
Pulse Island
100% freeInteractive widgets that bring your Mac's notch to life
4.6 /5 on G2 · 18 ratings, Jul 2026
Pulse transforms the dead space around your Mac's notch into a living, interactive island. It provides a suite of glanceable widgets that surface the information you need most, music playback, meeting countdowns, clipboard history, weather, system stats, and more, all without opening a single window. The island responds to natural gestures: scroll to expand, swipe to flip between widgets, hover to peek, and click to pin. Built with a focus on privacy and performance, Pulse runs entirely locally on your Mac, consuming under 1% idle CPU. It integrates deeply with macOS, pulling data from system APIs for now-playing, calendar events, clipboard, and device batteries. The design follows Apple's own principles: spring animations, artwork-tinted accents, and notch-band headers that respect the hardware cutout. Pulse is available for free during its beta period, with a paid plan planned for the future release. It requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later and works on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, with or without a physical notch (appearing in the menu bar on notchless Macs).
- Pro: Local-first architecture ensures all data stays on your Mac, with no accounts or cloud sync required.
- Pro: Extremely lightweight, under 1% idle CPU usage and only polls stats when the island is visible.
- Pro: Gesture-driven interface eliminates the need for keyboard shortcuts or window management.
- Con: Only available for macOS 14 Sonoma or later, excluding older macOS versions and other platforms.
- Con: Future paid plan after beta; current free access is temporary.
The pricing is extremely generous, offering a fully featured free tier with no limitations or time restrictions.







