MacCam — Notch Island Camera for macOS

Turn your MacBook's dead notch area into a live camera — Dynamic Island style.

A lightweight, native macOS menu bar app that transforms the notch into a quick-access camera panel. Click the camera icon, and a sleek panel deploys from the notch with a smooth animation, showing your live camera feed. Snap a photo instantly.

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Features

• Dynamic Island UI — Panel emerges from the notch with concave curves, matching Apple's design language
• Animated Deploy — Smooth reveal animation from the notch downward
• Live Camera Preview — Real-time feed from your Mac's built-in camera
• One-Click Capture — Take photos with a single click, flash feedback included
• Frosted Glass Backdrop — Optional full-screen blur effect when the camera is open
• Customizable Save Location — Choose where your photos are saved (defaults to Desktop)
• Menu Bar Only — No dock icon, no clutter. Lives quietly in your menu bar
• ESC to Close — Quick dismiss with keyboard or click outside
• Native Swift — No Electron, no web views. Pure AppKit + SwiftUI + AVFoundation
• Lightweight — Under 1MB, zero dependencies, instant launch

Install

One-line install (requires Xcode Command Line Tools):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/badursun/MacCam-NotchIsland/main/install.sh | bash

This will clone, build, code-sign, copy to /Applications, and launch MacCam.

Manual Install

git clone https://github.com/badursun/MacCam-NotchIsland.git
cd MacCam-NotchIsland
chmod +x build.sh
./build.sh
open build/MacCam.app

Uninstall

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/badursun/MacCam-NotchIsland/main/uninstall.sh | bash

Or manually: delete /Applications/MacCam.app.

Usage

Action	How
Open camera	Click the camera icon in the menu bar
Take photo	Click the white shutter button
Open settings	Click the gear icon
Close panel	Click X, press ESC, or click outside
Quit app	Right-click the menu bar icon → "MacCam'i Kapat"

Settings

• Save Directory — Pick any folder for your photos (default: Desktop)
• Backdrop Blur — Toggle the frosted glass overlay on/off in real-time

Requirements

• macOS 13 (Ventura) or later
• MacBook with notch (MacBook Pro 14"/16" 2021+, MacBook Air 2022+)
• Works on non-notch Macs too — panel appears at the top center of the screen
• Xcode Command Line Tools (for building from source)

Architecture

Sources/MacCam/
├── main.swift                 # App entry point
├── AppDelegate.swift          # NSApp lifecycle, accessory mode
├── StatusBarController.swift  # Menu bar icon, window management, animations
├── NotchWindow.swift          # Borderless NSPanel for the camera UI
├── ContentView.swift          # SwiftUI UI + DynamicIslandShape
├── CameraManager.swift        # AVFoundation session & capture
├── PhotoCaptureDelegate.swift # Photo save handler
├── SettingsManager.swift      # UserDefaults-backed preferences
└── CameraPreviewView.swift    # NSViewRepresentable camera preview

No Xcode project required. Built entirely with Swift Package Manager.

How It Works

1. NSStatusItem places a camera icon in the menu bar
2. On click, a borderless NSPanel is created at the top of the screen
3. The panel uses a custom DynamicIslandShape — wide at the top (flush with the screen edge), concave curves narrowing to the content body, rounded bottom corners
4. AVCaptureSession provides the live camera feed via AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer
5. The panel animates open using SwiftUI's animatableData on the shape's revealProgress
6. Optional NSVisualEffectView backdrop provides a frosted glass overlay
7. Photos are captured via AVCapturePhotoOutput and saved as JPEG

Tech Stack

Component	Technology
UI Framework	SwiftUI + AppKit (hybrid)
Camera	AVFoundation
Window Management	NSPanel (borderless, non-activating)
Shape Rendering	Custom SwiftUI Shape with animatable paths
Backdrop	NSVisualEffectView (.hudWindow material)
Build System	Swift Package Manager
Preferences	UserDefaults

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
ESC	Close camera panel
Right-click menu bar icon	Quit app

Privacy

• MacCam requires Camera permission on first launch
• Photos are saved locally only — no cloud, no network, no telemetry
• No data leaves your Mac. Ever.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first.

License

MIT

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_{Built with Swift and obsessive attention to the notch.}