Dots

Dots is a customizable workspace built into the notch at the top of a Mac's display. It is made for people who study, create and stay connected, and it places the tools they reach for most within reach without leaving the window they are working in. The app arranges a Dots mark, a tool bar, a widget board and a set of connections at the top of the display, and it lets each person decide what lives there. Dots supports Apple silicon and Intel Macs running macOS 14 or later, works with or without a notch, and also works on external displays. The starting point for Dots is a simple observation: most notch apps focus on music and notifications, and stop there. Dots goes further by helping people access their favorite apps, websites and shortcuts without constantly switching windows. The space at the top of a Mac display is small but always visible, so it can hold the things a person checks again and again during the day. Rather than hunting through open windows and tabs, a user can glance up and see music playback, the next meeting, to-dos, a focus session or a widget card. That is the problem Dots addresses: constant window switching breaks concentration, and the notch is a natural anchor for the small pieces of information and the small tools that keep a workflow moving. The everyday essentials are the core of the notch. Music gives playback controls, a Next meeting card shows when to join, To-dos keeps a little less to remember, and Pomodoro keeps focus in sight. Essentials combine in the preview and tools preview individually. Music can be restyled by right-clicking to choose Minimal, Mini player, Album card or Classic player, while Calendar offers Month, Next event, Agenda, and Month & agenda. With Pro, Music, Meeting and App widgets can be restyled without losing their setup, smaller music cards can share a row with neighboring widgets, and Work and Personal keep their own choices. Compact in Edit Layout groups extra quiet rows from the same connection behind a +N control so running work and alerts stay visible. The media and capture tools cover what happens while a person is actually working. YouTube is included in Free: drag a YouTube video link from the browser onto the notch and the player opens ready to play, or paste a link into the YouTube tool. A tutorial or talk can stay beside the work, be watched in the notch, or be detached, moved and resized to suit the space, and the user can return to the notch without restarting the video. Capture handles screenshots, including a scrolling screenshot option chosen from Area's menu: select a region, scroll down, then Finish, and the selection stays outlined while Dots joins the captured content into one long PNG that is saved on the Mac and ready on the Shelf. Pro adds window and app recording, a Prompter for speaking beneath the camera, Mirror with 33 effects, and mic safety that pauses Dots' screen-recording microphone after 30, 60 or 120 seconds of silence while the video keeps recording. Files, notes and on-screen communication round out the workspace. The File Shelf keeps a file close, Clipboard finds what was copied, Notes catches a thought, and AirDrop is included in Free. Dragging an image or video onto the notch and choosing Convert (Dots Pro) opens a format picker right beside the file on the Shelf: images can be exported as PNG, HEIC, TIFF or PDF, video can become MP4, and its audio can be saved as M4A, with the original staying exactly where it was and conversion staying on the Mac. With Pro, Send nearby transfers selected files across devices on the same Wi-Fi through an unencrypted temporary link. Screen drawing lets a user drag Draw out of the Capture pane during a meeting or presentation, highlight what matters, sketch an idea or point with an arrow, choose a color, undo a mark, clear the screen, or switch to click-through to keep working beneath the annotations, and sharing the whole display lets others see the marks. Dots keeps the notch as the anchor and lets the rest stay modular. Tools are added from a Tools area, connections sit behind the notch, and each tool previews on its own while essentials combine in the preview. Hovering the notch surface reveals the workspace, and right-click menus handle appearance changes such as music and Calendar styles, while Edit Layout manages how rows are grouped. Pro is activated with a license key: after checkout the user opens the Polar purchase portal with the purchase email, copies the key, and enters it in Settings, Dots Pro, Already have a license. The Pro trial runs 14 days, one per Mac, with no account or card required, and internet is needed to activate and periodically verify, with offline access lasting up to 48 hours between checks. After expiry Dots continues on Free. Beyond the notch, Pro adds developer connections such as pull request review, SSH sessions and live agent sessions, plus call controls, a smart assistant and lock screen options including a compact player, album artwork, synced lyrics or lyrics beside artwork, with synced lyrics optionally using LRCLIB. The benefits follow directly from that design. Less switching means more doing: a video, a capture, a conversion or a focus session is one gesture away rather than a window change away. Keeping a tutorial or talk beside the work means the reference stays visible, and returning to the notch without restarting the video means no lost place. Pomodoro keeps time in sight with 25 minutes of focus and a 5-minute break, or 15 after four sessions, with pause and resume, and the break starts when the user chooses. Because conversion stays on the Mac, files do not need to be uploaded for that step. Work and Personal keeping their own layout choices means the same notch can serve different parts of a day. The tool fits a range of concrete workflows. Someone studying can start a Pomodoro session from the notch's tool bar and keep a lecture playing in the notch while taking notes. Someone researching can select a long page region, scroll to the bottom and finish with a single PNG on the Shelf. Someone in a meeting or presenting can pull out Draw, highlight the important part and share the whole display so the marks are visible. A developer can keep pull request reviews, SSH sessions and running services within reach from the same notch. Anyone juggling formats can drop a file on the notch, choose a format and carry on, and anyone recording a video can read a script with the Prompter beneath the camera. Dots is aimed at people who study, code or create and want their everyday tools within reach, and it also addresses the people who build, with agents, reviews, team tasks and running services from the Mac to an SSH server. It connects to the services a user already relies on, including Spotify and Music, Calendar, GitHub, YouTube and SSH servers. Pricing starts free: Dots Free includes up to 5 active connections, AI activity in websites and apps, Music and Calendar styles, to-dos, Compact Home, Notes, Pomodoro, YouTube, scrolling screenshots, Mirror effects, AirDrop, and the Dots and Dot companions. Dots Pro is a one-time $5 personal license for one Mac, with a 3 Mac option, and adds unlimited active connections, widget designs, photo collections and slideshows, live agent sessions, SSH, GitHub reviews, more file formats, local Wi-Fi transfer, all companions including six octopi and six Heroes, recording, drawing, mic safety, the smart assistant, call controls and the lock screen. Dots requires macOS 14 or later, while screen recording and mic safety require macOS 15 or later, and some optional features need supported hardware or system permissions. The takeaway is that Dots turns a small, usually decorative strip at the top of the Mac display into a working surface. It does not ask users to learn a new place to work; it brings their tools and updates together where they already glance, so a video keeps playing, a capture finishes as one image, a file converts in place and a focus session stays visible. Small space, big possibilities, with a free tier to start and a one-time Pro license when more is needed.