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New Notifyr app seamlessly makes your iOS notifications appear on your Mac

We’ve come across a new service called Notifyr that, in short, makes your iOS Device notifications automatically simultaniously appear as notifications on your Mac. The service is a pair of applications: a $3.99 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch application from the App Store and a free companion Mac app. Using native Bluetooth low-energy technology on supported Macs and iOS Devices, any iOS notification can appear on your Mac just like any other Mac Notification Center alert…

 

We’ve tested this with several functions, such as phone calls, Facebook Messages, iMessages, and SMS messages, and it worked seamlessly. The phone app integration even shows missed call and voicemail alerts on your Mac. The setup process was a standard Bluetooth connection setup: a code shows up your Mac, and you type in that code on your iOS device to verify.

While you need the Mac and iOS apps installed, the Mac application lives as a toggle in System Preferences so you do not have to be bothered by it. The Mac app allows you to mute certain iOS apps from showing notifications on your Mac. As for the iOS app, you need to leave it installed and running on your iOS device, but it does not need to be open to work. The entire process seems very well, and it’s interesting that a third-party developer’s implementation seems more seamless than what Apple promised for cross-platform notifications with OS X Mavericks/iOS 7 last fall.

Because the software requires Bluetooth LE, you’ll need a recently launched iOS device (an iPhone 4S or newer) and a new Mac. Supported Macs include: MacBook Air (2011 or newer), MacBook Pro (2012 or newer), Mac mini (2011 or newer), iMac (2012 or newer), and the Mac Pro (2013).

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Comments

  1. It’s only half working for me. Might be because of my Pebble though. Seriously though, get it before it gets pulled.

  2. Emiel Janson - 10 years ago

    Works pretty great!!

  3. This app is wicked, wicked cool. Easily worth the money since Notification Center synching is so terrible. Hopefully, with iOS 8 and with Mac OS 10.10, they can make something like this out of the box.

    If you’re looking for other really cool apps, check out PaperBox. It’s a free document scanning app and organization system built on Dropbox. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paperbox/id814252277?mt=8

  4. Adam Whiteley - 10 years ago

    check before your Mac the application is only compatible on
    >macbook Air 2011 or newer
    >Macbook Pro 2012 or newer
    >Mac late 2012 or newer
    >mac mini 2011 or newer
    >mac pro 2013 or newer

  5. derekaw - 10 years ago

    Apple should provide this functionality, it should be built in.

    • Arnaud Ober - 10 years ago

      I agree with you! Apple should add Knock to unlock Mac with iPhone, but even in sleep mode and Notifyr, built-in. What a beautiful convergence and OS would it be…

    • I use Knock and I agree! Apple should acquire these guys and the knock people too. Although, admittedly they would also want to increase there battery life before suggesting people keep bluetooth on all day. It seriously drains my iPhone 5.

      • Although, I see Knock becoming pointless with Apple releasing the rumoured iWatch. I foresee them adding proximity unlocking to the watch so if you hold your iDevice or put your hands on the keyboard, it’ll unlock without the required ‘knocking.’

  6. Brad Gawronski (@bwad) - 10 years ago

    Waste of money tried on two Macbook Pro 2013 models and iPhone 5S and neither will pair properly.

    • Florian Heckmann - 10 years ago

      I Had the same Problem!
      iPhone 5s and MacBook Pro Retina late 2013!
      I just restarted BOTH devices and now it works like a charm !

      • Brad Gawronski (@bwad) - 10 years ago

        Did the same several times, its just a no-goer :( Shame it looks really handy. Hopefully an update will fix it.

      • If it works for other people, Brad, sounds like user error to me. Why would it need an update to fix it?

    • Joey Wallach - 10 years ago

      Same here

      • Joey Wallach - 10 years ago

        it works eventually, just trial and error.

  7. Well, as a developer, I can say that this app most likely uses private APIs, which are prohibited by the App Store rules. There is simply no public API that will allow you to access notifications for the other apps in iOS.

    Looks like the review team failed this time again :(

  8. Bilal Baydoun - 10 years ago

    I’m not able to connect my iPhone bluetooth to my late 2013 macbook pro my iPhone giving me this error: connection unsuccessful macbook is not supported

  9. Project Profile - 10 years ago

    Reblogged this on All But Good Articles and commented:
    Simple but funny.

  10. Raido Orumets - 10 years ago

    Not working on my iMac 2011. Gives error, that works only with bluetooth 4.0.

    • Raido Orumets - 10 years ago

      It would be great if it supports Bluetooth 2.0 + too. For now I have to buy external Bluetooth stick to get it working.

      • airmanchairman - 10 years ago

        What external Bluetooth 4.0 dongle will work successfully with a 2011 MacBook Pro?

    • Dinh Ba Thanh Jason - 10 years ago

      It won’t because Apple Notification Center Service (ANCS) requires low energy bluetooth :-)

  11. The guy who made this applications is just 17 years old. Very talented guy!! :)

  12. i finally got it connect to my iPhone 5, but nothing comes into my notification panel for me to tick

  13. Works for me, love it.

  14. Ishir Bhan (@infobhan) - 10 years ago

    I’d love to use it, but I’m having trouble getting it to work. I have my Gatekeeper set to accept only registered developers, and this doesn’t seem to be signed. When I turn that off, then it installs, but is turned off by default. When I flip the switch to turn it on, it turns green momentarily then turns off again. No error message, nothing. Disappointing. I have a new MBP so Bluetooth support is not the issue.

  15. It would be nice to see the ability to take a phone call added to this.

  16. J-Skype (@Antonio_JSkp) - 10 years ago

    Doesn’t work on some apps like “KIK” could any of you test it?

  17. It keeps disconnecting from my rMbp early 2013 quite often, I don’t know why. The phone is a 4S.

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