This MacOS App Lets You Dismiss Notifications With a Single Keystroke
Sometimes you’re typing something, see a notification pop up on your screen, and want it to go away. Immediately. Unfortunately, there is no way to do this by default on a Mac without removing your hand from the keyboard and using the pointer to close it.
Aliento is a pay-what-you-want Mac app that runs in the background and lets you set a keyboard shortcut to dismiss notifications. Just launch the app, set the keyboard shortcut (default is Command+Escape), and you’re good to go. If you don’t want to turn off notifications altogether (say, through Focus Mode), this is a good half-measure: you can notice when a notification comes in, but remove it from your screen with minimal effort.
Eliminate notifications without interrupting your workflow
From now on, every time you receive a notification, you can close it using a keyboard shortcut. If you need to review it later, you can also view everything you’ve closed in Action Center. I have installed this app on my Mac for a couple of days now and use it all the time. I see an incoming notification, remove it from the screen and immediately return to the letter.
You can set the app to launch on startup and decide whether you want it to appear in the menu bar. Personally, I like that it can work without cluttering up the menu bar —it’s the type of app that you can really just install and then forget because it works just like a built-in feature.
So useful, Apple should have thought about it
Speaking of which, I wish Apple would launch this feature as a built-in feature. Overall, the company does a good job of managing notifications: Focus mode is very good at reducing distractions, and Apple Intelligence makes it even better . There’s also a great tool for viewing iPhone notifications on your Mac . Notifications typically get a lot of attention and care in macOS, so it’s a little mind-boggling that there isn’t a keyboard shortcut to dismiss them.
Luckily, Aliento solves this problem and I can stop thinking about it. (The app is free to install on your computer, but if you find it useful, I encourage you to leave the developer a couple of dollars as a thank you.)