Get notifications on Mac
Your Mac keeps you informed about messages, reminders, and app alerts through notifications—brief banners that appear in the top-right corner of your screen when something arrives. They disappear on their own after a moment, but you can review anything you’ve missed by opening Notification Center . To open Notification Center, click the date and time in the top-right corner of the menu bar, or swipe left from the right edge of your trackpad with two fingers. To close it, click anywhere on the desktop or swipe right.
Act on notifications Reply, snooze, dismiss, or clear notifications right in Notification Center. | View Widgets in Notification Center Resize, remove, and manage the widgets below your notifications. |
Act on notifications without opening an app
When you hold the pointer over a notification in Notification Center, your options appear. To act on a notification, click it to open the relevant app, or use inline actions — like Reply, Snooze, or Archive — to respond without leaving what you’re doing. To clear notifications, click to dismiss a single one, or click and hold the
to remove all notifications from that app at once.
Notifications from the same app are grouped into a stack. To expand a stack, click it. Read through each item, then click Show Less to collapse.
Widgets in Notification Center
Below your notifications, Notification Center displays your widgets — live snippets from apps like Calendar, Weather, and Stocks. Click any widget to jump straight into its full details in the app.
Resize a widget To resize a widget, Control-click it and choose a size from the menu. | Remove a widget To remove a widget, hold Option, hover over it, then click the remove button (–) that appears. |
Tip: Use Focus to silence notifications when you need to concentrate. Click Control Center in the menu bar, click Focus, then turn on Do Not Disturb or choose a custom Focus mode.
Want to learn more?
Control Center Quickly change settings like screen brightness, connect to Wi-Fi, and turn on Do Not Disturb. | Siri Ask Siri questions and take action. | Spotlight Search for anything on your Mac with Spotlight. |
Or if you’re ready for something new, check out how you can customize your wallpaper on your desktop to add a personal touch. Then, get familiar with Safari (the built-in browser on your Mac) by searching the web, take a screenshot using a keyboard shortcut, or download a new app to your Mac.