TopNotch

Overview

TopNotch is a lil Swift package that lets you hide a custom view underneath the device’s notch. Since it’ll only be visible in screenshots and screen recordings, you can have some fun. Put a version string in there, maybe use it as a branding moment to stick your logo there, write your darkest secrets, whatever your little heart desires.

If you opt to actually write your little secrets there, you can set shouldHideForTaskSwitcher on TopNotchConfiguration to hide the view when sceneWillDeactivateNotification gets called. It'll come back after sceneDidActivateNotification is called or if you ask nicely.

It automatically calculates the notch’s exclusion area (using an undocumented _exclusionArea property on UIScreen). Since it doesn't always return the right values for older notch styles, I'm applying some manual, device-specific adjustments to make sure it stays hidden on all devices.

Warning

Because TopNotch relies on undocumented APIs, it may not be App Store safe. Give it a shot though. I dare you.

demo.mp4

TODO

• Reduce logging pollution
• Make the SwiftUI adapter useful

Usage

I've attached a little demo project if that's how you roll. TL;DR:

// Create a custom view (or use your own) to display behind the notch.
let notchLabel = UILabel()
notchLabel.text = "Hi Mom"
notchLabel.textAlignment = .center
notchLabel.textColor = .white
notchLabel.backgroundColor = UIColor.systemBlue.withAlphaComponent(0.7)

// Show the notch view.
TopNotchManager.shared.show(customView: notchLabel, with: TopNotchConfiguration(animationDuration: 0.3,
                                                                                   shouldAnimate: true,
                                                                                   shouldHideForTaskSwitcher: true))

// To hide it:
TopNotchManager.shared.hide()