Live Activities on Mac: how they work, and what's new

Live Activities started on the iPhone. macOS Tahoe already shows them in your Mac's menu bar, and the new OLED MacBook Pro gives them a place in its island.

30 October 20265 min read

Yes, Live Activities work on a Mac. On a Mac running macOS Tahoe, the Live Activities from your iPhone show up in the menu bar: a delivery on its way, a ride, a running timer. The Mac and the iPhone need to be set up for iPhone Mirroring first. On the new OLED MacBook Pro, which ships on 6 November 2026, they move into the Dynamic Island, where MacRumors, summarizing Apple, says they stay visible while you work in other apps.

What you won't find yet is a Mac app that starts a Live Activity of its own. Everything a Mac shows today comes from an iPhone, and Apple hasn't said whether that will change. Below: what a Live Activity is, what it looks like on a Mac now, which ones are worth keeping, and what the island adds.

What a Live Activity is

A Live Activity tracks one thing that is happening right now and will be over soon. A score during a match. A food order between the kitchen and your door. A flight on the day you travel. A timer counting down. The app that started it keeps it up to date, and it goes away when the thing is finished.

On an iPhone, Live Activities show on the Lock Screen and, on models with a Dynamic Island, in the island too. The island arrived on the iPhone 14 Pro in September 2022, and it is the place most people picture when they hear the name.

The useful part is how a Live Activity differs from a notification. A notification asks for your attention once and then waits in a pile until you deal with it. A Live Activity is status, updated in place, at the edge of where you are looking. You check it the way you check a watch, and nothing needs clearing afterwards.

What they look like on a Mac today

On a Mac with macOS Tahoe, your iPhone's Live Activities sit in the menu bar. Apple's support page on iPhone notifications and Live Activities on Mac describes how they behave:

Two sizes. Depending on how much room the menu bar has, you see either a compact icon or a compact view.
Click for more. A click opens the full Live Activity, with more detail than fits in the menu bar.
Double-click to jump to the phone. If your iPhone is nearby, double-clicking a Live Activity opens iPhone Mirroring.
The phone can stay in your bag. Your iPhone has to be on, but it doesn't have to be nearby, and the Mac keeps receiving Live Activities even when you aren't using iPhone Mirroring.

Getting there takes a working iPhone Mirroring setup and one switch in System Settings > Notifications. Is there a Dynamic Island in macOS Tahoe has the full setup steps, including how to choose an iPhone if you have more than one.

To get rid of one, click it in the menu bar, hover over it and click the close button in its corner. To stop a particular app sending them at all, turn off Live Activities for that app on the iPhone, in Settings > Apps. Apple says that setting covers both the iPhone and the Mac.

Which Live Activities are worth having on a Mac

The menu bar is a crowded strip, and a Live Activity takes a piece of it. Some earn the space better than others.

Worth keeping:

Things you are waiting for. A delivery or a ride. You want to know the moment it changes, and you don't want to pick up the phone to find out.
Timers. A timer you started on the iPhone, visible on the screen you are actually looking at.
Travel days. A flight, for the hours before you leave for the airport.

Better off on the phone:

A long match you can't watch. A score that changes every few minutes is a steady invitation to look. If you aren't going to act on it, it is a distraction with a logo.
Anything that runs all day. A Live Activity that never ends stops being news and starts being clutter.

Status that pulls your eye during hard work is its own problem. Will Live Activities pull your focus? goes through a deep-work setup that keeps them in their place.

What the Dynamic Island changes

The MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display is the first Mac where an island takes over from the notch. Apple lists Live Activities among the island's main jobs, next to Spotlight and Siri AI. Based on what Apple and early coverage have said:

Live Activities get their own place at the top of the screen, instead of competing for room among the menu bar icons.
They stay visible while you work in other apps.
The island can be tapped. This MacBook Pro has Touch, and macOS turns touches into clicks.

What nobody has confirmed: how big the island is, how several Live Activities share it at once, what happens in full screen apps, and whether an external display shows anything similar. Apple also hasn't said whether Mac apps, as opposed to iPhone apps, will get their own Live Activities, or whether there is a public API for them. If you read that Mac apps will definitely start adding them, that claim hasn't come from Apple.

Which Macs show them

The Tahoe route depends on software and on your iPhone, not on the shape of your screen. Apple's support page asks for macOS Tahoe and a working iPhone Mirroring setup, and iPhone Mirroring has its own list of supported Macs and iPhones. Check both pages for your exact devices.

The Dynamic Island version is limited to the PROLED MacBook Pro, in either size and with either chip. Every other Mac keeps the menu bar route. That includes the new M6 MacBook Pro, which has a notch and no island.

Where Notchpals fits

A Live Activity stays on screen until its event is over. Notchpals works the other way round: a character comes down from the top of the screen with one reminder, waits about 9 seconds, and goes. The nearest thing it has to a countdown is the Schedule area. If you let it read your calendar, Ticky, an alarm clock, turns up 3 to 10 minutes before your next meeting. It only reads when the meeting starts, never the title, the people or the notes.

Ticky, Schedule: **Meeting soon**, a few minutes before a meeting on your calendar

Then it leaves, and the top of the screen is yours again.

The short version

Live Activities reach a Mac today through macOS Tahoe: your iPhone's activities appear in the menu bar once iPhone Mirroring works. On the new MacBook Pro they get a place in the Dynamic Island. Keep the ones you act on, close the rest, and treat the question of Mac apps with Live Activities of their own as open until Apple answers it.