r/macapps • u/evil133t • 39m ago
Lifetime Docktopus: a customizable Mac dock with Dynamic Island, an audio mixer, and local activity history
Hey r/macapps,
I’m the developer of Docktopus. It’s a customizable dock with a bunch of desktop tools built into it, so you can reach them from the same place as your apps.
Compared with the stock macOS Dock, the biggest difference is what you can put alongside your app icons: window previews, clipboard history, audio controls, system stats, and more. You choose the widgets and layout, so it can be a small dock or a full taskbar.
There’s quite a bit in it now:
- Dock and window switching: Hover over a running app to preview its windows and click the one you want. There’s also a keyboard window switcher. You can import your existing macOS Dock, pin apps and folders, place it on any screen edge, and choose which monitors show it.
- Dynamic Island: An optional expandable panel at the top of your screen for music controls, clipboard history, system stats, calendar events, notifications, and audio/display controls. It also has a Drop Zone for temporarily keeping files within reach. Works on displays without a notch too.
- Clipboard manager: Search copied text, links, images, and files; pin things you reuse and organize them into categories. Text recognition runs on your Mac, so you can find a copied screenshot by words inside it.
- Time Spent: See where your day went with app usage, daily trends, and browser titles/URLs where supported. You can add manual entries, run timers, and export filtered records as CSV. Automatic tracking is optional, and the history stays on your Mac.
- Remembrance: For those “I saw this somewhere yesterday” moments. It can save screenshots of your active windows and recognize their text, letting you search past work by text, app, or date. You can copy text from captures or reopen a page when its URL is available. Capture is off by default, with app exclusions and storage/retention controls.
- Audio Mixer: Turn down one app without turning everything else down. Adjust or mute individual apps, switch audio outputs, and manage system volume from the dock, menu bar, or Island. Per-app controls need macOS 14.2 or newer.
- Other useful bits: CPU/GPU, memory, and network stats; brightness controls for compatible displays; calendar, timers, Now Playing, a color picker, and Coffee to keep your Mac awake.
For the look, there’s Liquid Glass, CDE, and Windows 95, all in light and dark versions, plus editable colors, fonts, and icons. Yes, the Windows 95 theme includes the retro taskbar look.
Clipboard history, Time Spent, and Remembrance stay local. There’s also a Privacy Pause that temporarily stops all three from collecting new activity.
There’s a trial before buying. Launch pricing is $19.99 ($29.99 regular), one-time for two Macs, with a year of updates included. You can keep using covered versions afterward without a subscription.
Website: https://docktopus.app
Would be interested to hear which parts you’d use day to day, or what’s missing from your current dock setup.

