Random discussion - how to get apps behind the notch.

[markomitranic]

Hey @waydabber

this has literally nothing to do with BetterDisplay, but I've been thinking about it lately and briefly tried some stuff in Swift and AppleScript, and talked to some other macOS developers, and so I figured, if anyone knows a ton about how macOS manages display sizes, EDIDs, obscure plists and how to manipulate this type of thing, it'd be you (possibly also the hackintosh gang heh). So, here goes :D

I have a notch-ed Mac, and I don't really care about it, it kinda disappears. What I do care about is the unused space. If I were able to get apps to recognise that space behind the notch exists I'd be able to utilise those pixels as well. Most apps I use don't have anything special in that area anyway. Some might call it ugly, and it is, but I still like the experiment.

Anyway, I've originally used a simple AppleScript to do this.

tell application "System Events"
	set position of first window of application process "Arc" to {0, -83}
end tell

But, after some macOS updates it stopped working, Apple now considers 0 to be the minimum Y point (X is still allowed to go into negative) for all "standard windows". Same thing with Swift, it seems that Apple has locked down the area, as soon as macOS recognises that you have a notch. Currently the only way to get it behind the Notch is to do funny stuff with a second screen :D but as soon as you'd resize the window or move it, it will teleport itself below the notch. Also, some apps with non standard windows work fine, Stickies, Notchan, BetterTouchTool being a good examples.

I've tried an app that was previously able to do it, just to get more context, but it is no longer able to Tuck any windows under the top edge.

So, these solutions aren't relevant to us here. I want to be able to tuck any windows in that area, just like if it was normal screen. So I got to thinking... Got any crazy ideas? I was thinking what if I'd do a virtual display that is screen-sized? Or just lie to macOS about the internal screen not being internal.

I've tried making a dummy with 15:10 (15.4:10 would be the actual ratio but BetterDummy doesn't allow decimal points) but when streamed or mirrored, it caps at the notch regardless.

[markomitranic]

Woop woop, Streaming a dummy seems to do the trick. I can't pretend that I understand the difference tho :/ I'll have to re-read your docs, as I wonder about the performance effects of streaming. I suppose mirroring would be preferable?

Also, there is still the aspect ratio issue, do you think it is possible to make the custom aspect ratio popup accept decimal points? I guess I can just x10 :P 154:100.

I wonder tho, why is Mirroring not able to take over the whole screen? I imagine it is a hardware limitation of some sort, or at least, a lower level limitation.

[waydabber]

Nice!

[cantonalex]

are there performance/battery implications? my 120hz seems to be off. is it really worth it when you lose the top and bottom part of the screen?

[markomitranic]

@cantonalex I'm fairly sure there are, and I doubt it works over 60Hz at all when in streaming mode, although I know little about it. That been said, its a first step :) we now know there is actually a way to do it, contrary to what everyone everywhere said.

Now, if we were able to have mirroring take up the whole screen, that would solve the issue without a significant performance or battery penalty. But @waydabber said elsewhere that mirroring refuses to take up the whole screen. I guess the next step in your search would be to pinpoint why native signal is able to take up the full screen while mirroring is treated differently. Knowing that, there might be some way to circumvent it.

[balupton]

I'm thinking the alternative would be an app that lives in that bar, that provides customisable widgets, such as reminders, calendars, quotes, etc — so far the only one I've found was https://apps.apple.com/au/app/magicnotch-elegant-shortcuts/id6447055708?mt=12 — however it is nowhere near a full widget panel.

Outside of that https://topnotch.app and https://removethenotch.com can at least make it more pleasant.

https://notes.alinpanaitiu.com/Fullscreen-apps-above-the-MacBook-notch and https://lunar.fyi just disable that screen real estate rather than utilising it.

[navtoj]

@balupton In case you're still looking for an app like that, I built NotchBar after I saw your comment.