for media integration
updater/                  Sparkle appcast
.github/                  GitHub issue templates

Some internal target names still use boringNotch because QuartzNotch began as a fork. The public app name is QuartzNotch.

Contributing

Bug reports and feature requests are welcome through GitHub Issues.

Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening an issue.

License

QuartzNotch is distributed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.

See LICENSE for the full license text.