A new app named Notch Remover promises to remove the black notch at the top of the display on the iPhone X. Lots of people apparently find the notch annoying and are talking about the app — but it's not worth the $0.99 you'll pay for it.



I made that mistake Monday morning, originally planning to do a how-to article with the app. It has too many shortcomings to recommend, however.

First, the app technically only removes the notch on the home screen by editing a photo that you can use as your wallpaper. It simply adds black to the top of the photo so that the notch should disappear from sight. It doesn't work well.

When I tried to pick a photo as a wallpaper, Notch Remover told me most photos were too wide, so you'll need to find a nice tall picture to set as your background. Second, once you do that, the notch is still visible, though it's less obvious. An example can be seen in the image at the top of this post. Note how the time and cellular signal indicators fall below the black space. It looks worse!

And, finally, the app doesn't actually remove the notch anywhere else, like when you're in apps and in other places. It's a cheap Band-Aid for a problem that doesn't really exist.

Anyway, a quick heads-up that it's not worth your $0.99 in case you're tempted to buy it.