The free, open-source notch app for Mac

Your notch has a pet.

Gobbl moves Gob, a tiny retro computer, into your MacBook's notch. It holds your files and clipboard, plays your music, writes and takes dictation in any app, and cheers on Claude Code. If you want, it remembers what you were doing, too.

Download for Mac v0.1.6 Star on GitHub

macOS 14+ · MIT licensed · no account · near-zero CPU at rest

Claude CodeCodexSpotifyApple MusicYouTube in ChromeGoogle MeetZoomSlackMailMessagesNotionVS CodeCursorXcodeSafariFigma
What you get

This is Gobbl, in your notch.

Real screenshots of the app. Closed, Gob sits beside the camera; hover the notch and it opens into these panels.

Gobbl closed in the MacBook notch: the pet on the left and status on the right
Closed: Gob on the left, status on the right.
Gobbl's Home panel open in the MacBook notch: the pet, a playing track with controls, and a design review with a Join button
HomeGob, what’s playing and your next meeting, with a Join button.
Gobbl's Chat panel: a question about the day, an answer, and a reminder being set
ChatAsk about your day, or set a reminder in plain English.
Gobbl's Shelf panel holding four files with AirDrop, Share and Clear buttons
ShelfDrop files on the notch, then drag them out, AirDrop or share.
Gobbl's Agents panel: one Claude Code session needing permission, a finished Codex task and one working
AI agentsClaude Code, Codex, Grok and OpenCode at a glance, including permission requests.
Gobbl's Tools panel with a 25-minute focus timer and six quick tool buttons
Quick toolsA focus timer, keep-awake, mic mute, a colour picker and more.
Notch basics

The notch app for Mac
that does the little things.

Hover the notch or drop something on it and it opens into a small panel. Everything below lives there, one gesture away from any app.

01 · Shelf

Drop it on the notch. Gob eats it.

Park files in the notch and drag them out anywhere, or AirDrop and share them. Right-click to convert or compress images, PDFs and videos, remove a background, copy the text or zip. All on your Mac.

02 · Clipboard

Everything you copied, on ⇧⌘Space.

A searchable clipboard history with pins. Items from password managers are never saved.

03 · Now Playing

Music from any app, with lyrics.

Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube in Chrome: artwork, controls, synced lyrics and an output picker. Gob dances along.

04 · HUDs

Volume, brightness and Caps Lock, quietly.

Optional notch-sized replacements for the big system pop-ups, plus charging and low-battery notices.

05 · Calendar

Your next meeting, with a Join button.

One click into Meet or Zoom, and a gentle nudge from Gob five minutes before.

06 · Quick tools

Focus timer, keep-awake and more.

A focus timer, keep-awake, mic mute, a colour picker and copy-text-from-screen, one click each.

The pet

Gob reacts to what you do.

Its eyes follow your cursor. It types along with you, letters appearing on its little screen. When your AI agent is coding, its screen fills with Matrix rain. Try typing on this page.

Watches your cursor
Eats the files you drop
Dances to your music
Matrix rain while your agent codes
Thinking face while it plans
Types along with you
Loves a pat
Naps when you step away
Celebrates when a task is done

Click to pet it · move your mouse

Sprout

Every Gobbl ships different.

A late-70s Classic, a mid-80s Compact or a late-90s Candy. It arrives in a box in one of eight colours, and 1 in 100 ship as a limited edition. Keep a daily streak to level up and earn 11 hats, 4 of them seasonal.

Model

Colour

Hat

Design a skin

AI agents in your notch

Approve Claude Code
without switching windows.

Connect Claude Code, Codex, Grok or OpenCode in one click. Gob thinks while the agent plans, codes along with Matrix rain, and waves when it needs you. Claude Code's permission requests show up in the notch with Allow and Deny.

claude
> add dark mode to the settings page

Waiting for a prompt

If Gobbl isn't running, or you don't answer within 30 seconds, Claude asks in the terminal as usual. Codex, Grok and OpenCode get status and celebrations; Allow and Deny are for Claude Code. Codex also asks you to approve Gobbl's hooks once, with /hooks.

Write anywhere

One key that writes
in every app.

The right Option key becomes the Gobbl key. It works in any text field: Mail, Slack, Notion, a browser form. Try it on the draft below.

New message
ToPriya Shah
SubjectOur call this week
hey can we move the call to friday, i have a clash thursday. sorry!!
Try a key move
Dictation

Dictation that never
leaves your Mac.

Hold the Gobbl key and talk. Whisper runs on your Mac, so your voice stays there, and there's no word cap and no account. A free, on-device alternative to cloud dictation apps.

Press and hold, or hold Space while the button is focused. In the app it's the right Option key.

So I think we should ship the update on Friday and then tell the beta testers.

Transcribed on your Mac in about 0.5 s

~0.5 sper sentence on Apple silicon
On-deviceyour voice never leaves the Mac
0word caps, accounts or fees
3clean-up levels, from verbatim to polished

Custom words for names and jargon · language lock · hands-free mode · three Whisper models

Everything about offline dictation on Mac
Chat in the notch

Ask your notch.
It remembers for you.

Set reminders in plain English, like "remind me every weekday at 10". Get a morning brief and an evening wrap of your day. Gob nudges you gently, never more than three times a day, and stays quiet while you focus.

  • Reminders, one-off or repeating
  • Morning brief with meetings and to-dos
  • Evening wrap of what got done
  • A brief 10 minutes before meetings with people Gobbl knows
  • At most 3 nudges a day, inside your active hours
Gobin your notch
remind me every weekday at 10 to post standup
Done. Every weekday at 10:00 AM: post standup.
Morning briefThree meetings today, the first at 11:00. The Studio North invoice is due Friday.
Gentle nudge: you said you'd send Priya the deck.
Memory Beta · opt-in

AI memory for your Mac
that finishes your to-dos.

Turn Memory on and Gobbl reads the text on your screen, never screenshots, and keeps it on your Mac. It finds the things you said you'd do, with the source and the reason, and ticks them off when proof shows up, like a "Payment successful" page. With Undo, of course.

Seen in Chrome: "Payment successful" on stripe.com

To-dos Gobbl found

Pay the Studio North invoiceFrom Mail, 12 Sep. Why: "Please pay by Friday" in an email from Studio North.Ticked off automatically
Send Priya the Q3 launch deckFrom Slack. Why: you wrote "I'll send it tomorrow".
Book the dentistFrom Messages. Why: Mum asked "did you book it?"

When is the Studio North invoice due, and did I pay it?

It was due Friday, 18 September, and you paid it on 14 September.1 2

  1. Mail, 12 Sep: "Invoice 0142 from Studio North"
  2. Chrome, 14 Sep: stripe.com, "Payment successful"

Who is who, built from your screen.

People, projects, organisations and topics get their own cards in the Memory window, next to your to-dos and a day-by-day timeline with digests. When two names look like one person, Gobbl asks "Same person?" instead of guessing. Search by meaning runs on your Mac, and the memory chat cites where each answer came from.

Priya ShahDesign lead, Studio North

Seen in Slack, Mail and Figma. Works with you on the Q3 launch.

Same person? Priya Shah in Slack and P. Shah in Mail look like one person.
  • Skips password fields, private windows and banking sites
  • Masks card numbers, keys, passwords and one-time codes
  • Pause, forget the last hour, forget an app, or forget it all
  • A small indicator in the notch whenever it's on
How screen memory works, and what it never reads
MCP connector Available (Memory beta)

Your memory,
in every AI app.

One switch connects what Gobbl remembers to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex and the ChatGPT desktop app, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Gemini CLI, LM Studio and Zed, through the Model Context Protocol. Your AI apps can search your memory, look up people and projects, read your day and your to-dos, and ask Gobbl to add a reminder or tick a to-do off.

Connect memory to AI apps
Claude CodeClaude DesktopCodex / ChatGPTCursorVS CodeWindsurfGemini CLILM StudioZed
search_memoryget_daylist_todoswho_isget_personget_projectrecent_activityget_clipboardadd_remindermark_todo_done

Answers cite their source, like "WhatsApp · Samar · Today 7:22 PM". Your memory stays on your Mac, and each call is logged there by tool name and time only. Any other MCP app can use the copyable command.

Privacy

Local first. And you can check.

Gobbl does as much as it can on your Mac. When an AI feature needs a model, you can see exactly what was sent.

On your Mac

Shelf, clipboard, music, dictation audio, the pet and everything Memory stores never leave your Mac.

A provider that keeps nothing

AI requests go through Xeve's service to a model provider that doesn't keep or train on your data.

A log of everything sent

Every AI request is logged on your Mac, so you can see exactly what left it and when.

Open source

Every line is on GitHub under the MIT license. No analytics in the app, and no account.

Read the plain-English privacy page
And a lot more

The rest of the toolkit.

File tools

Convert, compress, remove backgrounds, copy text or zip, right from the shelf.

Shake to drop

Shake while dragging a file and a drop basket appears under your pointer.

Clips in one click

Render a 6-second MP4 and GIF of your pet, or record your real notch.

Every screen

A pill on Macs without a notch and on external displays. Hides for full-screen apps.

Streaks, levels, hats

Keep your streak, level up, unlock 11 hats, including Halloween, Diwali and December ones.

Near-zero CPU

At rest Gob only redraws to blink. Nothing heavy runs in the background.

See every feature
Compare

One free app instead of three.

Gobbl overlaps with notch apps, dictation apps and memory apps. Here's an honest look at how it lines up. Each of these tools does something well; Gobbl's bet is putting them together, free and open source.

Gobbl compared with notch, dictation and memory apps for Mac
FeatureNotch, dictation, memoryGobblNotch appDroppyNotch appNotchNookNotch appBoring NotchNotch appAlcoveDictationWispr FlowDictationSuperwhisperMemoryGoldfishMemoryScreenpipe
PriceFree. AI features free during the betaAbout $10 one-timePaid; sources varyFree$14.99 one-timeFree tier; Pro $15/monthFree tier; Pro $8.49/monthFree during betaFree for 1 device; paid from $21/month
Open sourceYes, MITSource-available (GPL-3.0 with Commons Clause)NoYes, GPL-3.0NoNoNoVariesSource-available
PlatformsmacOS 14+macOS 14+, iPhone companionmacOSmacOS 14+macOS 15+Mac, Windows, iOS, AndroidmacOS, Windows, iOSmacOS (Apple silicon), WindowsmacOS, Windows, Linux
On-device dictationYes, Whisper on your Mac (Apple silicon)Yes, on-deviceNot listedNoNot listedCloud onlyYes, local models (cloud optional)Not listedTranscribes audio (not dictation)
Free-tier word capNonePaid appPaid appNo dictationPaid app2,000 words a week on desktopUnlimited on small local modelsNo dictationNo dictation
Screen memory and to-dosYes, opt-in beta, with auto-ticking to-dosNot listedNot listedNoNot listedNoNot listedScreen memory; to-dos not listedScreen memory; to-dos not listed
MCP connectorYes, one switch for 9 AI apps (Memory beta)Developer kit onlyNot listedNoNot listedYes, for its notesNot listedYes, Claude DesktopYes
AI coding agents in the notchClaude Code, Codex, Grok and OpenCode status, Allow/Deny for Claude CodeStatus only (Claude Code, Codex, more)Not listedNoNot listedNo notchNo notchNot listedNo notch
PetYes, GobNoNoNoNoNoNoFish theme, no petNo
PrivacyLocal first; AI via a provider that keeps no data; log of every requestLocal firstVariesLocal appVariesCloud; optional zero-retention modeWorks offlineLocal storage; AI via a zero-retention providerLocal by default
YesPartly, or with a catchNoNot listed on their site

Checked against each product's own website and public sources on 14 September 2026. Prices are in US dollars where the maker lists them; NotchNook's price differs between sources, so we don't quote one. Rewind isn't in the table because it stopped recording on 19 December 2025, after Meta acquired Limitless. Products change quickly: if something here is out of date, open an issue and we'll fix it.

Gobbl vs Wispr FlowGobbl vs DroppyGobbl vs NotchNookGobbl vs Goldfish

Questions

Is Gobbl free?

Yes. Gobbl is free and open source under the MIT license, made by Xeve. The AI features (writing with the Gobbl key, chat, briefs, Polish with AI, Memory's to-dos) are free during the beta and will become a paid plan later. The notch, the pet, the shelf, the clipboard and on-device dictation don't use the AI service at all. If it earns a spot in your notch, you can pay what you want (we suggest $20, one time).

Which Macs does Gobbl work on?

Any Mac running macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Macs without a notch, and external displays, get a small pill at the top of the screen instead. Dictation needs a Mac with Apple silicon. There is no Windows or Linux version.

Does my voice leave my Mac?

No. Dictation runs OpenAI's Whisper model on your Mac, so audio never leaves it. Only if you choose the Polish with AI clean-up level is the transcribed text (never the audio) sent for polishing. More on the dictation page.

What does Memory read?

Memory is an opt-in beta. When it's on, it reads the text of the window in front of you through macOS Accessibility. It never takes screenshots. It stores that text on your Mac only, masks secrets, and skips password fields, private browser windows and banking sites. See Memory.

How does the Claude Code link work?

Clicking Connect in Gobbl's settings adds a small hook to Claude Code's settings (backed up first). Events go to Gobbl over a private socket on your Mac. If Gobbl isn't running, or you don't answer a prompt within 30 seconds, Claude asks in the terminal as usual.

When can I download it?

Now. Download Gobbl for macOS 14 or later: it's signed and notarized by Apple, and it updates itself. Every build is also on GitHub releases, and you can build it from source.

All questions

Give your notch
something to do.

Download for Mac v0.1.6 Star on GitHub

Gobbl is free. If it earns a spot in your notch, you can pay what you want (we suggest $20, one time).