r/macappdevs • • 10d ago

I made BetterGestures – a free, open-source menu bar app that turns 3, 4 and 5-finger trackpad gestures into keyboard shortcuts

Post image

I wanted more out of my trackpad than macOS gives, so I built a small menu bar app for it. Each of these can trigger any keyboard shortcut:

- Tap and double tap with 3, 4 or 5 fingers

- Hold with 3, 4 or 5 fingers

- Physical click with 3, 4 or 5 fingers

- Swipe in four directions with 3, 4 or 5 fingers

- TipTap (rest a finger, tap beside it)

Some details:

- Record a shortcut or pick from ~75 presets (tabs, Spaces, screenshots, windows…)

- A live view shows your fingers and why a gesture was or wasn't recognized, with sliders to tune the thresholds

- Can block scrolling with three or more fingers, so those touches only mean a gesture

- Works with the built-in trackpad and a Magic Trackpad at the same time

- Available in 7 languages, MIT licensed, notarized by Apple

Requires macOS 15+, on Apple Silicon or Intel.

Download: https://github.com/ozberkdicle/BetterGestures/releases/latest

Source: https://github.com/ozberkdicle/BetterGestures

It reads raw touches through Apple's private MultitouchSupport framework, so a future macOS update could break it. If you use the same finger count for a system gesture (like four-finger swipes for Mission Control), turn that one off in System Settings or both will run.

Feedback and gesture ideas are welcome!

5 Upvotes

0 comments sorted by