# [005] The other side: Mac notch tool apps. Launch counts have spiked, revenue is tiny, and Apple just brought the Dynamic Island to the Mac

> Source: https://stringers.io/en/o/005.html (Stringers / 什么值得做, generated 2026-11-08)
> Stringers answers one question every day: what small product can one or two people build in a few months and actually make money from. Numbers come from 15 databases we collect daily, each with source and date.
> For agents: these verdicts and the underlying databases (verified revenue, App Store / Google Play charts, ad libraries, GitHub, Product Hunt…) are queryable live over MCP — tools today / hot / products / directions / direction / data. Setup: https://github.com/komako-workshop/stringers (the user logs in at stringers.io → "配置 agent" to get a personal URL). Site index: https://stringers.io/llms.txt

> Now that Apple has opened Live Activities to the Mac, features like "show music, timers and calendar in the notch" will be overridden by the system itself.

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# Not promising: Mac notch tool apps. Launches spike, revenue stays tiny, and Apple just brought Dynamic Island to the Mac.

Closed Trackable (other side) · Big players just entered / already crowded First spotted 2026-10-31 · Last updated 2026-11-08

Status

Closed (big players entering)

Why this is written up

Now that Apple has opened Live Activities to the Mac, features like "show music, timers and calendar in the notch" will be overridden by the system itself. What's left is "add Mac Live Activities to your app," not "build a notch app" (inference; wait for 11-06 and check the API details).

Confidence

Medium to high. What would overturn this: the Mac Dynamic Island only ships on the new MacBook Pro (older models still need third-party apps), and notch app revenue among indies goes up rather than down from 11 through December. Confirm this once 11-06 machines arrive.

## Evidence

Grouped by store. Each group starts with the charts that can be graphed (real curves, data dates below the chart), then the scanner's original notes and source links.

### Other sources (official sites, press releases, web pages) 1 pieces of evidence

- Apple press release (2026-10-28): the new MacBook Pro (preorders from 10-28, on sale 11-06) brings the Dynamic Island to the Mac, carrying Spotlight, Live Activities and Siri AI, and it can take calls, control music and receive AirDrop. [www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/10/apple-unveils-groundbreaking-…](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/10/apple-unveils-groundbreaking-macbook-pro-with-proled-xdr-display/)

### Product Hunt2 pieces of evidence

- PH: launches with notch / dynamic island in the name or tagline: 2026-04 had 26, July 22, September 46, October (through 10-28) 98, of which 26 scored ≥50 points. 10-28 bytemail, "a mailbox in the notch," also took the day's #2 spot (250 points).

- PH (full database, verified 11-02): launches with notch / dynamic island in the name or tagline, 108 for all of October, of which 29 scored ≥50 points (the original record said 10-28 / 98 / 26). Every October launch to clear 100 points was a vertical product: [AgentValley](https://stringers.io/worth/p/agentvalley.html) (10-24,164 points, daily #4, targets coding agents), bytemail (10-28,250 points, #2, email), [Notch Metrics](https://stringers.io/worth/p/notch-metrics.html) (10-29,187 points, #4, metrics), [iSurge](https://stringers.io/worth/p/isurge.html) (10-30,105 points). The [AgentPeek](https://stringers.io/worth/p/agentpeek.html) 165 points cited in the PH report is from a launch in 06-30, not October.

### Indie product revenue (TrustMRR)3 evidence · 4 products with curves

[OmniNotch](https://trustmrr.com/startup/omninotch) omninotch.app

TrustMRR · 30-day revenue $391 (-88%) · [View product profile](https://stringers.io/worth/p/omninotch.html)

Monthly revenue (verified by payment platform)

2026-09 → 2026-11 (3 pts). Light bars = current month, not yet complete

Daily revenue (UTC day)

Data 2026-09-29 → 2026-11-06 (39 days, 39 observations). Single-day swings are big, so look at the trend in the monthly breakdown above.

[NotchLive](https://trustmrr.com/startup/notchlive) notchlive.app

TrustMRR · 30-day revenue $1,585 (-6%) · MRR $30 · 3 subscriptions

Monthly revenue (verified by payment platform)

2026-03 → 2026-11 (9 pts). Light bars = current month, not yet complete

Daily revenue (UTC day)

Data 2026-09-29 → 2026-11-06 (39 days, 39 observations). Single-day swings are big, so look at the trend in the monthly breakdown above.

[Tucket](https://trustmrr.com/startup/tucket) trytucket.com

TrustMRR · 30-day revenue $349 (−69%)

Monthly revenue (verified by payment platform)

2026-08 → 2026-11 (4 pts). Light bars = current month, not yet complete

Daily revenue (UTC day)

Data 2026-09-29 → 2026-11-06 (39 days, 39 observations). Single-day swings are big, so look at the trend in the monthly breakdown above.

[Cooldock](https://trustmrr.com/startup/cooldock) cooldock.app

TrustMRR · 30-day revenue $11,338 (+212%) · [View product profile](https://stringers.io/worth/p/cooldock-2.html)

Monthly revenue (verified by payment platform)

2026-06 → 2026-11 (6 pts). Light bars = current month, not yet complete

Daily revenue (UTC day)

Data 2026-09-29 → 2026-11-06 (39 days, 39 observations). Single-day swings are big, so look at the trend in the monthly breakdown above.

- indie (30 days of revenue, as of 10-30): [OmniNotch](https://stringers.io/worth/p/omninotch.html) $2,744 (one-time purchase $5–14.99), NotchLive $1,630, [Halo](https://stringers.io/worth/p/halo-11.html) $826, Tucket $471; the rest, NotchNudge, NotchStack, PeakPad, MakerNotch and others, are between $5–70.

- Exception: Cooldock (cooldock.app, a Dock / notch-tools bundle in the same vein) at $9,708/30 a day, up 98.5% week over week, with an annual plan at €14.99 and a lifetime at €29.99, spread across a wide mix of channels (SEO, blogs, TikTok, Reddit and more).

- indie ([OmniNotch](https://stringers.io/worth/p/omninotch.html) dossier ph-dossiers/omninotch.md, 11-01): since 5-01 on PH, 211 notch launches charted; [OmniNotch](https://stringers.io/worth/p/omninotch.html) has made about $3,478 total, with $2,252 (65%) in 10-02~10-05 four days, right after a 114k-view X post from 9-29; weekly revenue went $2,356 → $173 → $45 → $56; it was listed on TrustMRR on day 11 of launch and is asking $6,000 now; it's been on a $5 promo the whole time, so the real sale price is $5. 11-02 check: 30 days $2,682,10-21~31, $0–73 a day.

### GitHub1 evidence · 1 products with curves

[Louis-CFM/coucou](https://github.com/Louis-CFM/coucou)

GitHub · created 2026-09-27 · 7,037 stars · 7 days +196

A tiny friend in your Mac's notch and on your iPhone that keeps an eye on your AI coding agents: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Antigravity and more. A

Stars

Data 2026-09-30 → 2026-11-08 (40 days, 32 observations). Points before 10-28 come from deeply / archive backfill, not every day has one

- GitHub (verified 11-02): Louis-CFM/coucou (an open-source tool that lives in the notch and watches coding agents, created 9-27) has 6,876 stars, +457 over 7 days, +919 last week, and is cooling off. Vertical notch projects can earn stars on GitHub, but they don't earn money.

## Already being built (11-02 backfill)

Vertical notch products include [AgentPeek](https://stringers.io/worth/p/agentpeek.html), [AgentValley](https://stringers.io/worth/p/agentvalley.html) (watches coding agents), bytemail (email, see [050]), [Notch Metrics](https://stringers.io/worth/p/notch-metrics.html) (metrics) and coucou (open source). General-purpose notch apps include free open-source options such as Boring Notch, Notchy and Atoll, and paid ones such as NotchNook and Alcove.

## Who it's for

Not recommended as a new entrant. Those already building in this space should pivot to becoming providers of Live Activities / Dynamic Island content.

## Should every product builder know this?

Yes. Anyone building Mac tools needs to know this.

## Related product profiles

[OmniNotch](https://stringers.io/worth/p/omninotch.html), [CoolDock product profile](https://stringers.io/worth/p/cooldock-2.html), [Halo](https://stringers.io/worth/p/halo-11.html), [AgentPeek](https://stringers.io/worth/p/agentpeek.html), [AgentValley](https://stringers.io/worth/p/agentvalley.html), [iSurge](https://stringers.io/worth/p/isurge.html), [Notch Metrics](https://stringers.io/worth/p/notch-metrics.html)

## Change log

2026-11-08

indie: [Halo](https://stringers.io/worth/p/halo-11.html) (halo-mac.com, turns the notch into a Dynamic Island, also supports external displays; Uzbek developer, PH 10-11 72 votes). First revenue: $1,002 cumulative over 10-02,35 days, $681 over 30 days; [OmniNotch](https://stringers.io/worth/p/omninotch.html) $391 over 30 days (−87.5%). New notch apps hit a ceiling around $1K a month. We'll look at the Mac Dynamic Island effect again next week, once touchscreen Macs ship.

2026-11-06

The touchscreen MacBook Pro goes on sale today (US 11-06). The Mac App Store library chart today was captured from Beijing 05:00 (matching the US afternoon of 11-05, before the machines reach users), so no reaction is visible yet. indie: [OmniNotch](https://stringers.io/worth/p/omninotch.html) $455 over 30 days (−84.9%, 10-31 is $2,744). The notch app launch pulse faded cleanly. Cooldock $10,585 (+185%, driven by paid acquisition). The conclusion is firmer.

2026-11-03

[OmniNotch](https://stringers.io/worth/p/omninotch.html) 30-day $2,743 → $1,852; Cooldock $10,288 (+143%, driven by paid acquisition, see 11-02). Dock- and notch-style Mac tools are starting to spill over to Windows; see the newly added [088].

2026-11-02

Backfill (from 《Product Hunt 汇总 v1》 4.1 item 6, ph-dossiers/omninotch.md, and 《GitHub 新机会(第一批)》§1.3): the price floor for general notch apps has already been driven down to 0 by free open-source projects. [OmniNotch](https://stringers.io/worth/p/omninotch.html) can only sell for $5, and its revenue came from a single X post. Every October launch that cleared 100 points was "a notch for some specific type of person." The conclusion stands. Add one line: if you do build here, build only vertical notch products, and become a provider of Mac Live Activities content as the original record says. See also [051] (the four Mac red oceans).

2026-11-02

Meta Ad Library (newly connected) shows that part of the exception Cooldock's growth is bought: the AppitStudio Page is running 9 ads, landing on both cooldock.app and extradock.app, and the earliest one seen started on 2026-08-28. The same developer's ExtraDock is $3,399 over 30 days (−25.9%), while Cooldock is $10,104 (+106%). In other words, the only "exception" in the notch / Dock category is held up by paid acquisition, not organic demand. The conclusion is firmer.

2026-11-01

First check against the Mac App Store library (11-01 has only 1 days of data): native notch apps are all long tail on the Mac paid charts. NotchPrompter is at $4.99 and charted in 15 storefronts, with its best overall Top Paid rank at #26; VibeNotch's best Top Paid rank is #18 (mx); Black Menu Bar (10-21 launch) peaked at #18. None made it into the top 25 Top Paid in the US. Indies: [OmniNotch](https://stringers.io/worth/p/omninotch.html) $2,743, NotchLive $1,562 (−20%); Cooldock $9,984 (+103%), still the exception. The conclusion stands.

2026-10-31

First recorded.

Original: Scanner opportunity library #005 (updated daily, 06:00); this page was generated on the 2026-11-08 edition.