Meet the new Notchpals characters: 11 new faces in the notch

Nick, Debug, Jot, Lolo, Otto, Clover, Matsu, Maple, Professor Hoot, Nod and Walter: the new Notchpals characters, what each looks after and who each suits.

28 October 20267 min read

Notchpals has 11 new characters: Nick, a fluffy white spitz drawn from a real dog, plus Debug, Jot, Lolo, Otto, Clover, Matsu, Maple, Professor Hoot, Nod and Walter. Between them they add a new voice to every one of the ten areas, and they bring the catalog to 40 characters.

If you are new here: each Notchpals character looks after one habit, from water to meetings, and slides out of your Mac's notch when it is time. A crew holds at most one character per area, so a newcomer either fills an area you haven't covered yet or takes over from the one already there. Below, each of the 11 gets a short introduction: who it is, what it reminds you about, one of its real lines, and who it suits.

The 11 new characters at a glance

Character	Area	Who
Nick	Movement	A fluffy white spitz, drawn from a real dog
Lolo	Water	An axolotl who smiles at you no matter what
Maple	Meals	A red panda who wants you warm, fed and well rested
Matsu	Posture	A three-hundred-year-old bonsai with excellent advice
Debug	Focus	A rubber duck who listens until you solve it yourself
Jot	Focus	A sticky note who will never let you forget
Walter	Schedule	A walrus with long tusks and longer complaints
Otto	Tech care	An octopus doing eight things at once, badly
Professor Hoot	Eyes	An owl professor who has read every book about sleep
Nod	Sleep	A koala who naps twenty hours a day and recommends it
Clover	Self-care	A floppy-eared bunny who thinks you deserve a snack

None of them is add-on only, the way Nani or Chintu is.

For your body: Nick, Lolo, Maple and Matsu

Nick, Movement

Nick is drawn from a real dog, the white spitz who lives with the person who makes Notchpals. As your Movement character, Nick gets you up when the sitting has gone on close to an hour, asks for the odd stretch, and once each afternoon makes the case for a short walk. He makes it with a great deal of hope:

Suits: anyone who would rather be coaxed out of the chair than shouted out of it. If the loud energy of Coach Flex is too much, Nick is the gentle option.

Lolo, Water

Lolo is an axolotl whose smile doesn't slip, even when you have had nothing but coffee since breakfast. Lolo covers the first glass of the morning, water through the day, and one extra glass in the afternoon:

Suits: people who find water reminders preachy. Lolo never scolds. The relentless good cheer does the work.

Maple, Meals

Maple is a red panda who wants you warm, fed and well rested, and handles breakfast, lunch, an afternoon snack and dinner, each timed around the meal times you set in Settings. Most of Maple's lines are soft and cozy, right up until a meal is at stake:

Suits: people who forget to eat when they are focused, and who would respond better to a worried friend than to Mirchi's capital letters.

Matsu, Posture

Matsu is a three-hundred-year-old bonsai with excellent advice, delivered slowly. Matsu brings the repeating posture check and shoulders-down reminder, plus one screen distance nudge in the afternoon. Every line sounds like a proverb, and most of them are about trees:

Suits: anyone who wants posture reminders to feel calming rather than critical. Sir Pounce judges, Barnaby announces, Matsu simply waits for you to sit up.

At the desk: Debug, Jot, Walter and Otto

Debug, Focus

Debug is a rubber duck who listens until you solve it yourself, after the old programmer's habit of explaining a bug out loud to a duck on the desk. Focus covers planning the day on weekday mornings, the start and end of a focus session, and a scrolling check when you have spent 20 minutes straight in one of a few distracting apps. Debug's plan-the-day line is the duck method in one breath:

Suits: programmers, writers and anyone who thinks best by talking a problem through.

Jot, Focus

Jot is a sticky note who will never let you forget, and who frets a little when you ignore it. Until now Bolt was the only Focus character; with Debug and Jot there are three, and you pick one. A Focus character is also what lets you start a focus session, 25 or 50 minutes, from the menu bar. Jot's way of opening one is especially useful for busy heads:

Suits: list makers, and people who like everything written down before they can settle.

Walter, Schedule

Walter is a walrus with opinions about everything on your calendar. Schedule covers a warning a few minutes before each meeting, a call to wrap up on weekday evenings, and a nudge when a weekend day starts turning into a work day. For meetings, Walter needs calendar access, which you allow during setup or later in Settings, and then looks at start times only, not titles, attendees or notes. The end-of-day line is pure Walter:

Suits: people who enjoy a grump. Ticky panics and Biscuit worries; Walter just grumbles, and somehow that is more convincing.

Otto, Tech care

Otto is an octopus with eight arms and never quite enough of them. Otto watches the battery (below 20 percent and not charging, and again below 8), says something when you plug in after a low battery warning, suggests a restart after a week without one, and speaks up when the startup disk has less than 10 percent of its space left. A low battery brings out the juggling:

Suits: anyone whose MacBook has died mid-call, or who hasn't restarted since last month. On a Mac with no battery, Tech care comes down to restarts and disk space.

For rest and care: Professor Hoot, Nod and Clover

Professor Hoot, Eyes

Professor Hoot is an owl professor who has read every book about sleep, and who now lectures you about your eyes. Eyes covers the repeating eye break (the 20-20-20 idea) and blink break, plus one late evening reminder to dim the screen. The professor's evening lecture is short:

Suits: people who like dry humor and a bit of homework. Blip looks after Eyes from the start, so choosing Professor Hoot means he takes over the area from Blip.

Nod, Sleep

Nod is a koala who naps twenty hours a day and recommends it. Sleep brings a wind-down nudge as the bedtime you set in Settings gets close, a bedtime visit, and a very late one in the small hours if you are somehow still up. Nod has a particular way of putting it:

Suits: night owls who need something firmer than Boo's apologies, delivered by someone too sleepy to really argue.

Clover, Self-care

Clover is a floppy-eared bunny who thinks you deserve a snack. Self-care brings a breathing break after a long unbroken stretch at the Mac, a check-in once a day, a weekend nudge to call someone, and one good thing in the evening. The check-in is the one people remember:

Suits: anyone who wants warmth more than calm. Kapi is the still pond; Clover is the friend who can't sit still.

Which new character should you pick?

Start with the area you slip on most, then pick the voice you would put up with at 4 PM on a bad day. Roughly, the newcomers fall into four moods:

Gentle: Nick, Lolo, Maple, Matsu and Clover.
Dry: Debug, Professor Hoot and Walter.
Frazzled: Jot and Otto, who are both slightly overwhelmed on your behalf.
Sleepy but strict: Nod, who can barely stay awake and still won't let you past bedtime.

If you already have a character you like in an area, a newcomer only makes sense if its voice suits you better, since a crew holds one character per area. Focus is the exception worth a look even if you are happy with Bolt: Debug and Jot change the feel of planning and focus sessions quite a lot. How to pick your Notchpals crew walks through choosing areas from your weakest habits.

How do you add a new character to your crew?

Open Browse from the menu bar. Every character has a "Try in notch" button, so you can watch any of the 11 peek out of your own notch before deciding. From there:

Click "Add to crew". If the area already has a character, the newcomer takes its place.
Click "Make host" if you want this character to greet you: good morning on your first time at the Mac each day (between 5 AM and noon), welcome back after 15 minutes or more away, and happy birthday if you set yours.
Change your mind any time in Settings > Crew, or from "Your crew" in the menu bar.

Notchpals comes with Blip and two characters of your choice; anyone beyond that is added from Browse. Nick makes a good host, if you like the idea of a dog who has been waiting for you since morning. Every one of Nick's lines is on Nick's page.