Dynamic Island apps for macOS

What a Dynamic Island app on macOS is

Everything on this page is a macOS app. Nothing here runs on an iPhone or an iPad, and nothing here is Apple's. Dynamic Island is an iPhone feature: Apple has never shipped it on the Mac, and macOS has nothing like it built in. What a MacBook has instead is the notch: the camera housing cut into the top of the display on the 14 and 16 inch MacBook Pro since 2021 and on the MacBook Air since the M2 in 2022. macOS treats the space either side of it as the menu bar and the notch itself as nothing at all. These apps are what people built into that gap. They draw a panel at the top of the screen that expands when you point at it, and what it holds is usually what you would otherwise go looking for: what is playing, how the battery is doing, a timer that is running, a file you are about to send somewhere.

The appeal is the same one the iPhone version has, and it is not really about the notch. It is that a thing you check twenty times a day stops being somewhere you navigate to and becomes somewhere you already are looking. The menu bar does this with an icon and a drop down; the notch does it with a panel that is bigger, can hold artwork and a progress bar, and sits in the middle of the screen rather than the corner. Whether that is better is a matter of taste and of how full your menu bar already is, which is why both kinds are listed on this site.

14 listed: 3 free, 4 free with a paid upgrade and 7 paid. Of those, 4 with a free trial.

What to compare

• Whether it needs a notch at all. Several of these draw their panel at the top of the screen whether or not there is a camera housing behind it, so they work on an iMac, a Mac mini with an external display, or an older MacBook. Several do not. It is the first thing to check if your Mac has no notch, and the listings say what the developer says.
• What it does to the menu bar. The panel sits where the menu bar is. A well behaved one gets out of the way when you reach for a menu and comes back after; a less careful one can make the menus nearest the middle awkward to hit. Worth trying before you decide, which costs nothing on the free ones.
• What it needs permission to do. Showing what is playing means reading the system's now playing information. A file shelf means access to files you drag onto it. Controlling playback usually means Accessibility. None of that is unusual for a Mac app, but it is worth knowing what is being asked for and why before granting it.
• What it costs while idle. This is a window that is always on screen, often animating, and watching for the pointer. The considerate ones do nothing until something changes; the rest redraw on a timer all day. On a laptop that is a battery question, and Activity Monitor answers it on your own machine in about a minute.
• Whether it replaces or adds. Some of these are one feature, such as a charging animation. Others want to be the place everything lives, and will happily hold your music, your clipboard, your timers and your downloads. The second kind is more to learn and more to lose if you stop using it.

Questions

Does macOS have a Dynamic Island?

No. It is an iPhone feature, introduced on the iPhone 14 Pro in 2022, and Apple has not brought it to the Mac. Everything on this page is third party software that adds something along those lines to the MacBook's notch.

Is there anything here for iPhone or iPad?

No. This is a directory of macOS apps and nothing else, so every app on this page runs on a Mac. Dynamic Island on an iPhone is built into iOS and there is nothing to install for it.

Which Macs have a notch?

The 14 and 16 inch MacBook Pro from 2021 onwards, and the MacBook Air from the M2 model in 2022 onwards. No desktop Mac has one, and no MacBook made before 2021 does.

Can I use one of these on a Mac without a notch?

Often yes. A good number of them position their panel at the top centre of whatever display you are on and do not care whether there is hardware behind it. It is not universal, so it is worth checking the developer's own page, which every listing here links to.

Will it get in the way of the menu bar?

It sits in the same strip, so it can. Most only expand when the pointer is on them and shrink back out of the way otherwise. If you keep a lot of menu bar icons, this is the thing to try first rather than the feature list.

Do these slow a Mac down?

Each is a running process drawing a window that is always on screen, so they cost more than a menu bar icon that updates once a minute. Most are still small. The ones to watch are those animating constantly rather than waking when something changes.

Is there a free one?

Yes, and some are open source. The list above says what each costs where the developer states it, and the free ones across the whole site are at /free.