Live Activities on a Mac: iPhone updates in your menu bar
Deliveries, sports scores and timers from your iPhone can appear in the Mac's menu bar. Where the settings are, how to turn them on or off, and what they show.
What are Live Activities on a Mac?
Live Activities are ongoing updates, such as a timer counting down, a ride on its way or a game score, that an iPhone app shows on its Lock Screen. On current macOS, those from your iPhone can also appear in the Mac's menu bar, where System Settings describes them as tracking updates and progress for tasks or events.
How do I turn Live Activities on or off?
- Open System Settings, Notifications.
- Find Allow Live Activities from iPhone and turn it on or off.
System Settings, Menu Bar, has a Live Activities section as well, describing what appears there.
What do I need for them to appear?
An iPhone signed in to the same Apple Account, nearby, with an app that offers a Live Activity. The Mac shows the activity while it runs and removes it when it ends.
Do they take up menu bar room?
Yes, while one is running. On a notched MacBook that can push other icons out of sight. See the notch and hidden icons.
Your iPhone in a window on the Mac: iPhone Mirroring. Notifications from the phone: clear notifications.
Checked on 22 October 2026 on a MacBook Air (M1) running macOS 27.0.1: Allow Live Activities from iPhone was read from System Settings, Notifications, and the Live Activities description from System Settings, Menu Bar.
Questions
How do I turn off Live Activities on my Mac?
In System Settings, Notifications, turn off Allow Live Activities from iPhone.
Why is a delivery tracker in my Mac menu bar?
It is a Live Activity from your iPhone. They can be turned off in Notifications settings.
Do Live Activities work on Mac without an iPhone?
The menu bar ones come from your iPhone, signed in to the same Apple Account.
Read next
- Guide
How to hide the notch on a MacBook, and keep apps below it
The camera notch cuts into the menu bar and hides icons. How to blend it in with a dark wallpaper, keep an app's menus below it, and fit more icons beside it.
Read › - Guide
The green button on Mac windows: every option
Click it, hover over it, or ⌥ click it: the green button on every Mac window does more than full screen. What each option does and how to skip full screen.
Read › - Guide
How to turn off window tiling on macOS Sequoia and later
Windows snapping to edges when you only meant to move them? The four tiling settings in macOS Sequoia, what each one does, and how to keep the ones you like.
Read ›