Hand Mirror makes the best use of Apple’s MacBook notch that I’ve seen

We’ve covered Hand Mirror before. It’s a simple, free Mac utility that lives in your menu bar. Whenever you click it, you see a small preview of your selfie camera. If you’re prepping for a video call with colleagues or just want to check how disheveled you appear to other coffee shop goers at 8AM, it’s a perfect little tool.

Hand Mirror’s developer Rafael Conde recently introduced a paid add-on to the app that unlocks some bonus features. (The main video preview feature is still completely free and works as well as ever.) One of those new tricks — called “notch trigger” — caught my eye. When enabled, Hand Mirror will bring up the selfie camera preview whenever you click behind the notch area on Apple’s 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros and M2 MacBook Air. In this mode, you can also hide the menu bar icon to free up space over there.

Notch trigger alone convinced me to spend the one-time $4.99 fee on Hand Mirror Plus. Sometimes I forget about the app altogether when it’s in the menu bar alongside a ton of other icons. But relocating it behind the notch (where the camera is) seems like a much better way of remembering that I can always check my webcam view with a quick, single click. You don’t have to be precise or click in the middle of the notch; anywhere behind it will do.

Other Hand Mirror Plus perks include the ability to move the preview window somewhere else onscreen, switch up its appearance, pick a different app icon, and more. I’d recommend downloading Hand Mirror for free from the Mac App Store and giving it a try. From there you can decide whether the menu bar approach is good enough or if it’s worth spending a few bucks to get the hidden notch trick.