Island

Turn your MacBook's notch into a Dynamic Island

Island transforms your MacBook's notch from dead space into a living, interactive hub. Inspired by the iPhone's Dynamic Island, it brings music controls, calendar, file shelf, system HUDs, and widgets right to the top of your screen.

• Hover to peek at what's playing or your next meeting
• Click to expand into a full control center
• Drop files to quickly share via AirDrop
• Control everything without leaving your current app

• Live activity showing current playback
• Full player with album art, lyrics, and visualizer
• Works with Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, and any app using Now Playing

• Time, date, and upcoming events at a glance
• Weather with animated particles
• Reminders integration

• Drag & drop files for quick access
• One-click AirDrop sharing
• Persistent storage across sessions

• Mini file browser in the notch: pinned folders, grid or list, quick navigation (see in-app tab / settings)

• Replace macOS volume, brightness, and backlight overlays
• Clean, minimal indicators that don't disrupt your workflow

• Quick camera preview in the notch
• Perfect for video call check-ins

• Built-in focus timer
• Visual progress indicator

• Live crypto, stock, and commodity prices
• Customizable watchlist

• Instant translation for selected text
• Keyboard shortcut activation (Fn + Y)

• Hold the Fn key (alone, after a short delay) to start — you don’t need to open the notch first
• Release Fn to paste the transcript into the app that had focus
• Esc cancels the current session; pressing another key while holding Fn cancels dictation so shortcuts like Fn + T / Fn + I still work
• Live transcription in the closed notch (and expanded UI when needed), with permission / on-device asset flows handled in-app

• Quick capture of tasks with due dates and grouped-by-day list
• Fn + T to open from anywhere

• Chat-style scratchpad for ideas; copy one or all entries
• Fn + I to open from anywhere

• Optional translucent glass background
• Beautiful depth and blur effects when the notch is open

The notch intelligently shows what matters:

• Music playing? See the live activity
• Battery charging? See the status
• Files dragged nearby? Shelf opens automatically
• Fullscreen video? Notch hides itself

Requirements:

• macOS 14 Sonoma or later
• MacBook with notch (Apple Silicon or Intel)

1. Open the .dmg and drag Island to your /Applications folder
2. Launch the app

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Island.app

brew install --cask TheBoredTeam/boring-notch/boring-notch --no-quarantine

• Hover over the notch to expand
• Click to toggle open/closed
• Swipe down to open (if gestures enabled)
• Drop files near the notch to open Shelf
• Use the menu bar star to access settings

Some shortcuts can be remapped in Island’s Settings → Keyboard; others use the defaults above.

Voice input: Requires Microphone and Speech Recognition (and related dictation assets where applicable). Hold-to-dictate uses an accessibility event tap — grant Accessibility to Island (and the XPC helper if prompted) in System Settings → Privacy & Security if Fn hold doesn’t start.

• Music live activity with lyrics
• Calendar & reminders integration
• Weather widget with particles
• File shelf with AirDrop
• DynaClip — mini file browser in the notch (pinned folders)
• Mirror / camera preview
• Battery & charging indicator
• System HUD replacement (volume, brightness)
• Pomodoro timer
• Market ticker
• Translation
• Liquid glass mode
• Voice input (hold Fn) with closed-notch / expanded speech UI
• Todo List & Inspiration widgets (Fn + T / Fn + I)
• Bluetooth live activity
• Extension system
• Lock screen widgets
• Customizable layouts

Prerequisites:

• macOS 14+
• Xcode 16+

git clone https://github.com/TheBoredTeam/boring.notch.git
cd boring.notch
open boringNotch.xcodeproj
# Then press Cmd+R to build and run

Contributors: base feature/fix work on dev (git checkout dev before branching). Documentation-only PRs may target main. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Island 的代码组织遵循 三层状态：每块屏幕一个 BoringViewModel（开合、尺寸、拖放与单屏交互）、全局单例 BoringViewCoordinator（当前页 NotchViews、Sneak Peek / 扩展 HUD、首选显示器等），以及 Defaults / @AppStorage 持久化偏好。主 UI 由 AppDelegate 创建贴顶浮动窗口，ContentView → NotchLayout 按 notchState 与 coordinator.currentView 路由各业务页。

更完整的技术说明（窗口与输入、Managers、扩展新功能的推荐顺序、references 索引）见：

ARCHITECTURE.md（中文，贡献者向）

命令行构建、代码签名、公证、DMG、CI 工作流，以及 Island 显示名与 boringNotch 工程命名 的对照见：

BUILD.md

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

• MediaRemoteAdapter — Now Playing support for macOS 15.4+
• NotchDrop — Inspiration for the Shelf feature
• Icon: @maxtron95
• Website: @himanshhhhuv

See THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES for full license details.

Island — Your notch, reimagined.