Documentation

Everything nox does, explained. nox lives in your MacBook's notch and surfaces what you need — then tucks away when you're done.

Introduction

nox turns the empty space around your MacBook's notch into a living surface. Hover up to it and it blooms open into a compact panel; move away and it slips back into the notch. Everything runs natively on macOS, on‑device, with no account and no servers in the loop.

  • Native & private — your music, voice and files are handled on your Mac, not in the cloud.
  • One glance up — controls live where your eyes already go: the top of the screen.
  • Out of the way — nox shows only when something's happening, then disappears.

Install & permissions

Download the DMG, drag nox into Applications, and open it. nox is Apple‑notarized, so it opens without warnings. On first launch a short welcome walks you through the permissions it needs:

  • Accessibility — lets nox detect your cursor reaching the notch and read the media keys. Required for the hover and global controls.
  • Microphone — only used while you're actively dictating.
  • Calendar — optional; lets dated tasks mirror into your system Calendar.
Requirements: macOS 15 or later, Apple Silicon recommended. The download is ~129 MB. You can re‑run the welcome anytime from Settings → General → Show onboarding again.

Using the notch

The notch is the home for everything in nox.

  • Hover the cursor up to the notch to expand the panel.
  • Click a tab to switch between Live (music, focus, calendar), Notes, Files, and more.
  • Swipe with two fingers on the open panel to dismiss it, or to skip tracks while music is showing.
  • When nothing's open, a slim resting pill shows what's playing or your current focus.

Now Playing Music

nox mirrors whatever's playing — Spotify, Apple Music, or a video in your browser — right in the notch.

  • Album art, title and artist, with a live waveform that reacts to your output volume.
  • Play / pause, skip, and a scrubbable progress bar (for sources that report position).
  • Album‑art decorations — turn on an animated, per‑track ring around the art in Settings → Now Playing.
Browser media (YouTube, etc.) doesn't always report a playback position to macOS, so the progress bar may be unavailable for those — the controls still work.

Dictation Voice → text

Talk, and nox types. Transcription runs entirely on‑device with a Whisper model plus a small clean‑up step — nothing is sent to a server.

  • Press your dictation hotkey from anywhere to dictate into the app you're in, or tap the mic inside nox to capture a note or task.
  • While recording you get a clear Cancel (discard) and Done — Done finishes the take and shows a “Transcribing…” indicator while it processes.
  • Pick your input device and customize the hotkey in Settings → Dictation.

Files & AirDrop Drop

Drag any file onto the notch and nox catches it.

  • Files stage in the Files tab so you can collect a few before doing anything with them.
  • One click to AirDrop the staged files to a nearby device — the standard macOS share sheet, anchored to the panel.

Video downloads Download

Paste a video link and nox downloads it locally.

  • Drop or paste a URL; progress shows in the notch.
  • The finished file lands in your Downloads folder.
You're responsible for respecting the copyright and terms of service of the sites you download from. See the Terms.

Calendar & tasks Live

The Live dashboard's capture bar turns a sentence into a task.

  • Type (or dictate) something like “call mom at 6pm” — nox parses the time and stages it.
  • Dated tasks can mirror into your system Calendar; completing or removing a task clears its calendar event.
  • Expand the calendar to browse your month and see tasks alongside events.

Focus & Study Timers

Start a focus or study session right from the Live dashboard. nox shows a running timer in the notch and can respect macOS Focus modes so it stays quiet while you work.

Scripts (teleprompter) Read

Paste a script into the Scripts tab and read it back as a smooth, auto‑scrolling teleprompter — with a visible Start, pause/resume, and a close control. It remembers your position so you can pick up where you left off.

Notes

Quick notes live a click away in the Notes tab — jot, dictate, or capture from the same bar you use for tasks. Everything is stored locally on your Mac.

Volume & system HUDs

nox replaces the default macOS overlays with elegant, notch‑anchored indicators for volume and other system events (charging, AirDrop, focus changes), so feedback shows where you're already looking.

Settings & customization

Open Settings from the notch's context menu or the menu‑bar icon.

  • General — hover behavior, default tab, sound effects, launch at login.
  • Dictation — hotkey, input device, voice model.
  • Now Playing — album‑art decorations and more.
  • Appearance — accent and visual options.

Privacy

nox is built to keep your data on your Mac. Dictation and AI run on‑device, there's no account, and the app doesn't send your content to a server. The full details — including the handful of permissions nox uses and what the website collects — are in the Privacy Policy.

Updates & support

nox updates itself automatically and securely (signed updates). For anything else, email hello@trynox.app.