Halo
Visual Workspace
Build an 8×4 workspace with adaptive widgets for media, timers, notes, system stats, files, launchers and more.
Halo for macOS
Your Mac’s
notch, made yours.
Halo is an app for your MacBook’s notch. It turns the space around it into a place for music, useful tools, live updates, and a little personality.
- Music, widgets and live updates
- Clipboard, files and timers
- Customize it. Meet Pixel Pal.
14-day free trial · no payment required · Current version
FIND YOUR HALO
How would you use your notch?
Choose what matters most. We’ll show you where Halo fits into your day.
01 Choose what matters to you
YOUR HALO PATH
A workspace that fits the way you work.
01Your path
See Halo in action
A little more magic,
right where you look.
See Halo bring music, files, Context Interfaces, Bubbles, customization and more into the space around your Mac’s notch.
A polished, ready-to-go Halo with the essentials up front, fixed layouts and far less setup.
↳Psst… it’s interactive. Pick a Halo experience, or click the notch.
See Halo move between compact and expanded music experiences directly from the notch.
You are only seeing the surface of Halo.
This preview shows a handful of experiences. The full app goes much deeper with more Context Interfaces, layouts, widgets, profiles, behaviors and customization.
What is Halo?
A Mac notch experience that feels right at home.
Halo by Redstoneinvente is a Mac notch app for macOS. It uses the area around the MacBook notch for useful controls and information instead of leaving it as dead space.
Use Halo as a streamlined notch utility, a customizable Dynamic Island-style experience for Mac, a home for widgets and media controls, or a context-aware surface for productivity and third-party app integrations.
Simple mode keeps the experience focused. Advanced mode opens deeper layouts, profiles, backgrounds, surface styles, Context Interfaces, Notch Bubbles and behavior controls.
Packed with more than a pretty animation
Delight in the details.
Useful in all the right ways.
Context Interfaces
Halo can transform around what you’re doing: music, files, Bluetooth, transfers, clipboard activity and more.
Music CI + Vinyl Studio
Artwork, lyrics, timelines, visualizers and a vinyl renderer that is absurdly customizable because apparently that was necessary.
Drop into Halo
Drag in a file and jump straight to Quick Look, Shelf, ZIP, extract, rename, copy path and other contextual actions.
Pixel Pal
A tiny retro companion with expressions, accessories, personalities and interactions. Completely unnecessary. Very important.
Closed Notch
Keep Halo tiny with music, visualizers, timers, battery, status information and ambient decorations around the notch.
Capture, OCR & Utilities
Capture regions, extract text, keep clipboard history, pin files, launch apps, run timers and monitor your Mac.
Halo Arcade
Yes, Halo can become an arcade too. Snake and other playful experiences give the notch a bit of personality.
Notch BubblesCalendarFile ShelfClipboardLauncherSystem MonitorAudioTimerStopwatchNotesProfilesAutomationCustom backgrounds
Introducing Notch Bubbles
Small moments of magic.
Right where you look.
Notch Bubbles bring live status and quick actions to the edges of your notch in a way that feels natural, fluid and unmistakably Mac.
Left · Right
Per-bubble gestures
Continuous swipes + haptics
Your Mac, with a little more life.
Live controls at a glance.Compact bubbles sit naturally beside the notch instead of taking over your screen.
Useful or playful.From volume and media to Pixel Pal, each bubble can have its own purpose.
See the real app
As deep as you want it.
As quiet as you need it.
Better together
A more personal space
on your Mac.
Connect the tools you already love and make the notch your own.
More integrations are on the way.
Building a Mac app? Let’s make it work with Halo ↗Meet Pixel Pal
A tiny companion.
A surprising amount of heart.
Pixel Pal reacts to you, remembers your little interactions and makes your Mac feel a bit more yours. Poke it, pet it, draw around it—or just let it quietly develop a personality.
↳Psst… I love cookies. Feed me one. Or poke me. I have opinions.
Get Halo
A little more joy
in your everyday.
Start with Halo Free, try the full experience for 14 days, or upgrade whenever you want. Every direct purchase comes with a 14-day refund window.
Free
$0
foreverUse Halo Free for the essentials, then upgrade whenever you want more.
Download freeMonthly
$2.99
per monthFull Halo access on up to 2 Macs. Cancel whenever you want.
Lifetime
$9.99
one-timeLifetime Halo access on up to 2 Macs. Pay once and keep it.
Not ready to buy?Good. The trial exists for exactly that reason.
From Halo users
What people are saying.
Customer feedback from people using Halo in the real world.
The Halo community
Downloaded Halo?
Don’t disappear.
Join the Discord for help, previews, feature discussions, bug reports and the slightly chaotic process of watching Halo evolve in public.
Support + bug reports
Feature requests
Early previews
Talk directly with the developer
Join the Halo Discord ↗
Free, obviously.
Halo compared
Not just another notch.
Most notch apps cover the essentials well. Halo goes further with a full workspace, two levels of complexity, app-window bubbles, playful extras, and a growing integration layer.
| Feature | Halo | NotchNook | DynamicLake | Alcove |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music and media controls | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Files and drag/drop workflows | Shelf + actions | Files shelf | DynaDrop | Not publicly listed |
| Custom widget workspace | 8×4 Visual Workspace | Widgets | Modules + plugins | Not publicly listed |
| Simple + Advanced experiences | Yes | Not publicly listed | Not publicly listed | Not publicly listed |
| App-window minimization experience | App Bubbles | Not publicly listed | App preview minimization | Not publicly listed |
| Third-party extensibility | Partner CIs + integration SDK | Not publicly listed | Plugins + extensions | Not publicly listed |
| Built-in pixel companion | Pixel Pal | Not publicly listed | Not publicly listed | Not publicly listed |
Comparison checked September 2026. Competitor cells are based on features publicly advertised on their product pages. “Not publicly listed” means we could not find the feature in public materials, not that it is technically impossible or unavailable in every version.
Everything inside Halo Want the full list? Open the drawer for the ridiculously long version. Halo is designed to stay simple when you want it to, while hiding a much deeper toolkit underneath.
Notch experience
- Closed and expanded notch experiences
- Simple Mode for a polished ready-to-go setup
- Advanced Mode for deeper control
- Multiple surface styles and shapes
- Custom open and closed notch sizing
- Configurable open and close behavior
- Cursor-leave close delay
- External-display friendly surface options
Visual Workspace
- 8×4 visual workspace
- Drag, resize and arrange widgets
- Fixed-size simplified layouts
- Undo, redo and reset tools
- Position and scale controls
- Automatic surface growth when content needs room
- Single-row layout support
- Workspace clipping protection
Music and audio
- Media controls and artwork
- Music Context Interface
- Closed-notch music widgets
- Lyrics with LRC timing support
- Audio visualizers
- Playback timeline and metadata
- Vinyl Studio
- Animated vinyl playback
- Multiple media widget styles
- Auto media-source selection in Simple Mode
Notch Bubbles
- Independent bubbles beside or below the notch
- Left, right and automatic placement controls
- Music and album-art bubbles
- Vinyl bubble
- Volume bubble
- Clipboard bubble
- Timer bubble
- Pixel Pal bubble
- Per-bubble gestures
- Continuous swipe gestures
- Hover and gesture haptics
App Bubbles
- Minimized app windows represented as notch bubbles
- Configurable maximum bubbled-window count
- Unlimited window bubbles option
- Left, right or below-notch placement
- Force-press window previews
- Preview hides when pressure is released
- Return directly to the minimized app window
Context Interfaces
- Context-aware notch interfaces
- Independent partner Context Interfaces
- Priority controls for partner interfaces
- Per-interface enable and disable controls
- Third-party integration manifest support
- Integration SDK for partner apps
- Dynamic integration discovery
- Partner-triggered notch experiences
Files and productivity
- Drag files directly into Halo
- File Shelf
- Pinned files
- Quick Look
- ZIP and extract actions
- Rename actions
- Copy file path
- Clipboard history
- Notes
- App launcher
Capture and utilities
- Region capture
- OCR and text extraction
- Timer
- Custom timer durations
- Stopwatch
- Clock
- Calendar
- Year calendar overview
- System information widgets
- Battery and status widgets
Pixel Pal
- Retro LED companion
- Expressions and reactions
- Click and poke interactions
- Gesture interactions
- File-hover reactions
- Accessories and personality touches
- Boot-up and boot-down animations
- Inactive LED styling
- Dedicated notch and bubble experiences
Appearance
- Custom notch backgrounds
- Image and video backgrounds
- Dynamic colors
- Glass and noise effects
- Custom icons and GIFs
- Single-side layouts
- Multiple transition styles
- Closed-notch decorations
- Multiple clock, calendar, timer and media styles
- Preset surface templates
Profiles and behavior
- Profiles for different Halo setups
- Per-feature enable and disable controls
- Configurable surface behavior
- Automatic layout resizing
- Hardware-notch minimum sizing protection
- Widget reordering
- Mode-specific behavior rules
- Launch-state restoration controls
Integrations and extras
- Safari extension support
- Third-party app integrations
- Partner teleprompter and recording controls
- Live-activity style notch experiences
- Notification and call-oriented surfaces
- Halo Arcade
- Snake and playful notch experiences
- Direct and Mac App Store builds
- Automatic updates in the direct build
Halo keeps evolving. Some capabilities depend on your macOS version, permissions, installed apps, or the Halo build you use.
100+ controls, widgets, surfaces and behaviors
FAQs
A few sensible questions.
What is Halo for macOS?
Halo is a customizable Mac notch utility by Redstoneinvente. It turns the MacBook notch into a workspace for widgets, media controls, productivity tools, activities, app integrations and more.
What is a Mac notch utility?
A Mac notch utility adds useful interfaces or controls around the MacBook display notch. Halo can use that area for widgets, media controls, utilities, activities and contextual app integrations.
Can Halo create a Dynamic Island-style experience on Mac?
Yes. Halo can use compact and expanded notch surfaces, Context Interfaces and Notch Bubbles to create a dynamic activity-focused experience around the Mac notch.
Can Halo show widgets in the MacBook notch?
Yes. Halo includes widgets for media, timers, notes, calendar information, system stats, files, launchers and other utilities.
Can Halo integrate with other Mac apps?
Yes. Halo supports third-party integrations and Context Interfaces, including recording and teleprompter-oriented controls, plus Safari integration.
Do I need payment information for the trial?
No. Download Halo and use the 14-day trial first.
Does Halo only work on MacBooks with a physical notch?
No. Halo supports multiple surface styles and external-display workflows too.
Can I customize Halo?
Yes. Halo supports configurable modules, Visual Workspace layouts, backgrounds, surface styles, Context Interfaces, profiles and more.