Pock
Free Mac app that puts widgets like the Dock and media controls onto the MacBook Touch Bar.
- Stars
- 10.2k
- Forks
- 382
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- Swift
- Last update
- 4.0 years ago
- Type
- App
No commits in over a year — check for forks or alternatives before adopting.
What it is
Pock is a free macOS app for MacBooks with a Touch Bar. It adds a set of small widgets to the Touch Bar, such as a copy of the Dock, media controls, an ESC key, system status, and brightness and volume controls. It is meant to give quick access to common controls while freeing up screen space.
- Show your Dock apps on the Touch Bar so you can launch them without moving to the screen
- Play, pause, or skip songs with taps and swipes using the Now Playing widget
- Check the time, Wi-Fi, or battery status from the Status widget
- Adjust screen brightness or volume from the Control Center widget
Great for
- MacBook owners with a Touch Bar who want quick access to the Dock or app icons from the strip
- People who use media playback controls and want them on the Touch Bar
- Users who want brightness, volume, or status items available without opening menus
- Developers who want to write a custom widget, using the PockKit documentation mentioned in the README
Not ideal for
- Users on MacBooks without a Touch Bar, since the app is built around that hardware
- People who object to the app sending anonymous usage events, which the README says is part of the project
- Anyone needing an actively maintained tool, since the latest push shown is from November 2022 and no release is listed
How to get it
- 1
Download the app
You'll need: A MacBook with a Touch Bar · macOS (the README links to a Catalina-era permissions guide; exact supported versions are not stated)
Unzip the downloaded archive (optional, if you prefer the terminal)
unzip - 2
Run it
- Download the zip from the official website at pock.app
- Unzip the archive by double-clicking it
- Move the extracted Pock app to /Applications
- Open Pock and look for its icon in the menu bar
- If Pock does not show in the Touch Bar, enable "Touch Bar shows App Controls" in the Keyboard pane of System Preferences and relaunch Pock
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Open the Preferences and Manage Widgets menu items to adjust settings for each widget
- Use the Customize Pock menu item to change where widgets sit on the Touch Bar
- Configure Status items from the widget settings to choose which system information shows
- Set Dock widget options, such as badge support and multi-window support, in its settings
- Review the permissions guide linked from the README before first use
Downloads
Strengths
- Free and open source under the MIT license
- Covers several common controls in one place, including a Dock widget with badge support
- Widgets can be customized and reordered from the Customize Pock menu
Trade-offs
- The README shows no recent release and the last push is from 2022, so long-term support is unclear
- It sends anonymous usage events to AppCenter, which the README says users must accept to use it
- Setup depends on macOS permissions and a Keyboard settings change, which the README links to separately
How it compares
| Project | Stars | Type | Level | Updated | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pock (this) | 10.2k | App | beginner | 4.0 years ago | MacBook owners with a Touch Bar who want quick access to the Dock or app icons from the strip |
| MonitorControl | 34.6k | App | beginner | 23 days ago | Mac users with an external monitor who want keyboard brightness keys to work on it |
| nylas-mail | 24.7k | App | advanced | 4 months ago | Developers curious about how an extensible Electron and React desktop app is structured |
| AeroSpace | 23.7k | App | intermediate | 5 days ago | Keyboard-centric users who want to manage windows without the mouse |
| Maccy | 22.2k | App | beginner | 11 days ago | Mac users who often lose something they copied earlier |
| Amethyst | 16.3k | App | beginner | 5 days ago | Mac users who often work with several windows side by side |
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.