Sounds ridiculous, but it’s true! GNOME now has an extension to add Apple iPhone & MacBook look like but USELESS notch in your screen.

I’m not an Apple fan and don’t know why to add an ugly notch on laptop screen. Though an extension “iNotch” is available to add it in GNOME 40. It does nothing buts add a blank area in top-center, with a camera lens icon as well as tally light.

As Apple’s hardware notch does, it however covers the clock and the cursor disappears when it enters the notch. Though, the drop down calendar menu still works when you click on the area in top-bar.

Notch in Ubuntu 21.10 screen

How to Install iNotch in Ubuntu 21.10:

The extension so far supports only GNOME 40. It’s tested and works in Ubuntu 21.10, and should work on Fedora 34 and Arch Linux.

1.) First, in case you’re first time installing GNOME Extension in Ubuntu 21.10, open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard, and run command to install the required packages:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-prefs

Note: sudo command will ask for user password authentication while no asterisk feedback.

2.) Next, go to the extension web page and turn on the slider icon to install it:

Don’t see the toggle icon? Install browser extension via ‘click here to install browser extension‘ link and refresh the page!

NOTE: The built-in Firefox in Ubuntu 21.10 is SNAP package that does NOT support installing Gnome Extensions. Use another web browser or install Firefox via classic DEB via command:

sudo apt install firefox

After installing the extension, restart GNOME Shell (Log out and back in if you’re in default Wayland session) to apply change.

How to Remove the Notch:

Search for and open “Gnome Extensions” app from activities overview screen. Then you can turn on / off as well as remove the extension:

That’s all. Enjoy!