Snarl is a notification system inspired by Growl that allows applications to display a nice alpha-blended message on the screen. Snarl does not hijack the current focused window, nor does it force the taskbar to be visible. Notifications can either be cancelled by clicking on them, or left to disappear automatically if ignored for a period of time.

Snarl can display many message at any one time; new messages are simply displayed beneath existing ones. The application displaying the message can also update the content at any time, remove the message, or specify an icon to be displayed.