✨ NotchSpark

A tiny, beautiful macOS notch companion that turns mouse moments into quick bursts of curiosity.

NotchSpark is a native macOS menu-bar app for MacBooks with a notch. Glide your cursor near the notch and a compact animated bubble appears with a short, fun, offline fact. It is minimal, fast, private, and designed to make your Mac feel a little more alive.

🌟 Why People Love It

• 🎯 Notch-native: the popup is anchored around the MacBook notch instead of floating randomly.
• 🧠 Tiny knowledge sparks: quick facts that are short enough to enjoy without breaking focus.
• 🎨 Adaptive contrast: the popup chooses a high-contrast light or dark treatment from what is behind it when macOS allows sampling, then falls back to a safe readable style without surprise permission prompts.
• 🔒 Privacy-first: facts are bundled offline; no accounts, no analytics, no network calls.
• ⚡ Lightweight: built with Swift, AppKit, and SwiftUI.
• 🪄 Delightfully minimal: menu-bar only, no Dock clutter.

🚀 Install

Option 1: Download The App

1. Download NotchSpark.zip from the latest release.
2. Unzip it.
3. Move NotchSpark.app to your Applications folder.
4. Open it and look for the sparkle icon in your menu bar.

If macOS says the app is from an unidentified developer, right-click NotchSpark.app, choose Open, then confirm. A signed and notarized release is on the roadmap.

Option 2: Clone And Install

git clone https://github.com/IbraheemGanayim/NotchSpark.git
cd NotchSpark
Scripts/install_app.sh

That builds NotchSpark, installs it to ~/Applications/NotchSpark.app, and launches it.

Option 3: Build And Run Locally

git clone https://github.com/IbraheemGanayim/NotchSpark.git
cd NotchSpark
Scripts/build_app.sh
open .build/NotchSpark.app

Option 4: Developer Mode

swift run NotchSpark

Running from source is useful for development. The app hides its Dock icon, but the Launch at Login menu item works best from an installed app bundle.

🕹️ How To Use

1. Launch NotchSpark.
2. Look for the sparkle icon in your macOS menu bar.
3. Move your cursor close to the notch or top-center of the screen.
4. Enjoy a small fact, then keep flowing.

From the menu-bar icon you can:

• Toggle NotchSpark on or off.
• Show a fact immediately.
• Enable Launch at Login.
• Quit the app.

🔐 Privacy First

NotchSpark is intentionally quiet:

• No network requests.
• No analytics.
• No tracking.
• No Accessibility permission.
• No Input Monitoring permission.

For adaptive contrast, NotchSpark uses macOS screen sampling only if access is already available. If it is not available, the app falls back to a high-contrast dark popup and keeps going.

🧪 Test

swift test
swift build

The test suite covers notch geometry, multi-display positioning, fact rotation, trigger cooldown, and contrast style selection.

🛠️ Requirements

• macOS 13 or newer
• Xcode command line tools or Xcode
• Swift 5.9+

💡 Feature Ideas Welcome

Got an idea that would make NotchSpark more delightful? Open an issue or send a PR. Good additions could be:

• More curated fact packs
• User-selectable fact themes
• Tiny sound or haptic-style animation options
• A signed release build
• Homebrew Cask support
• More languages

👋 Creator

Made with care by Ibraheem Ganayim.

• 🌐 Website: ibraheemganayim.com
• 🐙 GitHub: @IbraheemGanayim
• 📬 Email: ganayim.ibraheem@gmail.com

If NotchSpark makes your Mac feel a little more fun, a ⭐ on GitHub helps more people discover it.