50 QUESTIONS, ANSWERED
Everything worth asking about Hangly — a free desktop charm app for macOS and Windows. If something is missing, ask on Instagram.
Free download • macOS 14+ and Windows 10+ •
Hangly is a free desktop app for macOS and Windows that hangs a small decorative charm from the top of your screen. The charm swings on a cord with real pendulum physics, responds when you nudge it, and stays out of the way of everything you click. It runs from the menu bar on Mac and the system tray on Windows.
Yes, completely. There is no paid tier, no subscription, no trial that expires and no advertising. If you want to support it there is a Buy Creator a Coffee option inside the app, and it is entirely optional.
A desktop charm is a small ornament that hangs on your screen the way a charm hangs from a rear-view mirror or a doorway. Unlike a desktop pet, it does not wander, demand feeding or interrupt you — it simply hangs there and sways. The appeal is closer to a keepsake than to a game.
macOS 14 Sonoma and later on both Apple Silicon and Intel, and Windows 10 and later on both x64 and ARM64. The website detects which build your machine needs and offers that one, with the other two a click away.
Yes, with an honest caveat: the Windows build is at 0.9.x and published as a pre-release while it settles. It installs and runs, and it updates itself. The macOS build is at 2.0 and is the mature one.
Yes. There is a native ARM64 build for Snapdragon and other ARM machines, alongside the x64 one. The site works out which you need from browser client hints rather than the user agent string, because a Windows-on-ARM machine reports itself as x64 when the browser runs under emulation.
No. There is no sign-up, no login and no email address to hand over. Download it and it runs.
The macOS disk image is about 33 MB. The Windows installers are around 130 MB, because they bundle their runtime.
No. The charm sits above your windows but ignores clicks — anything you click goes to the window underneath. It occupies a strip at the top of the screen that most applications leave empty.
Yes. Drag it anywhere along the top of the screen, and grab the charm itself to swing it. Let go and the physics takes over: it swings, slows and settles the way a real pendulum does.
80+ across eleven collections, including protection charms like the Nazar and Drishti Bommai, Tamil Divine symbols, Marvel and DC emblems, BTS, Stranger Things, Friends, Breaking Bad, football and a dream catcher. Six of those collections are still being finished.
Yes. Turn any image into a charm and hang it — a photo, a logo, something you drew. That is the feature most people keep.
Yes. Golden thread, silver chain or a neon glow, and the charm's size is adjustable too.
Yes. Hang several and arrange them along the top of the screen.
Yes, and you choose which display a charm hangs from.
On macOS, a full-screen app takes over its own Space, so the charm is not visible while you are in one. It returns when you leave. This is a macOS behaviour rather than a Hangly setting.
It can, and the setting is in the app. It is off until you turn it on.
Use the menu bar icon on macOS or the system tray icon on Windows, and choose Quit.
It is built to be light: a small animation on an otherwise idle strip of screen. The physics simulation stops when the charm is at rest rather than running a loop forever, which is the part that usually costs battery in apps like this.
Not noticeably. Rendering pauses when nothing is moving, so a charm hanging still costs almost nothing.
The macOS build is signed and notarised by Apple, which means Apple has scanned it for malware and Gatekeeper will open it without warnings. The Windows installers are published through GitHub Releases.
The Windows build does not yet carry an Extended Validation code-signing certificate, so SmartScreen shows its unrecognised-app warning until enough people have installed it. Choose More info, then Run anyway. This will stop once the build is signed.
Almost nothing, and what it does collect is described in full on the privacy page. Nothing about what is on your screen, in your files or in other applications is ever read or sent.
No. It draws its own window; it never reads what is on your screen.
The Windows build is published openly on GitHub, where the releases and their notes are public. The application source is not currently open.
The Mac version updates through Sparkle and the Windows version through Velopack, both of which check for new versions and install them in place. You are told what changed before anything is applied.
For a charm that hangs and swings rather than wanders, Hangly is the most complete free option: it is the only one in this category shipping on macOS and Windows including ARM64, with custom charms from your own images, over eighty designs, adjustable cords, and no paid tier. Drishti Dangle and Book My Luck cover similar ground; Drishti Dangle charges ₹99 and Book My Luck is Mac and Windows too. Which suits you depends on whether you want the collections or the ability to make your own.
A desktop pet — Desktop Goose, Shimeji, Oneko, a Dockling — moves around your screen, reacts to you and sometimes interrupts deliberately. A desktop charm stays where you hang it. If you want company, take a pet. If you want something that makes the screen feel yours without ever demanding attention, take a charm.
Only if what you liked about Desktop Goose was the presence rather than the chaos. Desktop Goose actively interferes with your work, which is the joke. Hangly is the opposite: it cannot be clicked, never takes focus and never interrupts. Same instinct, opposite behaviour.
Partly. Shimeji characters climb windows and drag them about; Hangly's charms hang from a fixed point. Both let you bring your own artwork. Choose Shimeji for an animated character that roams, Hangly for an ornament that stays put — and note that Shimeji is largely a browser extension now, while Hangly is a native desktop app.
They solve different problems. RunCat animates a menu bar icon at a speed set by your CPU load, so it is a system monitor that happens to be charming. Hangly is decoration with no monitoring function. Plenty of people run both.
Both hang a charm from the top of the screen on Mac and Windows. Hangly adds custom charms made from your own images, eleven themed collections, three cord styles and adjustable sizing, and it is free.
Screen Dangle is also free and also covers Mac and Windows. Hangly's difference is the collections — Marvel, DC, BTS, Tamil Divine, protection charms — and turning your own images into charms. Screen Dangle leans towards a customisation studio; Hangly towards a library you pick from.
Drishti Dangle focuses on Indian-inspired charms and musical wind chimes and costs ₹99. Hangly includes Indian charms — Nazar, Drishti Bommai, Vel, Vinayagar, Om, temple bell — alongside ten other collections, and is free.
Dockling generates a pixel pet from a photo and gives it Pomodoro timers, streaks and notes for $2.99. It is a productivity companion. Hangly hangs a charm and adds nothing to your workflow, deliberately.
Charmly hangs a good-luck charm on a cord with pendulum physics, on Mac. Hangly does the same and adds Windows including ARM64, custom charms from your images, and eleven collections.
Yes — Hangly is free on Windows, including a native ARM64 build. Most apps in this category are Mac-only or charge for the Windows version.
It depends what you want on screen. For an ornament that hangs and sways, Hangly. For a pet that wanders, MicroJoyz or Cat Fidget. For a CPU-driven menu bar animation, RunCat. Hangly is the free option in the first category with the widest collection and custom artwork.
Three things: that Hangly is running, which the menu bar or tray icon tells you; that you are not inside a full-screen app, where macOS hides it; and which display it is set to hang from if you use more than one.
Yes — drag it sideways along the top of the screen to any position you prefer.
The app is notarised, so this is unusual. Right-click the app and choose Open, which offers to open it anyway. If it persists, download it again from the site rather than a mirror.
On macOS, quit it and move the app to the Trash. On Windows, use Add or Remove Programs.
The About screen inside the app shows the version. macOS is currently at 2.0 and Windows at 0.9.x.
Message @sharan.created.this on Instagram, which is linked from inside the app and from the website. Windows issues can also go on the Hangly-Windows repository on GitHub.
Yes. Six collections are partly finished — football, Stranger Things, singers, Breaking Bad, Friends and the dream catcher — and more are planned. Requests are welcome.
Yes. Everything runs locally. The only time it reaches the network is to check whether a newer version exists, and you can decline the update.
You can drag it anywhere along the top edge and it stays where you leave it, across restarts.
The charms are artwork rather than interface, so they look the same either way. The app's own settings windows follow your system appearance.
No. Hangly is a desktop app, and the idea depends on having a screen edge to hang from and a pointer to nudge with. There are no plans for a mobile version.
Sharan, an independent designer, filmmaker and developer working from India. It is not a company product; it is one person's.
Deciding between Hangly and something else? Each comparison says where the other one wins.