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From your Mac

Boring Notch vs Alcove.

Both turn the MacBook notch into something you use. Boring Notch is an open-source, all-in-one notch. Alcove is a paid Dynamic Island for the Mac. Details are from each app's own pages.

The short answer

  • Boring Notch if you want music controls, calendar and a file shelf in one open-source app.
  • Alcove if you want an iPhone-style Dynamic Island, with notifications, Live Activities and Lock Screen widgets.

Side by side

  • What it does. Boring Notch: music controls with a visualizer, calendar and reminders, a mirror using your camera, a charging indicator, and a file shelf with AirDrop. Alcove: notifications, Live Activities, swipe gestures and Lock Screen widgets.
  • Volume and brightness. Both replace the macOS HUD. Boring Notch covers volume, brightness and keyboard backlight. Alcove’s HUDs are customizable.
  • Open source or paid. Boring Notch: open source, under the GPL 3.0 license. Alcove: a one-time purchase with updates included, and a 72-hour trial.
  • Requires. Boring Notch: macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon or Intel. Alcove: macOS 15 or later.
  • Installing. Boring Notch: download it from GitHub or install with Homebrew. It isn’t signed with an Apple Developer account yet, so macOS warns you the first time you open it. Alcove: download it from tryalcove.com. A license works on up to 3 Macs.
  • On the roadmap. Boring Notch lists Lock Screen widgets and weather as not done yet, and notifications as under consideration.

Boring Notch

Boring Notch: hover over the notch and it expands into a music player, with calendar, reminders and a shelf for files. Click its star icon in the menu bar to customize it, including gestures and the notch size.

Alcove

Alcove: a Dynamic Island for your Mac, built as a native app. Alcove says it collects no data. Its FAQ also notes that it relies on private Apple APIs, so Apple could break features in a future macOS.

What neither one does

Both are about what you see in the notch. Neither sends a file to a person. Boring Notch’s shelf can AirDrop, but only to someone nearby.

Where Sendoff fits

Sendoff is the notch app for sending. Drop a file on the notch, pick the person, press Send off.

  • Your regulars come first, ranked by how often you send to them: your accountant, your teammate, your mom.
  • It remembers whether each person gets Gmail or iMessage. Slack is coming soon.
  • It routes around what won’t work: a 48 MB video for someone you usually email goes by iMessage instead.
  • It’s all keyboard, with 3 seconds to undo.

For more notch apps, by job, see the best MacBook notch apps. For shelf apps, see Dropover alternatives for Mac.

Try Sendoff

Sendoff is not out yet. Join the waitlist below, and tick the beta box if you want to test it first.