Signals

Signals puts your apps on your Stream Deck and shows which of them want you. Each key is an app, with its real icon and the same unread count its Dock icon shows. A red ring means it wants attention. A tap takes you there.

ONE KEY, ONE APP — Pick any installed app. The key shows its icon, a dot while it is running, a blue ring while it is in front, and its Dock badge the moment it has one. Tap to open the app or switch to it.

WANTS YOU, OR SEEN — An app wants you from when its badge appears or its count goes up. Hold the key and it is marked seen: the count stays, the ring goes, and it stays quiet until something new arrives. Opening the app counts as seeing it, unless you switch that off.

NEXT — One key that is always the app that has waited longest. Tap it, deal with that app, tap again for the one after. A green tick when nothing is waiting.

UNREAD — Everything unread across your apps, added up, and in how many apps. Tap it to mark everything seen at once.

A TRAY THAT FILLS ITSELF — Put the App Tray action on a few keys and they share out your running apps between them: the ones that want you first, or all of them in the order of the Dock. When there are more apps than keys, the last key turns the page.

THE INFOBAR — On a Stream Deck Neo, the Infobar shows the total and the icons of the apps that are waiting.

NEW: NOTIFICATIONS ON THE INFOBAR — Your macOS notifications on the Neo's Infobar, each with its app's icon, title and message. Hold the newest, or go through the recent ones in turn at the pace you choose. Show one app or all of them, only the last hour or the last day, and hide the message text when others can see your deck.

NEW: BANNERS — Signals' Infobar with the total and the waiting apps, and every new notification sliding in over it the moment it arrives. It goes again after the time you set, from 3 seconds to a minute.

ANY APP WITH A BADGE — Mail, Slack, Discord, Telegram, Teams, Calendar and most others: if it puts a number, a dot or a word on its Dock icon, Signals shows it, with no permission and nothing to set up per app.

WHATSAPP, MESSAGES AND A FEW OTHERS — Some apps tell only the Dock about their badge. To show those too, allow Accessibility for Stream Deck once, from the plugin's settings. It is optional: everything else works without it, and you can switch it off again.

NOTHING LEAVES YOUR MAC — The keys read only the badge anyone can see on your Dock and need no permission. Notifications are optional: macOS keeps them where only apps with Full Disk Access may look, so they need that for Stream Deck, once. Signals reads them on this Mac, read-only, and never sends, changes or clears anything. No login, no account, no network.

GOOD TO KNOW — Signals shows what the Dock shows. An app that puts no badge on its Dock icon, or whose badges you have turned off in System Settings > Notifications, has nothing for Signals to show. Without Accessibility, WhatsApp, Messages and apps built like them show no count. A tap opens the app, not a particular conversation.

Not sure yet? Signals Lite is free: four apps, the Unread key and your newest notification on the Infobar.

macOS 12 or newer, with the Stream Deck app 7.6 or newer. The Infobar, Notifications and Banners need a Stream Deck Neo.

Signals 1.2.0

Notifications on the Stream Deck Neo's Infobar

New action, Notifications: your macOS notifications on the Infobar, each with its app's icon, title and message.

Hold the newest, or go through the recent ones in turn, every 3 to 30 seconds.

Show one app or all of them, and only the last 15 minutes up to the last 7 days.

Hide the message text, for a deck others can see.

New action, Banners: Signals' Infobar with the total and the waiting apps, and each new notification sliding in over it as it arrives.

Notifications need Full Disk Access for Stream Deck: the settings show whether it is there and open the right page in System Settings. Notifications are read on this Mac, read-only, and never sent anywhere. Your keys need no permission, as before.

Also in this update:

macOS 27 answers in a new format: Signals reads it again, so apps and their badges show as before.

Hidden apps (Cmd-H) count as running: they keep their Dock icon and badge, and now their key too.

New: hide the app names under the icons, for all keys at once ("App names" in the settings). The icon grows into the room; badges, rings and the running dot stay.

An App key can decide for itself: always a name, no name, or a shorter name of your own.

Long names are set a little smaller before they are shortened, so "Microsoft Teams" fits whole.

Still works on macOS 12 to 27. Your keys and settings stay as they are; names show as before until you change it.