Useful notifications that you control
Growl is a notification system for Mac OS X: it allows applications that support Growl to send you notifications.
What are notifications?
Notifications are a way for your applications to provide you with new information, without you having to switch from the application you're already in.Here are just a few examples:
- Safari has finished downloading a file (GrowlSafari)
- You've received new email (GrowlMail or Thunderbird)
- You've received an instant message (Adium, or iChat with Chax)
- iTunes has started playing a song (GrowlTunes)
- Your laptop battery is low, or has finished charging (HardwareGrowler)
Growl handles the job of displaying these notifications, so that applications don't have to all do it themselves. Above is an example of Growl's Candybars display. We have screenshots of all Growl's various displays, including our own version of Bezel.
Why use Growl?
Control
Growl offers you complete control over which notifications are shown and how they are displayed. You will not receive any notifications that you do not want, because you can easily turn notifications (specific ones or all of them) off.
Ease of use
When you start up a Growl-enabled application, it will "just work." Your apps can start displaying notifications right away.
Consistency
Growl centralizes all your notification preferences into its preference pane - you can control them all from one place, and you know exactly how they are going to behave.
Powerful
Growl is very flexible. Notifications can be emailed to you or spoken instead of displayed on the screen.To really see how Growl works, go try it! Download Growl and see for yourself what we've been talking about.
Once you have Growl installed, you may want to take a look at the list of applications which use Growl in some way. If you don't see your favorite applications there, then contact the persons responsible for those applications and maybe you'll see them on the list soon.
Growl. Notifications the way you want them.
Want to know more? See the Growl Documentation.
