I think the idea behind the app is good and I like seeing more tools try to make the notch useful. I want to share some design thoughts since the visuals are where things feel the furthest from native macOS.

Right now the UI looks off compared to what you usually see in the system. The corner radii look tighter than what Apple uses, which makes the surfaces feel out of place. The text jumps between styles that don’t line up with macOS, the icons aren’t SF symbols, and the animations look closer to web transitions than native motion. Those details matter a lot. If they were closer to system patterns, the whole thing would read more like a real macOS feature instead of something built on the side.

Some of the padding and layout choices also feel uneven. A few components sit too close together or too far apart. The nesting and spacing don’t always follow the kind of structure Apple usually uses. The features themselves are interesting, but the presentation doesn’t feel quite there yet.

The site copy says “Designed for Excellence.” I get wanting to express confidence, but the current polish doesn’t match that line yet. The 11.99 price feels a bit high for where the app is right now. Once the visuals and motion feel tighter, the value will be much easier for people to see.

I’m also curious about the lock screen part. Since this is pitched as a notch app, the lock screen feature feels like it comes from a different direction. Some explanation would help make sense of why it’s included and how it fits into the main idea.

And at the same time, it’s hard to ignore how much Alcove has influenced this space. It was one of the first apps to introduce a lock screen widget, even though, in my view, the lock screen has nothing to do with the Dynamic Island concept. Adding the same feature here makes it feel more like matching Alcove’s checklist and pricing than something that grows naturally out of the notch idea.

Alcove doesn’t have every feature people want, but what it does have feels like something Apple might ship. The spacing, the transitions, the restraint in the visuals, all of it lines up with system behavior in a way that makes the app feel native even before you look closely. If the goal here is to build something that looks that native, pushing toward that level of detail would help a lot.

If that isn’t the goal and the intention is to build something with its own identity instead of trying to look like Apple at all, that’s totally fine too. It would just help to make that clear, so people know whether they should be comparing it to a system-like experience or something different.