A control strip for your PC that lives in a notch. FPS and OBS in your games, mute and a meeting clock on your calls, a shelf that sends files to your phone on the same Wi-Fi. It opens when you rest your cursor on it and gets out of the way when you work.
NotchPixel runs on Windows PCs. Send it to your PC:
The idea comes from the iPhone, where Apple calls it the Dynamic Island. On a PC, looking like a notch is the easy part; plenty of apps do (see the guide). NotchPixel runs its own window engine, so it goes inside your game, onto your calls, across to your phone on the same Wi-Fi and into your renders.
01PlayFullscreen games get a slim strip instead of nothing: FPS counted per swapchain the way PresentMon counts it, CPU, GPU, RAM, the clock. OBS records and streams from a hotkey with a REC pill that names the scene. Switch audio output without alt-tabbing.
02MeetThe moment an app opens your mic the pill becomes a call: a timer, a mute hotkey every app agrees with, and "ends in 12 min" from your calendar. A mirror to check your hair. A dot the instant a sensor goes live. How to mute your mic in every app
03Move stuffDrop files on the island, drag them back out into any app. Copy history one click away. Open the Phone tab and scan: the shelf's files go to your phone, and photos, files and text come back, on the same Wi-Fi, with no app or account on the phone. Other ways to send files from a PC to a phone
04MakePoint it at your export folder and a render becomes a pill: name, size, speed, time, then "done". A colour picker on a hotkey that copies the hex. A warning when Night light is on in Photoshop or Resolve, one click to fix. Screen recording and screenshots from the card, with the file one click away.
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Why not the $1.99 one?
Because it is a notch, and this is a tool that wears one. If all you want is the look, a free or $1.99 one will do; we mean that. If you play, take calls or move files all day, the difference is the whole point.
Notchify 5.3.2
NotchPixel
In a fullscreen game
No game overlay in its listing
A slim strip: FPS, CPU, GPU, RAM, clock. OBS record and stream from a hotkey.
How it draws
WPF plus WebView2, two monitor-sized windows kept on top of everything
Direct3D 12 into DirectComposition, the path Windows uses for its own animations, in a window the size of the pill.
Notifications
Tells Windows a full-screen app is running the whole time it is open, the state apps consult before showing a notification
Windows sees an ordinary small window; your notifications keep coming, and the island mirrors them
Files
A file tray. Its listing describes no way to send files to a phone.
Drop on, drag out into any app. Share sheet. Send to your phone on the same Wi-Fi, and receive from it.
Price
$1.99
$9.99 once, 7-day free trial. No subscription, no account.
Notchify column: version 5.3.2 from the Microsoft Store, installed on our PC to see how it draws, with its full-screen state read through SHQueryUserNotificationState; features and price from its Store listing, read on 3 Oct 2026. Apps change; check the listing you are looking at. More apps, free and paid: the guide.
Ten moments
Real captures. No mockups.
Everything below was taken from the app running on a laptop, the wallpaper included.
01
Mute from anywhere, mid‑call
The moment something opens your microphone the island starts a timer. Click the mic or hit the hotkey to mute, from inside a meeting, a game or any other window.
02
You always know you are muted
The pill turns red and says so. It follows the capture device's own mute, so it agrees with Windows and with everything else on your PC.
03
Downloads you can watch land
File name and speed while it arrives, and a tick when it is done. Every browser, no extension.
04
A dot when something is listening
Microphone, camera or screen share. The indicator Windows hides in the tray, where you will actually see it.
05
Now playing, always in reach
Any app or site that reports media to Windows. Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, YouTube Music, VLC.
06
Rest your cursor. It opens.
Play, skip and scrub. The album art slides between layouts instead of fading, on a spring tuned to 0.42 s.
07
The volume popup you actually want
Replaces the grey box in the corner. Brightness keys too.
08
Plug in. See it.
Charging, unplugged, low battery and critical, without a click.
09
Headphones on, battery known
Bluetooth connects and disconnects, with the level when the device reports one.
10
Notifications, mirrored
New messages show in the island. Click one to open the app.
Compact, 212 by 36 points. Smaller than a tab.
Out of the way. On purpose.
It knows when to disappear.
01Slim under maximized windows.It collapses to a thin line so browser tabs stay clickable, and opens again when you rest the cursor on it.
02Gone in fullscreen.Games, videos and presentations get the whole screen.
03Clicks fall through.The open card only claims its buttons. Everything else reaches the window underneath.
04No account, nothing phoned home.Your mic state, downloads and everything else are read from Windows on your PC and never leave it. The camera mirror is drawn and thrown away, never recorded. Weather, calendar, the prices strip, pinned sites and stream chat reach the network, and only when you set them up.
The card
The card has more than one side.
Scroll the open card and it turns into a shelf, a phone link, a clipboard, a wall of widgets, quick controls, a launcher, your scripts' tiles or a call tab. A gear on every tab opens settings. All of it is in the one license.
File shelf
Drop files on the island to park them, drag them out into any app. Share hands them to the Windows share sheet, which is where Nearby Share lives.
Send to phone
Open the Phone tab, scan the code. Your phone gets the shelf's files and can send photos, files and text back, straight onto the shelf and the clipboard. Same Wi-Fi, no account, nothing leaves your network.
Tiles from your scripts
One line from any script, build or cron job puts a live tile in the card: NotchPixel.exe --tile ci main passing or a curl to the local endpoint. Colour, progress bar, auto-expiry.
Controls
Brightness and volume sliders, and one-tap switches for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, night light, focus assist and mute. The quick settings you actually use, without the Action Center.
Launcher
Screenshot every monitor, snip a region, or record the screen to MP4 with Windows' own encoder, all from the card or a hotkey. Six slots open the apps, folders and files you reach for. The island keeps itself out of the shot.
Clipboard history
The last things you copied, one click to put one back. Password manager copies are skipped and nothing is written to disk.
Reminders
Type what it should say, pick the day and the time down to AM or PM, and forget it. When it comes due the island opens over whatever you are doing, says it, and rings until you have seen it. Full screen and do-not-disturb do not silence it.
Sites in the island
Pin any page to the card: YouTube Music, a dashboard, the docs you keep open. One click opens it in a drawer that stays signed in, remembers where you put it, and never lands in the taskbar.
Everything it said
A HUD is gone in seconds. This tab keeps the last two dozen, newest first, each one clickable back to whatever raised it. Yours and Windows' both.
WidgetsCalendar from any .ics link, a pomodoro that keeps counting in the pill, weather, and CPU, GPU, RAM and network meters, on one tab of the card.
Gamer overlayIn a fullscreen game, a slim strip with FPS, CPU, GPU, RAM and the clock instead of hiding. You pick which. FPS is counted the way PresentMon and Game Bar count it.
OBS StudioA REC or LIVE pill with the elapsed time and the scene while OBS records or streams. Start and stop either from a hotkey. The password stays encrypted on your PC.
CallsA Call tab with the timer the moment your mic opens, "ends in 12 min" from your calendar, mute, the audio output, and a mirror that opens only while you are on a call or ask for a preview.
Scripts and buildsA loopback endpoint and --notify put a line on the pill; --tile keeps a live tile in the card. Browsers are refused, so a web page can never spam it.
Video and photoWatched export folders turn a growing render into a pill with its size, speed and time, and a notice when it is done. Ctrl+Alt+C copies the colour under the cursor as hex. A photo or clip dropped on the shelf shows its resolution, length and camera. Night light on in a colour-critical editor gets a warning that fixes it on click.
Laptop and deskBattery time left on the HUD, power mode from the tray or a hotkey, the default audio output switched with one press, and a prices strip for the symbols you watch.
The drawerA pinned site opens in a rounded window drawn the way the island is drawn, with smooth corners and no chrome to speak of: a back arrow, the address, picture-in-picture, and a pin. Drag it anywhere, size it, send it to a corner while you work. Video keeps playing while it is small.
Make it yoursIsland or notch shape (the notch curves into the edge like a MacBook's), any size from 70 to 150 percent, black, graphite or glass, eight accents, left, centre or right, an island on every monitor, per-app rules and global hotkeys. Settings in a frosted-glass window that matches.
Every side of it
Every tab, up close.
Ten captures from the running app. Drag, scroll or swipe.
WidgetsThe day, a timer that keeps counting, the weather and the meters. The bell in the middle sets a reminder.RemindersDay, hour, minute, AM or PM. It rings over anything.SitesPin a page once. One click opens it, still signed in.The drawerSmooth corners, no window frame, picture-in-picture on tap.FilesDrop them on the island, drag them out anywhere, or send them to your phone on the same Wi-Fi.NotificationsEverything it has said, newest first.ControlsBrightness, volume, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, night light, focus, mute, power mode.LauncherScreenshot, snip, record, and the six things you open all day.TilesOne line from a script puts a live number in the card.SettingsSeven categories, rounded like the island, in the island's own colours.
Idle CPU
0%
Sleeps on the DXGI latency handle when nothing is animating.
Memory
13MB
Private working set at idle, the number in Task Manager's Memory column.
Languages
21
The island, its card and settings are translated into each of them.
Spring
0.42s
Open response, damping 0.8, and it can be interrupted mid-motion.
CPU and memory measured at idle, version 0.5.64, 3 Oct 2026. How we measured
Pricing
One price. Pay once.
No ads, no nags, no subscription. A 7-day free trial, then $9.99 once, no account, sold in the Microsoft Store: it installs on the PCs you sign in to with your Microsoft account.
Installed and updated by the Microsoft Store, so Windows shows no SmartScreen warning. Publisher: KORE INDUSTRIES.
US price; the Store shows the price for your country.
Questions
Asked before buying.
Does it work on Windows 10?
Yes. It runs on Windows 10 version 2004 (build 19041) and later, and on Windows 11, on 64-bit (x64) PCs. Any DPI, laptops and desktops, one or more monitors. The memory and CPU figures were measured on Windows 10 Home 22H2.
Does it work on a laptop without a notch?
Yes. It does not need a notch in the screen: it draws its own pill at the top edge of any laptop or desktop monitor. Pick the island shape, or the notch shape, which curves into the top edge like a MacBook's.
Where do I buy it?
In the Microsoft Store. It installs and updates like any Store app, and the Store handles the payment, the license and refunds. Your license follows your Microsoft account, so it installs on the PCs you sign in to.
Is there a Mac version?
A Mac version is in development; no date yet. NotchPixel started on Windows because Windows has no notch and no island; a Mac has the notch already and deserves the same tool hanging from it. The waitlist hears first when it is ready. Buying the Windows license does not buy the Mac one, and we will say plainly what it costs before you are asked for anything.
Does it work with my music app?
Anything that reports media to Windows: Spotify, YouTube and other sites in Chrome, Edge and Firefox, Apple Music, YouTube Music, foobar2000, VLC and more. If the Windows volume flyout shows your track, NotchPixel does.
Can I mute my mic with a hotkey?
Yes, and from anywhere: inside a meeting, a game, or any other window. NotchPixel sets the capture device's own mute, the same switch the Windows sound settings use, so every app agrees about whether you are muted. The pill turns red while you are, and the hotkey is yours to rebind.
Which apps does the call timer work with?
All of them. It watches the microphone itself rather than any particular app, so Teams, Zoom, Meet, Discord, Slack and anything else that records are all the same to it. A brief gap while you start a screen share is treated as a hand-off, so the timer does not restart.
Does download progress need an extension?
No. Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Opera all write a download to a temporary file and rename it when it finishes, so NotchPixel reads the progress straight from your Downloads folder. Nothing is installed in your browser. The temporary file does not carry a total size, so the island shows what has arrived and how fast rather than inventing a percentage.
Will it get in the way of games?
No. In a fullscreen game the island hides itself completely. If you would rather see something, it can show a slim FPS, CPU, GPU and RAM strip instead, and you choose which of those it shows. The strip needs the game in borderless or windowed fullscreen: in exclusive fullscreen the game owns the screen and nothing can draw over it, so the first time that happens NotchPixel tells you, once you are out of the game. With OBS open, a hotkey starts and stops recording without leaving the game.
Why $9.99 when the Store has notch apps for $1.99?
If the look is all you want, a free or $1.99 one will do; the guide compares them, and we mean that. NotchPixel is for people who play, take calls or move files all day: a slim FPS, CPU, GPU and RAM strip in fullscreen games, one key that mutes the mic in every app, files to your phone on the same Wi-Fi, and a pill that OBS and your scripts can talk to. That is what the $9.99 pays for.
How does Send to phone work, and is it safe?
Press Phone on the shelf and a code appears. Your phone scans it and opens a page served by NotchPixel itself, on the same Wi-Fi as your PC, at a random port with a random key in the address. The page lists the shelf's files to download and lets the phone send photos, files and text back; they land in Downloads\NotchPixel, on the shelf and on the clipboard. The page exists only while the code is showing, at most fifteen minutes, and nothing goes through any server. Windows asks once to allow NotchPixel on private networks.
Does it send anything anywhere?
Nothing goes to us. Weather, calendar, the prices strip, pinned sites and stream chat reach the network, and only when you set them up. OBS is a connection to OBS on your own PC; the script endpoint listens on localhost only; Send to phone works only on the same Wi-Fi and only while its code is on screen. Media, microphone state, downloads, battery, Bluetooth and notification information is read from Windows on your PC. See the privacy policy.
Is this made by Apple?
No. NotchPixel is an independent app and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Apple Inc. Dynamic Island is a trademark of Apple Inc.
How is it different from the other Windows notch apps?
See the dated comparison in the guide to notch apps for Windows. NotchPixel adds a slim FPS, CPU, GPU and RAM strip in fullscreen games, one key that mutes the mic in every app, files to your phone on the same Wi-Fi with a QR code, and a Twitch and YouTube chat drawer. It draws through DirectComposition and uses about 13 MB in Task Manager and 0% CPU at idle (version 0.5.64, 3 Oct 2026; how we measured).
Your screen has a top edge. Give it something to do.
On a Mac? A Mac version is in development; no date yet. Leave your email and hear first.
