Set up and use Lynx Notch on your Mac

Lynx Notch is built into Lynx for Mac and needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later. On a Mac without a notch, it appears at the top center of the screen.

Turn it on

Open Settings › Notch and switch on Show Lynx in the notch. Under What it shows, choose downloads, links you copy, or the music and video you’re playing. Opens after sets how quickly it opens when you rest the pointer on it.

Use it

• Downloads show a thumbnail and a progress ring beside the camera. Rest the pointer on the notch (or click it) to open it and see speed, time left, pause and stop.
• Copy a video or file link anywhere and the notch opens with it, with Download, MP3 and Clip. If you don’t use it, it closes after a few seconds. It never opens over a full-screen app. To turn this off, switch off Open when I copy a link in Settings › Notch.
• Clipboard shows what you copied recently, plus new screenshots and screen recordings. See Clipboard history.
• Music from any app shows its artwork, a visualizer, the timeline and a row of controls. On the closed notch, swipe left or right with two fingers to skip a song. The output button picks where the sound plays, such as your AirPods or the speakers.
• Beside the music you choose what sits next to the player: Downloads, Clipboard, the Shelf or nothing. Right-click it in the notch, or set it in Settings › Notch.
• Floating Player: right-click the notch and choose Show Floating Player for a small glass player you can put anywhere on your screen. Swipe up or down on it with two fingers for the Mini, Player and Large sizes (Large has volume and where the sound plays). Close it with its ×.
• Shelf: drop files onto the notch to keep them handy, then drag them into any app later.
• Convert and Make Smaller: right-click a video or sound file on the Shelf (or a finished download) and choose Convert to MP3 or Convert to MP4, or Make Smaller › Under 10 MB (25, 50, 100) to send it where size is limited. The new file appears beside the original; the original stays as it was.
• Drag anything to the notch: start dragging a link or a file and the notch shows it can take it. Move up and it opens into big targets: Download, MP3 or Clip for a link, Keep on Shelf or AirDrop for files. Let go on the one you want.
• Swipe between pages: with the notch open, swipe left or right with two fingers to move between Now, Shelf and Clipboard.
• Right-click the notch for Open Lynx, the Shelf and Clipboard, music controls, Hide for 1 Hour and Notch Settings.
• Liquid Glass: on macOS 26 or later the open notch’s lower edge melts into glass, and on a Mac or display without a notch it floats as glass. Turn it off in Settings › Notch for solid black.
• More than one display: the island moves to the display you’re working on, as a floating island on a display without a notch. To keep it at the MacBook’s notch, switch off Follow the display you’re using in Settings › Notch.

To close the notch, move the pointer away. To turn it off, switch off Show Lynx in the notch.

Lynx Basic, the free plan, includes downloads, copied links, music, the shelf and clipboard history for the last 24 hours. The full clipboard and the notch’s Pro tools are part of Pro. What it downloads follows your plan: files and 10 whole videos a day on Basic, with clips and no daily limit on Pro.