Growl is a unified notification system for Mac OS X. It lets any application send you messages and lets you control the way the messages are delivered to you.
Growl notifications can be configured to appear as spoken notifications using text-to-speech, as email messages, or viewed on the screen. The notifications can also come with or without accompanying sound effects. Notifications can be configured in whatever way suits you best, and you can mix and match to your liking so different applications and different notifications can have completely different configurations.
In a previous article I wrote about a low-vision display style for Growl, and many of the applications we’ve written about support Growl notifications. There’s also a full list available of applications that support Growl.
Here are a bunch of applications and utilities whose main purpose is to provide Growl notifications for different things that happen on your computer. You probably wouldn’t want to use them all, but I use most of them!
OmniGrowl
OmniGrowl provides a bunch of useful notifications including ones for upcoming iCal and AddressBook event dates, and for iTunes tracks changes. There are also notifications available for more “fun” purposes including horoscope information, Woot and MacZot deals, the word of the day, and many more.
Styles Archive
Growl comes with a bunch of built in message styles, and you can download even more at the styles archive to make your Growl notifications look different. For those iPhone geeks, there’s even an iPhonesque Growl Style available.
Chax
This one adds Growl notifications to iChat. It also has other iChat improvements which can be helpful.
Power Check
For laptop users, Power Check provides audible and visual alerts to iBook, PowerBook and MacBook Pro users when changing from battery to AC power or visa versa.
GrowlMail and GmailStatus
These will let you know via Growl notifications when you have new mail in Mail.app and Gmail respectively.
GrowlPhoto
If you use iPhoto and download photos from your camera this is one you need. It sends you a notification when iPhoto is done importing photos.
HardwareGrowler
This will send you a Growl alert when hardware is connected or disconnected from your system. It actually comes in the default Growl download but you have to find it and install it so lots of people miss it. If you configure this one with a text-to-spech message style your computer will tell you when things are plugged in and unplugged!
What are your favourite uses for Growl, and what applications do you use to extend its usefulness?
- Ricky Buchanan
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