Isle

Dynamic Island for the MacBook notch.
C++20 · Qt 6 / QML · AppKit · MediaRemote · AppleScript · Objective-C++

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The MacBook notch stops being dead space. Hover over it and it springs open into a panel, just like the Dynamic Island on iPhone.

Features

• Now playing. Artwork, track, artist, progress and controls: play/pause, next, previous. When collapsed, the artwork and a live equalizer sit on either side of the notch.
• Focus timer. 5, 15, 25 and 45-minute presets, pause, +5 minutes. While it runs, the remaining time is shown right in the notch. When time's up, a chime plays and the notch opens on its own.
• File shelf. Drag a file onto the notch to park it there, then drag it out into any app: a messenger, Mail, Finder. Double-click opens the file, right-click reveals it in Finder. The shelf persists between launches.
• Stays out of your way. While collapsed, the window is click-through and the menu bar underneath works as usual. Expanding never makes Isle the active app, just like Spotlight.
• Works without a notch too: on external displays and older Macs a neat pill appears at the top center.

How it works

src/
├── core/                    # no UI → covered by tests
│   ├── FocusTimer           # timer on a monotonic clock
│   └── ShelfModel           # shelf model + persistence
├── app/
│   ├── NotchController      # geometry, hover logic, click-through
│   ├── NowPlaying           # what's playing + controls
│   └── ImageStore           # artwork and file icons for QML
└── platform/
    ├── Native_mac.mm        # window above the menu bar, NSPanel, drag detection, SMAppService
    ├── Media_mac.mm         # MediaRemote + AppleScript (Spotify, Music)
    └── MediaBridge.m        # Now Playing helper that runs inside /usr/bin/perl
qml/                         # notch shape on QtQuick.Shapes, cards, animations

Notable decisions:

• Notch size comes from NSScreen.safeAreaInsets and auxiliaryTopLeftArea/RightArea. Collapsed, Isle matches the hardware notch pixel for pixel and blends into it.
• Window above the menu bar: NSMainMenuWindowLevel + 3, NonactivatingPanel, visible on every Space; hides in full-screen apps, like the menu bar.
• Click-through. The window is large, but while collapsed it sets ignoresMouseEvents = YES. The cursor is polled 25 times a second, and click-through is lifted only when the cursor is over the island.
• Telling a file drag from a menu click. The changeCount of the system drag pasteboard is compared at mouse-down and during movement: if it changed, a drag-and-drop is in progress and the notch opens to meet it.
• Now playing from any player. The private MediaRemote framework sees every player (Yandex Music, browsers, Spotify…), but since macOS 15.4 it only answers Apple-signed processes. Isle ships a tiny library that /usr/bin/perl — an Apple-signed binary — loads through DynaLoader; it reads Now Playing inside perl and streams JSON lines back to Isle, and sends play/pause/next the same way. If that ever stops working, Isle falls back to AppleScript for Spotify and Music (compiled scripts cached, and never talking to a player that isn't running — tell application would launch it).
• Island shape is a single ShapePath with rounded corners and concave "ears" at the screen edge. Width and height are driven by SpringAnimation, which gives the expansion its bounce.

Building

brew install qt cmake ninja

# development
cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$(brew --prefix qt)"
cmake --build build && ctest --test-dir build
./build/Isle.app/Contents/MacOS/Isle

# standalone app + .dmg + install to /Applications
./scripts/package.sh --install

On first playback macOS will ask "Isle wants to control Spotify / Music". Click Allow, otherwise Isle can't see what's playing.

License

MIT