Questions, answered.

A Mac app that makes the edges of your screen useful. Docks slide out from any edge with a hover, the notch shows what’s next and what’s playing, and Pip, a small companion, tells you what matters and does things when you ask.

A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) running macOS 14 Sonoma or later. A notch isn’t required.

Not at the moment. SideDock is built for Apple silicon.

Yes. Without a notch, the top of the screen gets a notch-style bar that does everything the notch does. The docks work on every edge either way.

No, it works beside it. SideDock’s docks know where your Dock is and stay out of its way, so you keep both.

No. Open SideDock and it works. There’s nothing to sign up for and no SideDock server to log in to.

SideDock’s docks and notch live on your main display, the one with the menu bar. Other displays are left as they are.

No. It’s a native Mac app written in Swift, built to stay light in the background and do its work only when you open something.

Yes. Turn on Open at login in Settings and SideDock is ready whenever your Mac is.

In eight places: the left, right, top and bottom edges, the four corners, and under the notch. Use one, or all of them.

Push the pointer against the edge. The dock slides out without a click, and slides away when you move on.

Apps, groups of apps, folders and live widgets, mixed however you like. Drop one app on another to make a group; add a folder and it opens as a stack you can drag files out of.

More than 50: the time and your calendar, your Mac’s battery, memory and storage, weather, music, AI usage, stocks and coins, shortcuts, and more. Each comes in several sizes and styles, and every one is included in every plan.

It opens a card with the whole story and the buttons you’d reach for next. The tile is the glance; the card is the detail.

Yes. A dock can stay on screen instead of sliding away, if you’d rather see it all the time.

Yes. Settings › Privacy & Data exports every dock, widget and preference into one file, and the other Mac imports it.

What you’d otherwise go looking for: your next event, what’s playing, coding agents at work, downloads, charging, volume and brightness, your earbuds’ battery, Caps Lock, Focus, timers and the stopwatch, AirDrop, pull requests and their checks, and more. Each shows only while it matters.

Click the notch, or hover over it if you prefer; you choose in Settings. It opens into Home: what’s playing, what’s next, the weather and Pip.

A shelf in the notch for files. Drag a file up to the notch to keep it for later, ask Pip about it, or send it with AirDrop.

Yes: Black, Frosted, or Dynamic Glass, which bends what’s behind the notch like a lens. Dynamic Glass needs Screen Recording permission; without it, the notch uses Frosted.

No. When TV, YouTube or Netflix plays full screen, the notch’s media bar hides. Music and videos in a window still show.

Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Antigravity and Hermes. Their progress sits in the notch; click it for the whole session, with what they did, which files they changed, and the terminal with its checks.

SideDock’s companion. Pip lives in the notch, tells you about your next meeting before it starts, a Mac running hot or a break you’ve earned, and keeps quiet during calls, full-screen video and Focus.

No new one. Pip uses the account you already have with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Google, and nothing needs setting up. Or Hermes, running on your own Mac.

Answer questions about your day, play music or a video, open apps, add events and reminders, change the volume and other settings, and more. Press ⌃⌥Space anywhere and ask, or click one of Pip’s notices to reply right there.

Pip only acts on what you ask. Anything that matters asks you first, every time: force-quitting an app, moving files to the Trash, restarting, or reading your screen, clipboard or a file, and it tells you when that would go to your AI.

English, Bahasa Melayu, Bahasa Indonesia, Arabic, French and Spanish. Pick one in Settings and Pip uses it everywhere.

Not from us. Your AI provider’s own limits and prices apply, the same as when you use it directly.

Yes. Choose which notices Pip gives in Settings › Pip, or turn them off; the docks and notch work without ever talking to Pip.

Yes. Ask, and Pip writes it and shows it as a card in the chat or the notch: an email through Mail, an iMessage or text through Messages, or a WhatsApp message. It finds the address or number of whoever you name in your Contacts. Change anything on the card, then press Send; nothing goes until you do.

An event with invitations in Calendar, a call (FaceTime video, audio, or your iPhone’s phone), files to AirDrop, a note, a reminder, and things in apps you’ve connected, like a new issue in Linear. Each comes as a card you can edit, with one button to do it, through your own apps and accounts.

Yes, in the notch: new email in Mail (while Mail is open), iMessages and texts, missed calls and calendar invitations. Press Reply and Pip writes an answer as a card for you to check and send; Call back and Open do what they say. Reading Messages and your call history needs Full Disk Access, which only you can give, so Pip asks once. WhatsApp offers no way to read incoming messages. Turn any of it off in Settings › Pip › Alerts.

No. Every email, message, call, invitation and AirDrop waits on its card for your press, even when you’ve let Pip do other things without asking. A card you leave alone for ten minutes cancels itself.

Yes, with Pip Live. Turn on Talk in Settings › Pip › Talk, then open Live from the notch, the microphone in Pip’s chat, or ⌃⌥V anywhere. Speak, and Pip answers out loud, using the same AI as in the chat. You can cut in while it’s talking: it hears you over its own voice.

Pip’s voice comes from a voice service: ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Azure Speech or Google Cloud. Pick one in Settings › Pip › Talk, paste an API key from your own account with them (Azure also asks for your resource’s region), choose a voice and press Play to hear it. We don’t use the Mac’s built-in voices, which sound flat, especially in Malay. Without a key, Pip doesn’t talk out loud; you can still chat with it in writing.

On the provider’s website: sign in, create an API key, and paste it into SideDock. You pay the provider directly for what Pip says, usually by the character, at their own prices; ElevenLabs, Azure and Google Cloud have a free tier to start. SideDock adds nothing on top, and your key stays in your Mac’s Keychain.

macOS turns what you say into words, on your Mac for English and Malay (other languages may use Apple’s speech service), and nothing is recorded or kept. The words go to your AI provider like a typed message, and only Pip’s reply, as text, goes to the voice provider to be spoken.

Only when you ask Pip something: then what it needs for the answer goes to the AI you chose, with your own account. Nothing goes to a SideDock server. The Privacy Policy lists every connection SideDock makes.

No. There are no analytics, ads or trackers in the app or on this website.

To notice the pointer at the screen’s edges and open the docks, and to press the controls of other apps when you ask, such as pausing a video in your browser.

Only for the Dynamic Glass notch, which needs to see what’s behind it to bend it. Nothing is saved or sent. Skip it and the notch uses Frosted instead.

Never the camera. The microphone only while you talk with Pip out loud, which you turn on yourself in Settings › Pip › Talk; macOS asks you first, and nothing is recorded or kept.

In your macOS Keychain. They never leave it except to reach the provider they belong to.

Settings › Privacy & Data › Uninstall takes SideDock out of your AI apps and login items, can move all its data to the Trash, and shows the app for you to drag to the Trash.

Yes, and we’d love you to use it. SideDock is free for 7 days with every feature unlocked. You don’t need a card or an account; when the trial ends, enter a license key to keep going. Your setup stays as it is.

Yes. Pay once and it’s yours, with every update to your version. No subscription, no account, and no “your plan renews tomorrow” emails, ever.

One, three or five, depending on your plan. Every plan has every feature; only the number of Macs changes.

Yes. Move up to a bigger plan by paying the difference.

Deactivate SideDock on the old Mac, then enter your key on the new one. If the old Mac is lost or wiped, ask on the Recover license page and we’ll free up the slot.

It was emailed to you with your receipt, so search your mail for “SideDock”. If it’s not there, the Recover license page sends it again to the address you bought with.

Try it free for 7 days before you buy. If you do buy and change your mind, ask within 14 days and you get a full refund, no reason needed. The Refund policy has the details.

Prices are in US dollars. Depending on where you live, VAT or sales tax may be added at checkout, and your receipt shows it.

Yes. Each person needs a license for their own Macs. For several licenses at once or an invoice, write to support@getsidedock.com.

SideDock checks once a day, downloads a new version in the background and installs it the next time it quits. You can turn that off in Settings.

Every update to the version you bought is included. If a future major version is ever a paid upgrade, you can keep using the one you have.

On the Changelog, and in Settings › About › What’s New.

Use Settings › Report a Problem. It writes an email with your Mac’s model and the versions we need, and lets you attach recent crash reports if you want to. Or write to support@getsidedock.com.

Please do. Write to support@getsidedock.com; every idea is read.