Crest 6: the notch, redesigned from the ground up.
Crest is a notch app for the MacBook. Version 6 rebuilds all of it: how it moves, what it shows on the closed notch, how you lay out your widgets, and how your coding agents ask you things. It is a free update for everyone who has Crest.
macOS 14 or later. Open Crest for 7 free days, no account or card.
Released 30 September 2026 · now at 6.0.1
One shape, from the notch
Everything Crest shows grows out of the notch and settles back into it on real springs. The closed notch, the peek you get on hover, a full page and a question from Claude are all the same black shape, only bigger or smaller.
Music on the closed notch
While something plays, the closed notch shows it in the style you pick: two bubbles either side of the notch, with the album art on one side and an equaliser that moves while the music plays on the other, or wings tucked inside the notch. Hover for the peek, click for the full player with synced lyrics and the queue.
Pages instead of tabs
Click the notch and it opens onto a row of pages: Now, Home, Work and Code. Swipe with two fingers, use the arrow keys or click the dots to move between them. Since 6.0.1 you choose the swipe direction in Settings, Natural or Inverted, and a two-finger swipe on a widget’s full screen takes you back to its page.
Nineteen widgets you stretch
Each page holds widgets you pick from the gallery. Stretch one from small to wide, hold to edit, drag to move. Crest 6 shipped with nineteen, and Crest has 22 today. The Take and Minutes widgets need those apps:
You get all of them for 7 days with no account and no card. After that, Crest Pro keeps them for $14.99 once, and the Authenticator's typing and sync are free for your first month, then come with Crest Passwords or a Crest Cloud plan. A short first run builds your Home from what you use, so you do not start from an empty page.
One card for every coding agent
Claude Code, Codex and GitHub Copilot CLI questions arrive as one card on the notch. Pick an answer, type your own, or allow or deny a command, without leaving what you are doing. Answering is in the 7-day trial, no card. The allow sheet has an “Allow the rest of this session” switch for the runs you trust, and questions still come to you, because those are real decisions. How it works with Claude Code.
Notes, to-dos and a clipboard history
Notes and checklists, to-dos with due dates you just type (“call the bank tomorrow 9am”), your calendar with Join, the Shelf for files, and a new clipboard history you can search. Passwords you copy are never kept. Each one is a widget on a page and a full screen when you need more room.
Volume and window snapping
Scroll on the notch to change the volume. On the open notch, the level shows as it changes. Drag a window up, hold it at the notch, and drop it into one of twelve layouts: halves, thirds, quarters, centre or full screen. Snapping is in the 7-day trial and in every paid plan; macOS asks for Accessibility on your first drag. How it compares with the tiling built into macOS: how to snap windows on a Mac.
Also new, and one thing gone
- A new Settings window you can search.
- Swipes and clicks on the open notch always reach Crest now, even while it changes size (6.0.1).
- Batteries reads your Mac’s battery health correctly on macOS 27, shows your AirPods once, and skips devices without a name (6.0.1).
- A screen with a long list keeps its margins and scrolls inside (6.0.1).
- The custom language model option (OpenAI, OpenRouter, Ollama) is gone. Crest’s Claude features now use Claude Code, and the key you had saved is removed from your Keychain.
Every release, with the small print, is in the Crest changelog.
Questions
Is Crest 6 a free update?
Yes. Crest 6 costs nothing more if you bought Crest, and if you bought Pro before, every update stays free for life. A new one-time licence includes updates through Crest 7, and an existing subscription includes every update while it runs.
How do I get Crest 6?
Crest checks for updates by itself and can install in place, and Settings has a Check for updates button. You can also download it from crestnotch.app/download, or run brew upgrade --cask crest if you installed it with Homebrew.
Which widgets are free in Crest 6?
None after the trial. Every Mac gets all of Crest for 7 days, with no account and no card, and after that Crest pauses until you buy it. Your saved passwords, codes and notes stay readable, and receiving files with Drop keeps working. Crest Pro is $14.99 once, and the Authenticator's typing and sync are free for your first month, then come with Crest Passwords or a Crest Cloud plan.
What does Crest 6 need?
macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on any Mac. On a MacBook with a notch it lives in the notch; on any other screen it sits in a small pill at the top.
What was removed in Crest 6?
The custom language model option (OpenAI, OpenRouter and Ollama). Crest’s Claude features now use Claude Code, and the key you had saved is removed from your Keychain.
Get Crest 6
Free to download, with a 7-day trial and no card. After that Crest pauses until you buy it, but your saved passwords, codes and notes stay readable and receiving files with Drop still works. Already have Crest? The update is free: Crest offers it by itself, or use Check for updates in Settings.
Download Crest for macOS Buy Crest, $14.99macOS 14 or later · Universal (Apple Silicon & Intel) · 7-day Pro trial, no card up front · Pro is paid once
Keep reading: Crest overview · Best Mac notch apps in 2026 · Dynamic Island for Mac · Claude Code in the notch · Claude Code notifications · Codex notifications · vs NotchNook · vs The Boring Notch · vs Alcove · Changelog