Squad for Mac is in private beta.
Turn the notch on or off
The switch is Squad in the notch, in Settings > This Mac > General. It is on by default. With it off, questions and requests to use your Mac come as notifications instead. Select a Mac access notification to answer the request at the notch. A spoken answer still shows at the notch for the moment. See Settings, notifications, and updates on the Mac.The notch at rest
The notch shows, in the same settings, chooses what the notch shows while nothing new happens:
With any choice, a new question shows under the notch for a moment. Then its count waits beside the notch until you answer. While you share your screen, nothing shows at the notch.
The menu bar counts what needs you the same way. The Dock also adds the conversations with new replies into its number. See What the list holds on the Mac, What the number counts, and The Dock badge.
Peek at your squad
Point to the notch. After a moment, the peek opens:- the squad’s name and how many things need you, or “All quiet”,
- the teammates who work now, with what they do and for how long. “Nobody is working right now.” shows only when nobody works and no reply waits for you.
- unread conversations. Select one to open it in the notch chat. A group chat opens in the main window.
- your other squads with something for you, when you are in more than one squad. See Other squads.
- Answer with the count when only questions wait, or Open Needs You when there is also something to fix, a suggested trigger, or one of your steps in Contacts that is due. Both open Needs you.
- Open Squad, which opens the main window.
Cards that the notch opens
The notch opens a card by itself when something happens. A question card waits its turn while a question, a spoken answer, or your voice is on screen. A Mac access card waits behind a question, your voice, or another Mac access card, and replaces a spoken answer. A spoken answer replaces any card. A reply that arrives while a question, a Mac access card, a spoken answer, or your voice is on screen shows only as a notification.
A question card plays a sound when Play a sound when it opens is on. It closes by itself after a short time, or soon after your pointer leaves it. Pointing at it keeps it open. A card for a question that you answered somewhere else closes by itself.
To hand files to your squad, drag them onto the notch. Drop them on a teammate’s face to give them to that teammate. The chat opens with the files attached, so that you can add a note before you send. A Viewer cannot do this.
Answer in place
On a question card, you can answer without opening Squad:- A yes-or-no decision shows Approve and Decline.
- A decision with a few options shows one button for each option.
- An action shows I’ve done this to the owner. Everyone else sees Open in Squad and Later.
- An approval, an input, an access ask, and a decision with many options show Open in Squad and Later.
- An email draft or an email escalation shows Review the Draft and Later.
- A payment that waits for your approval says Needs your approval, with Review and Approve and Later. Review and Approve opens the approval page of your card vault in your browser. See Approve a purchase.
Chat in the notch
Press ⌃⌥C, or click the notch, to open your squad’s conversations under the notch. It opens on the teammate with the newest unread reply, else your chief of staff. A conversation with replies that you have not read opens at the first of them, so that you read a long reply from its start. With many new replies, it opens at the newest. See Limits and defaults. When you open the notch chat again, it starts at what arrived in the meantime. A closed notch chat does not mark replies as read.- The row of faces at the top switches teammates. A dot marks unread replies.
- The expand button opens the conversation in the main window.
- Esc, the close button, or a click somewhere else closes it. Focus goes back to the app that you were in.
Hide or snooze the notch
- Hide for now in the right-click menu of the notch, Hide for Now in the peek’s right-click menu, or Esc on the strip, hides the notch until something new comes in. Something new is a new question, a new reply, a teammate that starts, a new item in another squad, or more to fix. Questions still wait in Needs you, and the menu bar still counts them.
- Snooze for 1 hour and Snooze until tomorrow keep Squad quiet: no voice, no sounds, and the notch does not open by itself. A request to use your Mac still shows at the notch while snoozed or in a meeting, without a sound. What waited comes out when the snooze ends. A snooze lasts after you quit Squad. While snoozed, the menu says until when, with Stop snoozing. For when tomorrow starts, see Limits and defaults.
The right-click menus
A bare notch, with nothing beside it, has no right-click menu. Notch settings… opens Settings > This Mac > General.
Other squads
When you are in more than one squad, the notch, the menu bar, and the Dock also count what needs you in your other squads. For each squad, they count what its Needs you would list for you, with the same rules for your role there, except a signed-out AI account and routines that cannot run. Your own steps in Contacts count when they are due by the end of your day. They also count new replies there, in conversations that you are in (you wrote in them or forked them), while Replies and mentions is on. New messages in another squad’s group chats and Squad chat count by the same rule as in the open squad, also while that squad is busy or its computer restarts, so the number does not change when you switch squads. Squad counts a set number of other squads. See Limits and defaults. Beside the notch, the look of each count says where it comes from:
The notch’s tooltip and VoiceOver say the counts in words, for example “3 things need you: 2 here, 1 in Brightline Studio.” When the count comes from more than one other squad, the words say “in your other squads”. The faces beside the notch are always this squad’s teammates.
The peek shows a few other squads that have something for you, each with how many things need you, how many are new, and how many teammates work. Select one to switch to that squad. Squad then opens what waits there: Needs you, the question, or the conversation.
Close notch cards with Esc from any app
By default, Esc reaches the notch only while your pointer is on an open card. Elsewhere, Esc belongs to the app that you use. With Close notch cards with Esc from any app on, Esc in any app closes a card that the notch opened by itself. Your app still gets the Esc too. Esc never answers a card. On a request to use your Mac, Esc moves the request to a notification. On a spoken answer, Esc stops the voice. This setting needs the Accessibility permission for Squad. Turn on Squad in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility.The menu bar
The Squad mark sits in the menu bar. Beside it:- a number: everything that needs you, in this squad and your other squads,
- a dot when a conversation has an unread reply,
- a breathing mark while a teammate works.
- The header shows the squad’s name and how many things need you, or how many teammates work, or “All quiet”.
- Your other squads lists the other squads with something for you. Open switches to one.
- Needs you shows the first questions as question cards, so you can answer them there, with Undo for a short time after. A payment that waits for your approval shows with the urgent questions at the top, with Review and approve. Links under them open the rest in Needs you: Answer the other with the count in Squad, the tasks that wait on you, what needs fixing, the suggested triggers, and your steps in Contacts that are due, for example Look at your 2 steps that are due. When nothing waits, it says “Nothing needs you.”
- At work lists the teammates who work now, and what they do.
- Open Squad opens the main window.