A timer ticking, a song playing, a recording running: I lose track of these the second I switch windows. Well, it looks like Apple wants my Mac to keep them in view, and I’m all up for it.
Apple’s first macOS 27.3 developer beta, released this week, adds Live Activities to the menu bar of Macs without Dynamic Island. It’s hard to imagine the feature at first, since we’re used to seeing it with the Dynamic Island, but here’s how it works (and looks).
What is Apple changing in the Mac menu bar?
Apple’s new MacBook Pro models, with touch-enabled OLED displays, swapped the notch for a Dynamic Island, similar to the one on recent iPhone models, that supports Live Activities.
That could have left every other Mac out, including my all-new M5 MacBook Air (released earlier this year). However, macOS 27.3 puts Live Activities in the menu bar instead, at the top right of the screen, to the left of everything that’s already there.
For now, Live Activities for Mac supports Apple Music, Clock, Voice Memos, and screen recording. It goes without saying, but I’d love to get my hands on this feature when it arrives as part of macOS 27.3’s stable version in December 2026.
Why does this matter, and will other apps follow?
Apple’s own pitch for the Pro’s Dynamic Island was getting “timely updates at a glance,” like accepting an AirDrop request or pausing a song with a tap, so without this update, other Macs would have missed that glance entirely.
Third-party Mac apps can implement Live Activities now, and I’d guess delivery and ride apps follow, though that’s just my hunch.
Since macOS 26 already mirrors iPhone Live Activities into the menu bar, macOS 27.3 brings the missing half: your Mac’s own apps.