0.15.2 — Lighter equalizer

Requires Apple Silicon and macOS 26. On an Intel Mac or macOS 15? Use 0.6.0, the final release for those machines.

What's new

• The live equalizer does less work while music plays: it only redraws when a bar actually moves.

Full history: https://aloenotch.com/changelog

0.15.1 — Motion picker fix

Requires Apple Silicon and macOS 26. On an Intel Mac or macOS 15? Use 0.6.0, the final release for those machines.

What's new

• The Motion picker in Settings → Appearance fits inside its card again, instead of Lively hanging over the edge.

Full history: https://aloenotch.com/changelog

0.15.0 — Mirror and Notes

Requires Apple Silicon and macOS 26. On an Intel Mac or macOS 15? Use 0.6.0, the final release for those machines.

What's new

• Mirror. A new tab with your camera in it, for a quick look before a call. The camera runs only while the tab is open, nothing is recorded, and it asks for camera access the first time you open it. Off by default: turn it on in Settings → Modules → Tools.
• Notes. A scratchpad tab that saves as you type and is still there tomorrow. It lives in one file on your Mac, never synced or sent anywhere, and the trash button deletes it. Also off by default, in the same place.
• The custom color in Settings → Appearance → Accent is a swatch like the others again, instead of a wide button covering the last one.

Full history: https://aloenotch.com/changelog

0.14.4 — Two displays, done right

Requires Apple Silicon and macOS 26. On an Intel Mac or macOS 15? Use 0.6.0, the final release for those machines.

What's new

• Two displays, no dead zone. With the notch on every display, an invisible area around each one swallowed clicks, so a window or Settings under the top of the screen couldn't be clicked or moved. Clicks outside the notch now go where you aim them.
• No more flashing on two displays. The notches on each screen could pass keyboard focus back and forth many times a second, flickering the notch and catching the pointer. A closed notch no longer takes focus at all.
• A new layout: Two pages. Home puts the large Now Playing player beside your week; Tools gives the shelf, clipboard and timer the whole panel. Switch from beside the clock or with a two-finger swipe, and a file dragged in goes straight to Tools. Pick it in Settings → Appearance → Layout.
• The large player shows the current lyric line when Lyrics is on.

Full history: https://aloenotch.com/changelog

0.14.3 — Your keyboard and mouse stay yours

Requires Apple Silicon and macOS 26. On an Intel Mac or macOS 15? Use 0.6.0, the final release for those machines.

What's new

• Your keyboard and mouse stay yours. After a click in the notch, typing could go to the notch instead of the app in front, so every key beeped, and dragging a file off the shelf could leave the pointer stuck mid-drag. The notch now hands focus straight back, and never while a mouse button is held.

Full history: https://aloenotch.com/changelog

0.14.2 — No more keyboard backlight readout

Requires Apple Silicon and macOS 26. On an Intel Mac or macOS 15? Use 0.6.0, the final release for those machines.

What's new

• No more keyboard backlight readout. The light sensor adjusts the keyboard backlight on its own, and the notch kept announcing it even after 0.14.1. It's gone entirely, so the notch no longer watches the keyboard backlight at all. Volume, brightness and Caps Lock are unchanged.

Full history: https://aloenotch.com/changelog

0.14.1 — The keyboard backlight stays quiet

Requires Apple Silicon and macOS 26. On an Intel Mac or macOS 15? Use 0.6.0, the final release for those machines.

What's new

• The keyboard backlight stays quiet. With automatic keyboard brightness on, the light sensor adjusts the backlight by tiny amounts several times a second, and 0.14.0 announced every one of them in the notch. Now it shows only when you change the backlight yourself.

Full history: https://aloenotch.com/changelog

0.14.0 — Polished, and a little more useful

Requires Apple Silicon and macOS 26. On an Intel Mac or macOS 15? Use 0.6.0, the final release for those machines.

What's new

• Shuffle and repeat. Both sit beside the play controls. Optionally, a new song's cover slides out of the notch for a moment when the track changes.
• Small things, announced. Caps Lock, microphone mute, the keyboard backlight, low battery and Low Power Mode each get a brief note in the notch, drawn like the volume display.
• Stopwatch and focus sessions. The timer has three modes now, and several running things can share the notch instead of the newest replacing the rest. Your next event can count down for its last ten minutes, if you turn that on.
• A clipboard you can pin and search. Pin up to six entries, search everything you copied, and keep formatting when you copy back (⌥-click for plain text). History, pins included, still never touches the disk.
• Compress and convert from the shelf. Right-click a file to zip it, or an image to change its format. The result is written next to the original, and the original is left alone.
• The next line of lyrics. Click the lyric to see the line that's coming as well as the one being sung.
• The notch on every display (off by default). Each screen gets its own, and the panel opens on whichever one you're using.
• Out of the way when it should be. While an app is full screen, the pointer no longer opens the panel. Apps you choose in Settings → General get the same treatment even in a window. Esc closes the panel, and ⌃⌥N gives it keyboard focus.
• Updates in one click. AloeNotch now updates itself through Sparkle: see what changed, click Install, and it reopens on the new version. Every update is signed and checked before it opens. Nothing installs without your click.
• Motion, refined. The panel can change its mind halfway through opening or closing without a jump, ignores the pointer brushing past on its way to the menu bar, and closes without ever overshooting the notch.
• Easier to read and use. Text and icons follow Increase Contrast, modules show when they are loading or need a permission instead of sitting blank, and Settings is tidier and ready to be translated.

Full history: https://aloenotch.com/changelog

0.13.2 — The notch stays centered

Requires Apple Silicon and macOS 26. On an Intel Mac or macOS 15? Use 0.6.0, the final release for those machines.

What's new

• The notch stays centered. After sleep or a display change, macOS could nudge or narrow the notch's window, leaving the strip a little off the hardware notch with one side longer than the other. AloeNotch now snaps back into place on its own.

Full history: https://aloenotch.com/changelog

0.13.1 — Catch up on what's new

Requires Apple Silicon and macOS 26. On an Intel Mac or macOS 15? Use 0.6.0, the final release for those machines.

What's new

• Catch up on what's new. Updating now shows everything added since 0.10, and the opt-in extras (the glass notch, lyrics, the live equalizer and AirPods battery) each have a switch right there, so you can try them without digging through Settings.
• Accurate privacy note. Settings → Access now lists lyrics alongside weather and update checks as the only things that go online.
• Small, consistent touches. The menu bar shows ⌘, for Settings and ⌘Q for Quit (and Quit is no longer red), the login setting has one name everywhere, and the app uses US spelling to match macOS.

Full history: https://aloenotch.com/changelog