Dynamic Island on a MacBook Air, iMac or Monitor (2026)

Apple's Dynamic Island has come to the Mac, on one Mac: the MacBook Pro with the PROLED XDR display, from $2,899. If you have a MacBook Air, an earlier MacBook Pro, an iMac, a Mac mini or a monitor on your desk, Apple has not announced anything for you. You do not need a new Mac for it, though. You need about five minutes.

Short answer

Install Droppy, open it, and it draws a Dynamic Island at the top of every display: around the notch on a MacBook that has one, and as a floating island on everything else. It runs on macOS 14 or later, Apple Silicon or Intel, with a free 3-day trial, then $9.99 once for 2 Macs.

On a display with no notch, the island floats at the top and opens into the full player.

Set it up in five minutes

Download Droppy, move it to Applications and open it. The trial starts with every feature and asks for no card.
Grant the permissions it asks for, one at a time. Each one says what it is for.
Move the pointer to the top center of the screen. The island opens into Home, with Now Playing and your next events.
Under Settings, Theming, choose the style for notched displays and for notchless displays, plus width, height and island position.
Under Settings, General, Visibility, turn on Show on external displays if you use a monitor.
Under Settings, Live Activities, keep the activities you care about and switch off the rest.

Which Mac do you have?

Pick yours to see what you get and the two settings that matter.

MacBook Air from M2 on has a notch, so Droppy grows out of it. The M1 MacBook Air has none, so Droppy floats an island there instead.

Settings, Theming: pick the style for notched displays, and a separate one for notchless displays.
Settings, General, Expanded notch: turn on Auto-expand if hovering should be enough to open it.

The 14 and 16 inch MacBook Pros from 2021 on have a notch, and Droppy wraps it. The 13 inch MacBook Pro and earlier models have none, so they get the floating island.

Settings, Theming: notch style for the built-in screen.
Settings, General, Visibility: Hide physical notch draws a black bar so the whole strip reads as one shape.

No notch, so Droppy floats a Dynamic Island at the top of the screen, with small glances on either side, like the time or your next event.

Settings, Theming: island style, then width, height and island position.
Settings, General, Expanded notch: Animation speed and Auto-collapse set how it opens and closes.

Whatever display you use gets the island. With two monitors you decide which one shows it.

Settings, General, Visibility: Per-display visibility picks the displays.
Settings, Theming: island style and position for notchless displays.

Next to a MacBook, the laptop keeps its notch and the monitor gets an island. They share the same widgets and live activities.

Settings, General, Visibility: Show on external displays, set to When active or Always.
Settings, General, Expanded notch: Expand on picks the main Mac, external displays or both.

What the island does once it is there

It is not a decoration. Hover it and it opens into three pages. Home holds Now Playing, your calendar and up to four widgets. Tray holds files you dropped on it, ready to AirDrop, mail or share as a link. Widgets lists every widget you can add, from weather and Pomodoro to system stats and your coding agents.

Droppy's island with widgets for a Pomodoro timer, the weather in Lisbon, CPU and RAM, and Claude editing a file — Up to four widgets on Home: here a focus timer, the weather, system stats and a coding agent.

While you work, Live Activities report from the island instead of pop-ups across the screen: volume and brightness, battery, AirPods connecting, a timer, a download, a screen recording, a meeting. When more than one thing is going on, the main one takes the island and the rest sit beside it as small pills.

Three tips for an island that stays out of the way

Hide on fullscreen under Settings, General, Visibility keeps it out of films and presentations.
Hold to reveal keeps it hidden until you hold a key combination, useful on a crowded menu bar.
Hide from screenshots leaves it out of screenshots and screen recordings.

Comparing apps first? I put seven side by side in the best Dynamic Island apps for Mac, and set Apple's own island against Droppy's in this comparison. Facts about Apple's MacBook Pro come from its announcement of October 28, 2026; Droppy's settings were checked on November 2, 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Will the MacBook Air get Apple's Dynamic Island?

Apple has not announced one. Its Dynamic Island comes only on the MacBook Pro with the PROLED XDR display, from $2,899, in stores on November 6, 2026. To get an island on a MacBook Air today, use an app such as Droppy.

Can an iMac or Mac mini have a Dynamic Island?

Yes, with an app. Droppy floats a Dynamic Island at the top of any display without a notch, including iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio and external monitors, and opens it into the full player and shelf when you hover.

Can I get a Dynamic Island on an external monitor?

Yes. In Droppy, Show on external displays under Settings, General, Visibility puts the surface on your monitors, and Per-display visibility picks exactly which ones. Each display can use the notch shape or the island.

Does it work on my MacBook's notch and my monitor at the same time?

Yes. Droppy sets the style for notched and notchless displays separately, so the MacBook wraps its notch while the monitor next to it shows an island.

Which Macs does Droppy support?

Any Mac on macOS 14 Sonoma or later, Apple Silicon or Intel. It costs $9.99 once for 2 Macs, with a 3-day trial of every feature.

Will Droppy cover my menu bar icons?

On a display where the island would sit over menu bar items, turn on Hold to reveal under Settings, General, Visibility. The island then stays hidden until you hold the modifier keys you choose.