[UI / Feature Request] "Now Playing" notch bar overlaps menu bar items & lacks width customization

[NekoSukuriputo]

Description

When media is playing, the expanded "Now Playing" dynamic island becomes too wide and overlaps the active application's menu bar items (e.g., IDE menu items like Run, Tools, VCS, Window). Currently, there is no setting or slider available to adjust or shrink the expanded notch width.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Play any audio/media (e.g., Spotify, Apple Music, Netflix).
2. Open an application with a dense menu bar (e.g., IntelliJ IDEA / Android Studio / Xcode).
3. Observe the dynamic island expanding horizontally and covering the menu bar items.

Expected Behavior

• The expanded dynamic island should not overlap menu bar items, or
• Users should have a preference/setting to adjust the notch width, padding, or set text truncation limits for the "Now Playing" state.

Suggested Solutions

• Add a slider/toggle in Settings to adjust the maximum width or scale of the expanded notch.
• Implement auto-truncation for media titles if they exceed a certain horizontal threshold.

Environment

• App: Notchy
• Device: MacBook Pro 16-inch (M1 Pro)
• OS: macOS Tahoe 26.6.2

Screenshots

[vishvavariya]

Fixed, and shipped in v1.0.135 — out now, so an update check should offer it.

This is the same report as #17 (thanks for filing it both ways — the screenshot is what made it findable), so the detail lives over there. The short version:

You were right that the width control was missing, but not quite in the way it looked. The control existed — it just didn't apply here. The ear grows to fit the track label, and that growth was capped at a flat multiple of the base ear width, with the pill size setting applied only to the base:

let needed = min(earContentWidth, base * 2.6)   // ← ignores the size setting
return max(base * scale, needed)

So any title long enough to reach the ceiling pinned the ear at a fixed width, and turning the size down changed nothing for exactly the case you're reporting. Now:

let needed = min(earContentWidth, base * 2.6 * scale)

Settings → Appearance → the pill size control now genuinely narrows the Now Playing island, long title or not. There's a regression test (testPillSizeScaleBoundsALongTrackTitle) so it can't quietly come back.

Two things I'd rather be straight about than let you find out:

• I did not add a dedicated max-width / padding / text-size preference. The scaling fix should cover the practical need and I'd rather not add three sliders for what one control can do. If it still overlaps your menu bar at the smallest size, say so and I'll reconsider — that's a fair outcome, not a closed door.
• The empty gap between the title and the camera (Area 2 in [UI / Feature Request] "Now Playing" notch bar overlaps menu bar items & lacks width customization #17) is not fixed. I couldn't reproduce it: my development Mac has no hardware notch, so the ear layout I can drive is the simulated one. If you can paste the exact track title and artist from that screenshot, the ear is sized from the measured label width and a specific string is what I need to reproduce it.

Also worth knowing: "Always Show Track Info" (Settings → Now Playing) is what puts the title in the ear at all. With it off the island stays compact whatever is playing — that's the immediate workaround if the new scaling isn't enough on your 16".

[vishvavariya]

Can you close this discussion if this is fixed?

[vishvavariya]

Notchy 1.0.191 retains the corrected Now Playing sizing and menu-overlap handling described in the earlier reply. If it still overlaps your IDE menus after updating, please share the exact track title/artist and the current pill-size/Always Show Track Info settings. A dedicated max-width control wasn't added in this release, so I don't want to imply that request shipped.