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Developer brings ‘Flappy Bird’ to the Mac as an interactive macOS Big Sur notification

Flappy Bird, despite being removed from the App Store seven years ago, remains one of the most iconic iPhone games of all time. Now, developer Neil Sardesai has taken to Twitter to showcase how he brought a clone of the game directly to the macOS Big Sur Notification Center.

Sardesai tweeted the project this weekend, showcasing that you can “put a whole game inside of a push notification” thanks to the new UserNotificationsUI framework. It’s a pretty impressive feat that showcases the power of notifications in Big Sur.

Flappy Bird originated on the iPhone and a variety of clones have popped up on the web and on macOS over the years. Sardesai’s implementation into the Big Sur Notification Center is based on the Flappy Bird clone created by Play Cavnas. Touch interactions are simulated using clicks rather than tap, but the goal of avoiding obstacles remains the same.

Flappy Bird was one of the most viral games to ever come to iPhone back in 2014. Created by developer Dong Nguyen, the app is rumored to have generated an average of $50,000 a day in revenue at its peak. The popularity, however, is what ultimately led to Nguyen removing it from the App Store.

“I can call ‘Flappy Bird’ is a success of mine,” he tweeted at the time. “But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it.”

Sardesai hasn’t made his macOS Big Sur Notification Center version of Flappy Bird available to the public, so this video serves more as a proof concept for now. You can play the clone version on which it’s based right here on the Play Canvas website.

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Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is the editor-in-chief of 9to5Mac, overseeing the entire site’s operations. He also hosts the 9to5Mac Daily and 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcasts.

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