The notch, put to work.

There are good notch apps. What none of them do is answer your coding agent, keep your servers a tap away, and drive two other apps from the same panel.

Published by the makers of Crest, from each app’s own public pages, checked 30 September 2026, NotchNook’s on 9 October 2026. Competitor names are the property of their owners. The longer Boring Notch comparison, vs NotchNook, vs Alcove, vs TopNotch, vs Perch, vs Notchmeister, vs MediaMate, NotchNook alternatives, Best Mac notch apps in 2026.

Do I need a MacBook with a notch?

No. Crest was designed around the notch, and on a MacBook that has one it lives inside it. On any other Mac, or on a display without a notch, it sits in a small pill at the top of the screen: hover it for the peek, click it for the same panel.

Do I need an account?

Not to download it and not for the free tier. You sign in, with Google, Apple or an email, when you want the free Pro week or when you buy, because that is where your licence lives.

Will it eat my battery?

No. Other notch apps have a reputation for always-on animation. Crest pauses its animations on battery and in Low Power Mode, and sleeps its monitors when your Mac sleeps.

Does anything leave my Mac?

Every widget runs locally and nothing tracks you. The only count is an anonymous install id sent with update checks, and you can turn it off. Crest goes online to sign you in, check the licence and look for updates. Weather, lyrics and pull requests come straight from their source, and the Claude widget goes through your own Claude account. None of it passes through us. The full list is on the privacy page.

Does Crest snap windows?

Yes, and it is free. Drag any window up to the notch and hold, and a palette of twelve layouts opens: halves, quarters, thirds, centre and full screen. Release on one and the window lands there. Crest moves other apps' windows through macOS Accessibility, which it asks for on your first drag, never at launch.

Can I check my camera and mic before a call?

Yes, in Pro. Before a call, the Camera check opens from the notch: your picture, your mic level, and a choice of which camera and which mic. A virtual camera such as OBS is never picked for you. The camera and the mic are on only while the card is open.

How do updates work?

Crest checks by itself and can install in place, and Settings has a Check for updates button. Bought before? Every update stays free for life. A new one-time licence includes updates through Crest 7, and a subscription includes every update while it runs.

Can I install Crest with Homebrew?

Yes. Crest is in the official Homebrew cask, so brew install --cask crest in Terminal installs it. After that Crest updates itself, the same as a copy from the download button.

What happens when the trial ends?

The free tier keeps working, forever, with nothing deleted. Anything you made in a Pro widget is still there and comes straight back if you buy.

Allow or Deny in one click

The ask opens under the notch with the whole thing on it: the full command, or the file and the lines it changes. You answer at the top of the screen and the agent carries on. The prompt stays until you answer, because a missed approval is an agent sitting still. Answering is free, with no account.

Answer its questions

When Claude Code asks you to choose, the options are right on the notch. A single choice answers in one tap. Several questions come one card at a time, and you check your answers before they go. Crest types your answer into the terminal for you (macOS asks once for Accessibility). See the question on the closed notch and the card, open.

Or answer in your own words

None of the options fit? Type something opens a field on the card, and what you write goes into the session as your answer, exactly as the terminal's own picker would take it. Works on single-choice questions.

Allow the rest of a session

Turn on "Allow the rest of this session" on the allow sheet, and that session's permission prompts are allowed for you until it ends. Questions still come to you, because those are real decisions.

Back to the terminal in one click

With Crest Pro, every Claude Code, Codex and Copilot session sits in the Agents widget with what it is doing. One click brings its terminal forward, down to the exact tab in iTerm2 and Terminal, and the pane in tmux.

A co-pilot that can act

Ask Claude or dictate. When it suggests reminders, to-dos or events, it lays them out as a plan: tick what you want and press Do it. Nothing runs before that. Uses your Claude subscription, no API key.

One shape, from the notch

Crest grows out of the notch and settles back on real springs, whatever it is showing.

Music on the closed notch

In the style you pick: bubbles with the album art and an equaliser that moves while music plays, or wings inside the notch.

Pages instead of tabs

Now, Home, Work and Code. Swipe with two fingers to move between them, and fill each one with widgets you stretch from small to wide.

One card for every ask

Claude Code, Codex and Copilot questions arrive as one card on the notch: pick an answer, type your own, or allow and deny a command, without leaving what you are doing.

Notes, to-dos and a clipboard

Notes, to-dos with due dates you just type, your calendar, the Shelf and a new clipboard history, all as widgets and full screens.

Volume and snapping

Scroll on the notch to change the volume, and hold a window at the notch to snap it into one of 12 layouts.

Settings and a first run

A new Settings window you can search, and a short first run that builds your Home from what you use.

A free update for everyone who has Crest. See Crest 6 in pictures, or read the changelog for every release.

Works on

macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on any Mac. In the notch on a MacBook that has one; a small pill at the top of any other screen.

Free

Now Playing with synced lyrics, the Shelf, the Clipboard, window snapping, answering your coding agents, and the Take and Minutes widgets (they need those apps). No account, no expiry.

Pro

The other fourteen widgets, the Agents widget and the Authenticator among them, with Take and Minutes. $24.99 once with updates through Crest 7, or $2.99 a month with every update. Two Macs.

Coding agents

Claude Code, Codex and GitHub Copilot CLI, through their own hooks.

Authenticator

In Crest Pro. Your two-factor codes in the notch, typed in when a site asks in Safari, Chrome, Arc, Brave or Edge, and one press from any app. Mac only, no iPhone app. Moving from Google Authenticator, leaving Authy, or how it compares.

Install

Signed and notarized by Apple. Homebrew user? brew install --cask crest