DEV Community: Daniel Gidrewicz

Show DEV: NotchTune v1.2 - a Tiny Notch App to Control Spotify Web

Daniel Gidrewicz — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 21:26:00 +0000

Hey DEV community! 👋

A few days ago I shared NotchTune here — a tiny native macOS app that turns your MacBook's notch into a live Spotify Web controller. The response was awesome, and it pushed me to take the "cool but rough around the edges" 1.0 and turn it into something that actually feels finished.

v1.2 just shipped, and it's a different app.

✨ What's New

Buttery-smooth animations — expand and collapse now feel like a native part of macOS, not a plugin bolted on top
Rock-solid playback controls — play/pause, next, and previous now respond every single time, no more phantom clicks
Lighter & snappier — less overhead sitting near the notch, faster hover response
Predictable hover behavior — the overlay now stays open for exactly as long as your mouse is actually on it, instead of closing on you mid-hover

Why This Was Harder Than It Sounds:

NotchTune doesn't talk to a Spotify API — it talks to a browser tab that has no idea it's supposed to be controllable. Behind the scenes, AppleScript tells Safari to run JavaScript inside the Spotify Web Player page itself. That's a fun trick, but it means every click has to survive a page that's constantly re-rendering underneath it. Most of v1.2's work went into making that bridge actually reliable instead of "usually works."

Full install steps are in the README.

🙌 Star It, or Go Further

NotchTune is still small — a handful of stars, one part-time maintainer. If you like what you see, a ⭐ on the repo genuinely helps more people stumble onto it. And if you're into SwiftUI, AppKit, or just want to dig into a real native macOS project — issues and PRs are welcome with open arms.

Repo: https://github.com/blessedlab/NotchTune

If you give it a spin, I'd love to hear what you think 👇

NotchTune v1.2 Just Shipped — And It's a Whole Different

Daniel Gidrewicz — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 15:55:00 +0000

I'm building NotchTune — a tiny, native Swift macOS app that turns your MacBook's notch into a live Spotify controller. No Electron, no 100MB+ background hog, no dock icon. Just hover near the notch, and a smooth, notch-shaped overlay expands with track info, album art, and animated waveform seek bar.

v1.2 just shipped, and it's the update that makes NotchTune feel finished rather than "cool but rough around the edges":

Reworked open/close animations — smoother, more natural expand/collapse
Reworked "opened" state mechanics — the notch behaves more predictably once expanded
Improved performance — less overhead, snappier response near the notch
Fixed track control buttons — play/pause, next, previous now behave reliably If you have a notch and a Spotify habit, this is the release to try it out on. And if you like where this is going, a ⭐ on the repo genuinely helps it get in front of more people who'd use it.

It's still early — 4 stars right now — and I'd love for it to grow into an actual community project rather than a solo repo. If you want to poke at the code, fix something, or add a feature, PRs are very welcome.

Repository: https://github.com/blessedlab/NotchTune

Show DEV: I built a free macOS app to control Spotify Web player directly from the Notch

Daniel Gidrewicz — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 17:04:19 +0000

Hey DEV community! 👋

Like many of you, I listen to music while coding all day. However, I got tired of constantly switching browser tabs just to skip a track or see what song is currently playing on the Spotify Web Player.

So, I decided to build a lightweight tool for macOS called NotchTune.

What is NotchTune?

NotchTune is a minimal, native macOS app that transforms your screen notch (or top menu bar area) into a dynamic control widget for Spotify Web.

It stays hidden until you need it and provides a clean, native UI inspired by macOS design principles.

✨ Key Features

Notch Integration: Fits seamlessly around the MacBook notch.
Real-time Track Info: Displays current song title, artist name, and album artwork.
Playback Controls: Play, pause, skip, and progress bar tracking without leaving your workspace.
Lightweight & Native: Built purely with SwiftUI and tailored for low resource consumption.

Tech Stack

Language: Swift
UI Framework: SwiftUI
Platform: macOS

Looking for Feedback & Contributors!

This is the initial 1.0 release, and I'm actively looking for feedback from the developer community.

I’d love to hear your thoughts! If you want to test it out, report a bug, or even contribute to the codebase (feature requests, UI tweaks, etc.), check out the repository below:

GitHub Repository: blessedlab/NotchTune

If you like the project, a ⭐ on GitHub would mean the world to me!

Thanks for reading.