Changelog — Nimbus

2.9.12

Show earlier messages in an Instagram chat keeps what it loaded, stops at the start of the chat, and holds your place.
Nim visits: invite a friend's Nim over to Nim's House and play together live. You both need 2.9.12.
Lighter on your Mac at rest: Instagram's hidden page stops redrawing while nobody sees it, the album glow is animated by macOS's compositor, and Nim is drawn once instead of twice. Same look, much less energy.

2.9.11

Instagram in the notch: read and answer chats and group chats, with earlier messages, photos and shared posts and reels that open with a click. Double-click a message for a ❤️, send photos (also straight from the Shelf), and reply right from a message's notification. Connect in Together → Instagram.
Instagram audio and video calls in the notch, with Mute, Camera and End. Calls ring in the notch even while it's closed.
Nim, a pet beside the notch that dances to your music, naps at night and brings you a letter when a message arrives, and Nim's House, a 3D home to feed, bathe and play with it. Turn it on in Settings → Nim.
Album glow, Pulse with the beat, and charging, download and AirDrop progress in the notch.
Siri no longer opens over a call when another app turns the microphone on.

2.9.9

Face Unlock answers Touch ID and password prompts: password AutoFill in your browser, the Passwords app, System Settings and installers. Turn it on in Settings → Face Unlock.
A cleaner Settings window: eleven pages laid out like System Settings, with Alerts, Shelf & Tools and Appearance gathering what used to be twenty.
Permission warnings only appear when something is actually missing, with a button to fix it.
Together pauses while your Mac sleeps and reconnects when it wakes.
Our YouTube channel, linked from Settings → About.

Windows 2.9.8

Clipboard history, Library and hearts.
Peeks for charging, finished downloads, Bluetooth devices and track changes.
Camera and microphone dots, and calls in Zoom, Teams, Discord, LINE, WhatsApp or a browser shown with their running time instead of as music.
A picture of your own or the album cover as the island's background.
Live play along when a friend's music is playing on their phone.

2.9.8

Live when a friend's music is playing on their phone: their Mac has no sound to share, so Nimbus now says so and offers Play along, which plays the same song in your own Spotify at their place in it and follows their track changes. In a phone browser, Play in Spotify opens the song. Both of you need 2.9.8.

2.9.7

Fixed Nimbus sometimes not showing Spotify (or anything else it watches) until relaunched: it could wait forever on a macOS permission check that never answered.
Fixed a faint rectangle around the island on light pages: its soft shadow was being cut off in a straight line.
The resting notch no longer clips when it changes width on its own.
Reaching for Answer on a ringing call, or clicking a message, no longer opens Now Playing over it.
Video and music playing in a browser are read from the system again.
The island's menu-bar strip no longer reappears by itself while the island is hidden for a full-screen app.

2.9.6

Messages in the notch: a new message shows who it's from and what it says, including notifications mirrored from your iPhone. A missed call offers Call Back. Settings → Messages.
Calls: a ringing FaceTime or phone call opens in the notch with Answer and Decline, and a call you are on (Zoom, Teams, Discord, LINE, FaceTime, a browser tab) shows its running time and is no longer mistaken for music.
Reminders: what's due from Apple Reminders, a field to add one and a tick to complete it.
Siri's answer appears in the notch; ask for music and the island opens on what she put on.
Removed the eyedropper and the focus timer.

2.9.5

Face Unlock works again right after an update: the keychain permission macOS asks for with each new version is now requested when Nimbus starts, never behind the lock screen. Choose Always Allow when it asks.

2.9.4

Camera and mic dots: green beside the notch while an app has a camera on, orange while one is using a microphone, with a peek naming the app.
Lock screen widgets: while your Mac is locked, glass cards under the clock show what's playing (with controls), the weather, your battery, your AirPods and a running focus timer. Settings → Lock Screen.
The notch itself now shows on the lock screen too.
Notch background: keep it black (the default), or fill the open island with your own picture or the cover of what's playing, with adjustable dim and blur.
An eyedropper that copies any colour on screen as a hex code (menu bar → Pick Color, or in Clipboard).
The island no longer spills its contents past its edges while it opens and closes, and its shadow no longer gets clipped when music starts.

2.9.3 · Windows 2.9.3

A new icon: a white island hanging in a black tile, with the Live dot.
Mac: Together stays steady after the Mac wakes from sleep (2.9.2).

2.9.2

Fixed a crash that could close Nimbus after your Mac wakes from sleep while Together is connected.

2.9.1 · Windows 2.9.2

Forgot your password without email: the 6-digit code shows up on your devices that are still signed in — a Mac, a PC or a browser.
Mac: Face Unlock stays ready while the Mac is locked, looking again whenever the display wakes or you touch the keyboard or trackpad.

Website

Together in the browser can now add friends — create an invite code or send an invite link.
Forgot your password? Log in → Forgot password.
A Log in button in the top bar of every page.

Windows 2.9.1

Nimbus for Windows: the island at the top of your screen, for Windows 10 and 11 (x64 and ARM).
Now Playing matches the Mac — the same card, synced lyrics and the full lyrics pane.
Together with the same account: friends, chat, Go live and joining a Live.
The Shelf, volume and brightness in the island, Settings laid out like the Mac, and automatic updates.

2.9

Together in the notch, redesigned: a larger pane with friends beside the conversation. Joining a friend's Live opens it in Now Playing.
Swipe down from Together to get back to Now Playing.
Together reconnects on its own after sleep, a Wi-Fi change or a server restart, and picks your Live back up — no more “Socket is not connected”.
Together on the web: chat and listen to Live from any computer or phone, with the notch's Now Playing card.

2.8

Together in the notch: People, Live and Chat.
A friend's Live shows in the Now Playing island.
Email accounts: sign in, create an account, and sign out other devices.

2.7

Listen to your Mac from your own iPhone, while the Mac keeps playing.
On the same Wi-Fi the audio goes straight from the Mac, with far less delay; otherwise through the relay.
A now-playing card on the iPhone like the notch's, with synced lyrics — and for your own Mac, play/pause, skip, seeking and the heart.
Live audio no longer cuts out, plays an octave high or stutters.
Live Host no longer needs Screen Recording on macOS 14.2 and later.

2.6

On Intel Macs and notch-free displays, Nimbus now floats below the menu bar instead of being clipped by it.

2.5

Internet listening now uses UPnP when NAT-PMP is unavailable.
Friend setup prevents adding your own internet address and keeps the mapped port visible.

2.3

Friends now show added, connecting, and connection-failed states instead of silently doing nothing.
Friend setup now makes the two-way pairing requirement explicit.

2.2

One universal download for Intel Macs and Apple silicon Macs.
Focus Pulse, Face Unlock, and Siri now live in the notch.

2.0

Library pane: hearts and listening history in the island.
Spotify hearts and history that actually land, via Spotify's own command line.
Setup without accounts; six-step guide; signed in-app updates.

1.0 beta24

Fixed the Spotify login check so hearts and history actually reach playlists.

1.0 beta24

Spotify hearts and history write through Spotify's own command line — no special relaunch needed.

1.0 beta24

Spotify playlist diagnostics for newer app structures.

1.0 beta24

Scrolling inside Library and Clipboard no longer flings the island to radio or music.

1.0 beta24

Library insets match the other panes — content stays inside the rounded corners.

1.0 beta24

Library layout polish: roomier rows, balanced buttons, symmetric dividers.

1.0 beta24

New Library pane: hearts and listening history are visible in the island, with un-heart, open-link and delete. Open it from the menu-bar menu.

1.0 beta24

Getting started no longer needs Spotify or Apple Music: Accessibility and Bluetooth are the required path, giving player-independent Now Playing and device status. Player access stays optional for richer controls.

1.0 beta16

New six-step getting-started guide covering features, gestures, permissions and updates.
Signed in-app updates with confirm, download, install and relaunch. Versions beta15 and earlier need one final manual install.

1.0 beta15

Fixed Spotify pausing by itself: Nimbus no longer restarts Spotify on its own. Settings → Now Playing has a Restart Spotify button for playlists.

1.0 beta14

Every player Control Center knows about — Spotify, Apple Music, KKBOX, YouTube, YouTube Music, Netflix and more — shows on the notch.
Adding Spotify songs to “Nimbus History” is now a setting, off by default.

1.0 beta13

Now Playing reads what Control Center reads: a YouTube video in any tab, on any desktop, in any browser, with its channel, artwork and progress. It no longer comes and goes.
Play/pause, skip and the progress rail go to whatever is actually playing.

1.0 beta12

YouTube playing in a background tab now shows on the notch — title, thumbnail and controls.
The lyrics button shows a YouTube video's own captions as they play. YouTube Music still gets synced lyrics.

1.0 beta11

Synced lyrics in the notch, Spicy Lyrics style: blurred album art, the line being sung lighting up, click a line to jump there.
The heart adds songs to a “Nimbus Favorites” playlist in Spotify or Apple Music, and songs you listen to go into “Nimbus History”.
AirDrop on the left of the Shelf: drop there to send.
The Shelf syncs to your iPhone through iCloud Drive.
Listen together over the internet, on home routers that allow it.
The share button opens the system share menu.

1.0 beta10

Dragging the progress rail works again for Spotify and Apple Music, including while paused, and the rail is easier to grab.
YouTube in Chrome shows up reliably — title, thumbnail and rail — even when Chrome runs more than one window process or the video is in an app-style window.
A playing YouTube video no longer shows as paused.

1.0 beta9

The play controls sit where Alcove's do: five evenly spaced buttons with play/pause at the exact centre of the notch, and a larger pause button. Share moved up beside the sound bars.

1.0 beta8

YouTube in Chrome, Safari, Edge or Brave now shows its thumbnail and a moving progress rail, and play/pause, next, previous and dragging the rail all work from the notch.
A paused Spotify in the background no longer hides a YouTube video that is playing.
With Idle Activity set to Playing, the notch opens to the music card alone, without the calendar column.
The volume and brightness HUD appears only when you press a key, so auto-brightness no longer pops it up. Mute shows it too.
Join says why it failed when a friend has not added you back. Adding a friend is mutual.

1.0 beta7

Same-Wi-Fi discovery now shows nearby Nimbus Macs in Settings → Friends, so you can add a friend without typing an IP address.
Friend connections can trust either the saved IP or the saved Mac name, fixing the “add a friend, then nothing happens” path on networks that choose IPv6 or Bonjour names.
Shelf items reveal in Finder with a click and drag out as explicit file URLs, so parked files no longer feel trapped.
Nimbus checks the public release feed for updates on launch, with a manual Check for Updates item in the app and menu-bar menus.
Fixed the release build so macOS reads the real minimum version as macOS 13.0, not the build machine's current macOS.

0.1.4 September 2026

Island-only overlay

Fixed a bug where desktop ornaments from the demo (the launcher, hot zones, dock edges, the hidden dock) were rendering on top of your screen around the island.
The transparent overlay now shows only the island — the idle pill, or its home content when you open it. Nothing else leaks into the panel.

0.1.3 September 2026

Alcove-true placement

The island now hangs flush with the very top edge of the screen, right at the notch / menu-bar line — not a menu-bar height below it, exactly like the original demo places it.
It rides at a high window layer so nothing ever stacks over it, in any app or full-screen Space.

0.1.2 September 2026

Floating island

The island now lives on your real desktop — a transparent, always-on-top overlay at the top of the screen that joins every Space and never steals focus from the app you're typing in.
No Dock icon: Nimbus runs as a menu-bar item, and the island expands when you hover or click it — music, weather, timers, downloads, HUD and clipboard over any app.
Settings now live in their own window (⌘, or the menu-bar icon). First run opens it for the 1-day trial.
Licence keys are stored in the macOS Keychain; keys activated in 0.1.1 are carried over automatically.
Apple silicon (arm64) builds.

0.1.1 September 2026

Native window

Real Mac window: full-size content under the traffic lights, no simulated menu bar inside the window, drag the desktop to move it.
Native app menu — About, Settings… and Island Panels (⌘1–⌘9), Reload (⌘R), Close (⌘W), Quit (⌘Q).
Right-click shows a native editing menu, never a web-view menu.

0.1.0 September 2026

First release

The island: idle pill that expands into music, weather, timers, clipboard, downloads and HUD surfaces.
Privacy indicators — camera and microphone dots while the island is closed.
System Settings-style preferences with nine panels (⌘1–⌘9).
Keyboard control throughout, standing down while you type in a text field.
Licence gate: 1-day trial, one-time purchase, offline activation.
Apple silicon build, shipped as a DMG.