TheNotch - Dynamic Island

Datta Chinmoy

About this app

TheNotch turns the space around your front camera into a live, interactive island. Music, calls, timers, downloads and alerts appear as a small pill around the cutout. Tap to expand it, swipe to switch between activities, and get back to what you were doing.

WHAT SHOWS UP ON THE ISLAND
• Music and podcasts: artwork, play/pause, skip and a seekable progress bar
• Phone calls: call status and duration, without reading your contacts
• Timers, stopwatches and alarms
• Downloads and other progress notifications
• Messages and notifications, with inline reply when the app supports it
• Navigation directions
• Charging, headphones connecting, ringer and Do Not Disturb changes
• Microphone and camera in-use indicators
• Screen recording

Anything the app doesn't specifically recognise still appears as a clean, generic activity, so you never miss an alert.

QUICK CONTROLS
Pull open the control panel from the island for flashlight, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, location, brightness, auto-rotate, ringer and Do Not Disturb, without opening your notification shade.

MAKE IT YOURS
• Built-in styles, plus a full editor for colours, shape, size, typography, position and motion
• Save, share and import your own presets
• Choose which apps and activity types can reach the island
• Hide the system's heads-up pop-ups for apps the island already shows
• Exclude apps where you don't want the island at all

FITS YOUR PHONE
TheNotch uses the camera cutout your phone reports, so it fits punch-holes in any position. On phones without a cutout it falls back to a centred pill. It respects reduced motion, large fonts, right-to-left languages, TalkBack, foldables and battery saver.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN
Everything is processed on your device. TheNotch has no accounts, no ads and no analytics, and it does not send your notifications anywhere. Activities live in memory only and disappear when they end.

PERMISSIONS, AND WHY
• Display over other apps: to draw the island
• Notification access: to show notifications and control media
• Phone state (optional): to show call status
• Usage access (optional): to hide the island in apps you exclude
• Modify system settings (optional): only when you first use brightness or auto-rotate controls
• Accessibility service (optional): lets the island sit over the status bar and notice when an app goes full screen. It cannot read the contents of your screen.

You turn each permission on only when you enable the feature that needs it.

Requires Android 12 or newer. How overlays behave can vary by phone maker.
PERMISSIONS REQUIRED
🪟 Need 'Display over other apps' to draw the island around your camera.
🔔 Need 'Notification Access' to show your notifications on the island and control music playing in other apps.
⚙️ Need 'Foreground Service' to keep the island running while you use other apps.
📌 Need 'Post Notifications' to show the small ongoing notification that keeps the island running.
♿ Need 'Accessibility Service' (optional) to place the island over the status bar and detect full-screen apps. It cannot read anything on your screen.
📞 Need 'Read Phone State' (optional) to show call status on the island. Your contacts and call log are never read.
📊 Need 'Usage Access' (optional) to hide the island in apps you choose to exclude.
🔆 Need 'Modify System Settings' (optional) to change brightness and auto-rotate from the control panel.
🌙 Need 'Do Not Disturb Access' (optional) to switch Do Not Disturb from the control panel.

🔒 All processing happens on your device. TheNotch asks for each permission only when you turn on the feature that needs it.

Thanks for your support. 💛

What’s new

• Fixed a crash in release builds where the island could fail to load.
• Under-the-hood rework of how the island is drawn, making it more reliable.
• No changes to features or settings.