Instant, not polled
Mailbell holds an IMAP IDLE connection to Gmail, so a new message shows up when it arrives instead of on a timer.
A native menu bar app for macOS
Gmail notifications, without opening Gmail.
Mailbell sits in your menu bar, tells you the moment mail arrives, and lets you clear the whole queue in one click. It runs entirely on your Mac.
Open source · Direct download · macOS 26 or later
Made for the Mac
Know about mail. Then get on with your day.
A review queue
Everything waiting sits in the menu with sender, time, and a short preview. A Gmail thread counts once, not once per reply.
Clear it in one click
Mark All as Read marks everything read in Gmail itself. Dismiss All clears your queue and leaves Gmail untouched.
It tells you when it can't work
If a sign-in expires, the menu bar switches from the bell to an alert icon. Mailbell never looks idle while it is monitoring nothing.
Opens in the right place
Send Gmail to your default browser, a specific browser, or the exact Chrome profile that is already signed in to that account.
Nothing in between
No accounts, no sync service, no analytics, no Mailbell server. Tokens live in your macOS Keychain.
What it can see
Your mail stays between you and Google.
Mailbell connects straight from your Mac to Gmail. There is no backend to intercept anything, because there is no backend at all.
It reads only what a notification needs: the account address, sender, subject, date, message identifiers, read state, and a short trimmed text preview. It never downloads attachments or full message bodies, never sells or shares your data, never shows ads, and never trains AI on anything.
Two minutes
Installing
- Download the DMG from GitHub Releases and drag Mailbell to Applications. The app is signed with an Apple Developer ID, notarized by Apple, and stapled.
- Open Mailbell from Applications and add your Gmail account. Sign-in happens in your browser.
- Pass the unverified-app screen. Google will warn you; choose Advanced, then continue. This goes away once Google finishes verification.
- Allow notifications when macOS asks. That is the whole setup: Mailbell keeps itself up to date from then on.
Latest beta release
Get Mailbell
macOS 26 or later. Updates arrive automatically through Sparkle.