Gesture-driven widgets around the notch — music, meetings, clipboard, weather, and batteries at a glance.
Our take
A fresh hub built around gestures: scroll to expand the island, flip sideways between widgets, hover to peek. Local-first with no account required, under 1% idle CPU, and free while in beta — a low-risk way to try a full-featured hub right now.
- Featured on Product Hunt Product Hunt
- Price
- Free during beta
- License
- Proprietary
- Requires
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later · Apple Silicon & Intel
- Download
- ≈5 MB
- Get it via
- Direct
- Developer
- Aayush Talreja
Do you use Pulse?
Who made this
Solo developer of Pulse, also publishing at his personal site.
What it does
Gesture-driven island
Scroll to expand, scroll sideways to flip between widgets, hover to peek, click to pin — the island is driven by trackpad gestures rather than menus.
Widget set
Music, meetings, clipboard, weather, focus timers, device batteries, and system stats around the notch.
Universal music detection
Picks up playback from Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and SoundCloud.
Meeting link detection
Detects Teams, Zoom, Meet, and Webex links so joining is one click from the island.
Light footprint
A native app around 5 MB that idles under 1% CPU, per the developer.
The deal
- Free during beta with all widgets unlocked
- No account or subscription required
Privacy: Local-first: core features work without an internet connection or account, per the developer’s site.
What others say
Featured on Product Hunt
Product Hunt
Pulse — questions people ask
Is Pulse free?
Yes — Pulse is free.
Can I run Pulse together with another notch app?
No — Pulse draws at the notch, so it takes the place of any other notch app (hubs included). Apps that live in the menu bar or on screen stack alongside it fine.
Where can I download Pulse?
Pulse is available via Direct.
Reviews
No public ratings yet. Reader reviews are coming to Kitsmith soon.
Listing hand-verified July 27, 2026 from the developer's site and public sources.
How Pulse compares
Not sold on Pulse? These swap in
Notch apps run one at a time — pick one of these instead, not as well.
Alcove
$14.99 one-timeLive activities and widgets around the notch, with the most polished animations in the category.
NotchNook
$25 one-time (or $3/mo)The feature-maximal island: file shelf, widgets, live activities, and deep customization.
boring.notch
FreeFree, open-source island with media controls and small utilities — the no-commitment entry point.
DynamicLake
$13.99 one-timeIsland platform covering music, notifications, calendar, and utilities — with an explicit Liquid Glass design option.
Keep Pulse — stack these next to it
These live in the menu bar or on screen, so they run happily alongside any notch app.
