Isle
The island, and nothing else.
- Now Playing for every player
- Charging, the shelf, timers that work with Apple's Clock
- AirPods and headphones
- The fresh look and the smoother island
- Never uses the camera
Download Isle
Free during the beta
Isle for Mac Beta 1
Your notch, alive.
The black bar at the top of your MacBook becomes the most useful spot on your Mac: music from any player, charging, a shelf for files, timers and your AirPods. Hover it and it opens. Move away and it folds back in.
Hover the notch, or pick one above to open it.
New in Beta 1
The first public beta.
Isle is out of private testing, and it changed a lot on the way.
- A fresh look. One colour per activity, so a glance tells music from charging from a timer. Calmer cards, rounded numbers, and a menu of tiles that light up while something runs.
- Smooth, without the lag. The island now glides at your display's full rate, even with music, a timer and AirPods on it at once. Opening, closing and switching no longer stutter or cut off.
- A notch for every Mac. No notch on your screen, like on the MacBook Neo? Isle draws a small one at the top centre, and it works just like the real thing.
- Timers that work with Apple's Clock. Timers, a stopwatch and alarms on the island, and the timers you start in Clock show up there too.
- AirPods and headphones. Put them in and the island shows them, with the battery of each part.
- Three editions. Isle, Isle+ with face unlock, or Iface on its own. Pick yours.
What lives on the isle
One place for the things you keep reaching for.
Whatever is going on shows as a small live sign beside the notch. Hover, and it opens: one thing gets the whole island, two sit side by side, and a tap on the corner button brings up the island's own menu.
Now Playing
Whatever is playing, in any app: Music, Spotify, Podcasts, a video in Safari or Chrome. Artwork, title, a live waveform, scrub, play, pause, skip. The artwork in the closed notch is the same one that grows when you open it.
Charging and battery
Plug in and the notch answers with a bolt and a filling ring. Open the island for the time until full and how many watts your charger gives.
Shelf
Drag files onto the notch and they wait there. Pull them out into any app, send them by AirDrop, or clear the shelf. Held in memory, never copied anywhere.
Timers and alarms
Up to four named timers, a stopwatch with laps, and alarms, all started from the island. Timers from Apple's Clock app show up too, and a chime tells you when one is done.
AirPods and headphones
Connect AirPods, Beats or any wireless headphones and they appear on the island like on an iPhone, with the battery of each bud and the case.
Iface
Your Mac learns your face in two short scans on the island, and unlocks for you at the lock screen. Off until you turn it on.
In Isle+ and IfaceEvery Mac with Apple silicon
Notch or no notch.
Isle measures your notch, so the island fits it to the point. On a screen without one, it draws a small notch of its own, and that notch works just like the real one.
Live signs
A glance is enough.
Closed, Isle is just your notch. When something is going on, the notch stretches a little to each side and says so. Scroll to watch it.
Nothing to say, nothing to see.With nothing running, the island is exactly the size of your notch, and it takes no clicks away from the menu bar.
Open
One thing gets the whole island. Two share it.
Hover the notch and it opens on what matters right now. Music and a charger at the same time sit side by side, each with its own controls. More than two, and you get the two that matter most plus Show all.
Players that work with Isle: Music, Spotify, Podcasts, TV, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, VLC, IINA, QuickTime and more.
Anything that shows up in your Mac's own Now Playing shows up on the isle, with the app's icon on the artwork. Drag the time bar to scrub. Want the notch quiet? Hide music with one tap.
Iface, in Isle+ or on its own
Your Mac knows your face.
Set it up on the island in half a minute. Open the Mac and it looks once. If it is you, it unlocks. Everything happens on the Mac, and none of it is switched on until you ask.
- 01Look straight at the cameraThe first scan. The ring around you fills as Iface takes its samples.
- 02Then every angleTurn your head slowly in a circle. Each direction you cover lights its part of the ring, and a dot shows where you point.
- 03It is youThe face gives way to a ring that closes and a tick. A blink is part of the check, so a printed photo does not pass.
- 04Open the Mac and it looks onceAt the lock screen Iface drops out of the notch and looks. Not recognised? Rest the pointer on the notch to try again. After your tries, the password.
Two scans, every angle
Six looks straight on, then sixteen around the circle. Iface keeps 22 views of you, so it still knows you when you lean in sideways with a coffee.
The camera, only when it should
It runs while you scan or test, and for a few seconds at the lock screen. At every other moment it is off, and the green light agrees.
Yours to tune
A blink or no blink, relaxed to strict, how many tries before the password, how long until the password is wanted again, and four looks for the lock screen: Classic, Glow, Compact and Glass.
Not as secure as Face ID or Touch ID, and we say so. A Mac's camera has no depth sensor. The blink stops a printed photo, but a video of you could pass. Iface is for comfort, not for guarding secrets: keep your password for anything that matters. Only numbers describing your face are saved, never a picture, and your password stays in your Mac's keychain until Iface types it into the lock screen's own password field.
Motion
Animations that feel like the Dynamic Island, not like a menu.
The notch apps you know get the idea right and the motion wrong. Isle is built around the motion.
- 01One shape that stretchesThe island is a single black shape. Opening does not swap views: the width leads, the height pours down after it on a spring, and the content fades in inside.
- 02Springs you can interruptMove the pointer away halfway through and it turns around from exactly where it is, with the speed it had. No restarts, no jumps.
- 03Matched geometryThe small artwork in the closed notch and the big square in the open island are the same layer. It travels, it does not reappear.
- 04Drawn once, then only movedWords and pictures inside the island are drawn once and then moved by Core Animation on the GPU, so it stays smooth at 120 frames a second.
0.50 sspring response
0.74damping, a hint of overshoot
120 Hzon ProMotion displays
0clicks taken outside its shape
Feel
Two sliders decide how it moves.
The same two controls as in the app, wired to the same spring. Calm and quick, or soft and bouncy: drag them and watch.
Spring response 0.50 s, damping 0.74. This is how Isle ships.
Hover. Open. Gone.
Isle never asks for attention. It waits in the notch, shows one small live sign, and opens only for your pointer.
Editions
Three ways to get it. Take what you need.
All three are free during the beta. Want the island? Isle. The island and face unlock? Isle+. Only face unlock? Iface.
Isle+ Everything
Isle, plus face unlock.
- Everything in Isle
- Iface: unlock your Mac with your face, shown right at the notch
- Set up your face on the island itself
- An Iface tile in the island's menu, with a checklist of what it still needs
- Uses the camera only for Iface, only when you turn it on
Download Isle+
Free during the beta
Iface
Face unlock, on its own.
- Unlock your Mac with your face at the lock screen
- Drops out of the notch to look, or out of a drawn one
- Its own small window for setup, and a menu bar icon
- Four looks for the lock screen
- No island, no music, no shelf: small and quiet
Download Iface
Free during the beta
| Feature | Isle | Isle+ | Iface |
|---|---|---|---|
| The island at the notch | Yes | Yes | No |
| Now Playing for every player | Yes | Yes | No |
| Charging and battery | Yes | Yes | No |
| The shelf for files | Yes | Yes | No |
| Timers, stopwatch, alarms, Apple's Clock | Yes | Yes | No |
| AirPods and headphones | Yes | Yes | No |
| Iface: face unlock at the lock screen | No | Yes | Yes |
| A notch drawn on Macs without one | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Updates from inside the app | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Uses the camera | Never | For Iface | Yes |
| Needs Accessibility access | No | To unlock | To unlock |
Download
Get Isle Beta 1.
Free, for Macs with Apple silicon and macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Unzip it, move the app into Applications, and open it.
- Version 1.0
- Beta 1
- Out
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later
- Apple silicon
Isle
The island, no Iface.
- File
- Isle.zip
- Version
- 1.0, Beta 1
- Size
- Released
- macOS
- 14 Sonoma or later
- Chip
- Apple silicon
SHA-256
Isle+
The island with Iface.
- File
- IslePlus.zip
- Version
- 1.0, Beta 1
- Size
- Released
- macOS
- 14 Sonoma or later
- Chip
- Apple silicon
SHA-256
Iface
Face unlock, no island.
- File
- Iface.zip
- Version
- 1.0, Beta 1
- Size
- Released
- macOS
- 14 Sonoma or later
- Chip
- Apple silicon
SHA-256
What is in Beta 1
- A fresh look: one colour per activity, calmer cards, rounded numbers.
- Smoother island: opening, closing and switching no longer lag or cut off.
- Macs without a notch (MacBook Neo, older MacBooks, external displays) get a small notch drawn by Isle.
- Timers, a stopwatch and alarms, and timers from Apple's Clock app on the island.
- Three editions: Isle, Isle+ with Iface, and Iface on its own.
- Updates are checked against their checksum and signature before they are installed.
- Iface: after an update, save your Mac password once more (the apps are not signed by Apple yet).
By downloading you agree to the Terms of Use. How your data is handled: Privacy Policy.
Check your download
Every download has a SHA-256 checksum, shown above and in releases.json. To check yours, paste this into Terminal, with the name of the file you downloaded. The long code it prints should match exactly.
shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Isle.zipUse the name of your edition: Isle.zip, IslePlus.zip or Iface.zip. If Safari already unzipped it, the zip is usually in the Trash: right-click it there and choose Put Back, then run the command. Or turn off Safari > Settings > General > Open “safe” files after downloading and download it again.
Requirements
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later
- A Mac with Apple silicon
- A notch is optional: on a Mac without one, Isle draws its own
- For Iface: your Mac's camera and your login password
Opening Isle the first time
Isle, Isle+ and Iface are not notarized by Apple yet, so the first time you open one, macOS stops it with a warning that it could not check the app. You only need to get past this once. Unzip the download, drag the app into your Applications folder, then:
macOS 15 Sequoia or later
- Open the app. When the warning appears, click Done.
- Open System Settings > Privacy & Security.
- Scroll down to the note about the app and click Open Anyway.
- Confirm with your password or Touch ID. From then on it opens normally.
macOS 14 Sonoma
- In Applications, right-click the app (or hold Control and click).
- Choose Open.
- Click Open in the window that appears. You only do this once.
Still blocked? Use Terminal
This removes the download mark macOS puts on the app. Paste the line for your edition into Terminal and press Return.
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Isle.appxattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Isle+.app"xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Iface.appOnly do this for apps you downloaded from this page.
Privacy
It lives on the edge of your screen, not in your data.
- No screen recording. Isle draws on top of the menu bar and never looks at what is under it.
- Iface keeps numbers, never pictures. What it saves is a short list of numbers that describe your face, in a file only your account can read. No photo or video is ever written down.
- Nothing about you leaves the Mac. No account, no tracking, nothing about you is sent anywhere. Isle goes online only in these moments. It looks for updates when you click Check for updates. When it asks Spotify directly what is playing, it loads the song's cover picture from Spotify. And if you connect Apple's Clock, macOS has Apple sign the small Isle Timer shortcut once. Every other player hands its artwork over right on your Mac.
- Plain Isle never touches the camera. The Isle edition does not even ask for it. The camera only comes in with Iface, and only once you turn it on.
- Out of the way. Only the black shape itself answers a click. Closed, a click on it opens the island, and while a live sign shows beside the notch the shape reaches a little wider. Everything around it goes straight to the menu bar.
It knows Duo.
Duo keeps your screen's picture in place while the lid moves. When that picture lets go of the glass, Isle steps out of the notch and rides along inside it, then takes its place again the moment it snaps home.
What is next
Where Isle goes from here.
- NowBeta 1 is out. Isle, Isle+ and Iface, free to download from this page.
- NextA notarized download. So the first launch opens like any other app, with no warning to click through.
- ThenYour next meeting. A quiet dot before it starts, the join link one hover away.
- ThenVolume and brightness in the notch. The level slides into the island instead of the grey square in the middle of your screen.
- LaterMore live signs. Downloads, focus, whatever earns its few points beside the notch.
Questions
Good questions.
Which edition should I get?
Isle if you want the island. Isle+ if you also want to unlock your Mac with your face. Iface if you only want face unlock, without the island. You only need one of them: Isle+ already has Iface inside.
Why does macOS warn me when I open it?
Because the apps are not notarized by Apple yet. That needs a paid developer account, and it is next on the list. Until then, follow Opening Isle the first time. You confirm once, and the warning does not come back.
My Mac has no notch. Does it work?
Yes. On the MacBook Neo, older MacBooks and external displays, Isle draws a small black notch at the top centre, and it works like the real one: hover to open, live signs beside it, files dropped on it. If you would rather have a plain black pill, switch the drawn notch off in Settings.
Does it cover the notch or replace it?
Neither. The notch is hardware. Isle draws a black shape that starts exactly where the notch is, so the two look like one thing. When Isle is closed, all you see is the notch you already had.
Will it slow my Mac down or eat the battery?
While it is closed, Isle does next to nothing. Now Playing waits for the player to report a change instead of asking over and over, and drawing only happens while the island moves. In Beta 1 the words and pictures inside the island are drawn once and then only moved, which also fixed the lag of the test builds.
Which players work?
Anything that plays: Music, Spotify, Podcasts, TV, Safari, VLC, a browser tab. Isle reads the same Now Playing feed your Mac keeps for the menu bar and Control Center, so every player that reports there shows up.
Do timers really work with Apple's Clock?
Isle reads the timers Clock keeps on your Mac and shows them on the island, without changing them. Isle's own timers, stopwatch and alarms work on their own, and Isle can also start a timer in Clock through a Shortcut you add once.
Is Iface safe to use?
It is a comfort, not a lock, and it is not as secure as Face ID or Touch ID. A Mac's camera cannot measure depth, so Iface asks for a blink to rule out a photo, but a video of you could still pass. It is off until you switch it on, it gives up after the number of tries you choose, and it wants your typed password again after a day. Only numbers describing your face are kept, on your Mac, and deleting them is one button.
Can I turn parts of it off?
Every feature is a switch in Settings, and so are the hover and close delays, open on hover or on click, the live signs, the drawn notch, bounce, speed, island size and reduce motion.
How do I update?
In Isle or Isle+, open its window, go to Updates and click Check for updates. In Iface, choose Check for Updates from its menu. An update is only installed when its checksum and signature match. You can also download the new zip here and replace the app in Applications; your settings stay. If you use Iface, save your Mac's password in it once more after each update (see below).
Why does Iface want my Mac password again after an update?
Because the apps are not signed by Apple yet. macOS keeps the password Iface saved in your keychain locked to the exact version that saved it, so after each update of Iface or Isle+ the new version cannot read it. Open Iface, or the Iface page in Isle+: next to Mac password it says Save it once more. Click Save, type your password and save it. Your face stays saved, and until you do this you simply type your password at the lock screen as usual.
How do I remove it?
Quit it from its menu bar icon and move it from Applications to the Trash. If you used Iface, click Delete face data first: that also removes the password Iface saved in your keychain.
Is it free?
Beta 1 is free, all three editions. Duo is free too. If that ever changes, we will say so clearly and early.