macOS: Moving Your Notifications to a Different Display

My current display configuration includes my MacBook to the right and a 27” BenQ display in front of me. The larger screen houses all my work-related applications, while the smaller one houses my calendar, calculator, and Spotify.

For as long as I can remember, all my notifications would appear on the screen of my MacBook. I never thought about it before, but after getting in trouble for missing critical Slack messages, I realized I needed to do something about it.

I did some research and here’s what I discovered:

Setting up more than one display on macOS is simple. Simply navigate to System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement and drag the screens to the desired location.

Take note of the white bar on top of the small screen icon. That, believe it or not, is the menu bar. It handles a lot of things, including notifications!

I simply dragged it to the screen icon on the left. After a few flashes, my 27” BenQ became the main display (showing notifications), and my MacBook became the extended one.

Moving the menu bar icon will rearrange your desktop, though. If you have your applications organized across desktops, consider cleaning them up first.

I hope this was helpful. Happy coding!

Cheers!