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Send messages to display in Seam notch

Features Request & Bugs

I really like how the notch expands for some messages, or when a file is being dragged. It would be fantastic, if I could trigger the display of messages or notifications from other applications (e.g. own applications). This could happen via NSDistributedNotificationCenter, Apple Events / AppleScript or custom URL scheme lie

NSWorkspace.shared.open(URL(string: "seam://action?message=”Display this message.")!).

Posted by pioneer.to ·
Status: Rejected5 comments

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Comments5

  • Ramzi

    Team•

    Apr 12

    I Understand.

    Unfortunately, I cannot just do a generic listener of all notifications because I don't have control over the user experience and I want to keep the app polished and feel native.

    If you have any specific app in mind, feel free to reopen a post.

    • pioneer.to

      •

      Apr 12

      OK, I get your point.
      While I disagree a bit (because you can still control how the display would look like, what can be display and how and what not - e.g. just one image of size x, one message of x characters length, duration between 1 second and 5), it is of course your call :)
      Great application still and thanks for the open request and feedback forum!

      • Ramzi

        Team•

        Apr 12

        Thank you so much. Unfortunately, that implies creating one specific symbol per app, one color style, handling notification length, etc.

        Each app icon has a different UI.

        If I bring the native notification icon, it won't look very pretty on the dark UI.

        I want everything to look very slick. Moreover, from a personal view, I feel notifications usually hinder productivity, which goes against the philosophy of the app.

        But I really appreciate your suggestions. And I hope you are enjoying the other features so far. There's more to come!

  • Ramzi

    Team•

    Apr 12

    Thank you. What message providers are you thinking of?

    • pioneer.to

      •

      Apr 12

      Thanks for the fast reply!
      By "message providers" I imagine any app that wants to surface a brief, timely status in the notch — similar to how the system uses it for AirPods or mic activity. A few concrete examples from my own use cases:

      • A build/CI tool showing "Build succeeded ✓" or "3 errors"

      • A custom menu-bar or automation app pushing arbitrary one-liners like “User BigHippo logged in! - MyWebsite”

      • A game or app showing a level-up or achievement nudge

      For the integration mechanism, I'd suggest the simplest possible API surface to start — a custom URL scheme like:

      seam://notify?message=Build+succeeded&duration=3&source=MySuperApp

      or a Distributed Notification like:

      Name: com.seam.app.displayMessage userInfo: { "message": "Build succeeded", "duration": 3, "source": "MySuperApp" }

      The Distributed Notification approach is particularly attractive because it requires zero user permission prompts, works from any app (sandboxed or not) with a single line of code, and you don't have to design a URL encoding scheme. Third-party developers could integrate it in minutes. To make it even more powerful, you could also allow/include a link to an image/logo resource to show, like currently the album/song art in your music integration. 
      A URL scheme would also make this accessible to Shortcuts and Automator with zero coding — users could trigger notch messages from any other system automation / trigger. That dramatically widens the potential audience beyond developers.

      I'd be happy to test a beta implementation if that helps!