Ever since Apple put an iPhone-like notch on the M1 Pro- and M1 Max-powered 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro earlier this year, there has been a lot of talk about it. Although the notched display on the laptops offers extra screen real estate, it does not do anything special. However, a new feature in one of the best macOS utility apps can now convert the notch-area of the MacBook Pro models into a TouchBar-like space with dedicated space for useful shortcuts and widgets.
BetterTouchTool is a popular utility tool for macOS that lets users customize various input devices on your Mac to make them more useful. So, following the release of the notched MacBook Pro models earlier this year, the tool added a new Notch Bar feature that lets users add a black bar on either side of the notch to hide it on the latest MacBook models.
Moreover, you can even customize the icon, colors, and label of each of the buttons on the Notch Bar to give it a more personalized look. And as the Notch Bar is omnipresent, you can access the widgets and the shortcuts from any screen on your device. Hence, the Notch Bar feature on BetterTouchTool essentially converts the notched area into a Touch Bar-like interface, which Apple eliminated from the latest MacBook models.
In a recent video on YouTube, Andreas Hegenberg, the developer of BetterTouchTool, demoed two kinds of orientation for the Notch Bar. The first one hides the macOS menu bar until you take your cursor to the top of the screen, and the other one puts the Notch Bar above the static menu bar.
