What is the notch on a MacBook? The camera cutout explained
The notch is the cutout at the top of newer MacBook screens that holds the camera. Why Apple added it, how macOS works around it, and what lives beside it.
The notch is the black cutout at the top center of the screen on newer MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models. It holds the built-in camera. Apple made the borders around the screen much thinner and let the display run up around the camera instead of keeping a thick strip of frame across the whole top edge.
The space either side of the notch is where the menu bar lives, so in everyday use you lose very little and gain a bit of screen. This post covers what is in the notch, why it is there, how macOS works around it, and the things that now live beside it.
What the notch is
On a notched MacBook, the display reaches almost to the top of the lid. In the middle, a black tab drops down into the screen. That tab is the notch, and it is where the camera sits.
The camera itself has changed between models, so its name and resolution depend on which MacBook you have. To see yours, hold Option, open the Apple menu, choose System Information and look under Camera. Next to the lens is the small green light that comes on whenever the camera is in use.
A few things the notch is not:
- It is not Face ID. The Mac notch holds a camera, not the face-scanning sensors an iPhone has. Notched MacBooks unlock with Touch ID on the keyboard or with your password.
- It is not a display. Nothing is drawn inside the notch. It is a gap in the screen, not a part of it that turns black.
- It is not on every Mac. Only some MacBooks have one. The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro introduced it in late 2021, and the MacBook Air followed. Which Macs have a notch has the full list and how to check yours.
Why Apple put a notch on the Mac
The camera has to go somewhere. On older MacBooks it sat in the border above the screen, which meant a band of frame all the way across the top, just to hold one lens in the middle.
Apple's answer on the redesigned MacBook Pro was to shrink the borders on all sides and extend the display upward around the camera. The usual way to describe the result is that the notch takes space from the strip that was added, not from the screen you had before. The part of the display below the menu bar is about what a laptop of that size would have had anyway, and the menu bar moves up into the new space either side of the camera.
That is about as far as the reasoning goes with any certainty, so treat grander theories you read online with some caution. The trade-off itself is clear: a slightly bigger display in roughly the same size of laptop, in exchange for a black tab in the middle of the menu bar.
How macOS works around it
macOS treats the notch as a gap in the menu bar and lays everything else out around it.
The menu bar
App menus run along the left of the notch, and status icons such as the clock, Wi-Fi and battery run along the right. Nothing is placed inside it. The menu bar on a notched MacBook is also taller than on Macs without one, because it fills the whole strip beside the camera.
When there are more status icons than fit to the right of the notch, macOS hides the ones that would run into it. They are still running; there is just no room to show them. Removing a few icons you don't use, or holding Command and dragging them into a different order, usually brings back the ones you need, and menu bar icons hidden behind the notch walks through every fix.
The pointer
The pointer can slide up behind the notch, where part of it disappears for a moment. It is still there and still works. You may never notice it unless you go looking.
Full screen apps
In full screen, macOS gives the app the area below the notch and turns the strip either side of it black. The black strip and the black notch blend into one band, and the menu bar appears only when you move the pointer to the top of the screen. Many people find full screen is when they notice the notch least.
Older apps
Some older apps don't know about the notch and could draw part of their window behind it. For those, macOS offers a workaround: select the app in the Applications folder, choose File > Get Info, and look for Scale to fit below built-in camera. When it is on, the app uses only the area below the notch. The option appears only for some apps; most current apps don't need it.
What lives in and around the notch
Inside the notch, the parts you can see are the camera and its green light, and there is nothing to click. Around it, quite a lot goes on:
- The menu bar, with app menus on one side and status icons on the other.
- The camera light, which shows when the camera is on, and the indicator macOS shows in the menu bar while an app is using the microphone.
- Apps that use the space. Because the notch is at the top center of the screen, right where your eyes pass all day, some developers have built apps that treat it as a place to show things: playback controls, a place to drop files, small status displays or reminders.
If you would rather see less of it, a wallpaper that is dark along the top edge is the simplest way to make the notch blend in.
A friendlier use for the notch
Notchpals is one of those apps. Characters live in the notch and come out now and then with a nudge: a glass of water, a look across the room, lunch, a stretch, bed. When one visits, the notch widens into a black island, the character drops into view, and its line appears in a speech bubble with two buttons, Later and Done. Hovering over the notch for a moment shows a peek, and clicking a character pokes it.
BlipBoop! You touched an alien! I'm telling everyone back home!
Since the notch is the camera's home, a fair question is whether an app living there uses the camera. Notchpals doesn't. It only checks whether the camera or microphone is in use, never what they see or hear, and while either one is on, the characters stay out of the notch altogether, so they never pop up beside the green light in the middle of a call.
Blip, a tiny alien who thinks everything on Earth is amazing, guides setup in the notch and is always in your crew, looking after your eyes. Macs without a notch get one too, in a way: Notchpals draws a black island in the middle of the top edge of the main display, and the characters peek out of that. The same happens on a notched MacBook while its lid is closed.
The notch started as a compromise for a camera, and many people stop noticing it after a few days. Once you have stopped seeing it, it might as well have someone living in it.
More on the notch
The notchWhich Macs have a notch? Every model, and how to check yoursThe notch is on the 14 and 16 inch MacBook Pro from late 2021 and the MacBook Air from the M2 model on. Which Macs don't have one, and how to check yours.
The notchA notch for Macs without one: how Notchpals works on any MacNo notch on your iMac, Mac mini or external display? Notchpals draws a black island at the top of the main display. How it works, and which screen it picks.- The notchCan you hide the notch on a MacBook? Ways to make it disappearYou can't switch the notch off, but you can make it fade: a black band in your wallpaper, full screen apps, one Finder setting, and a little time.