Tap your MacBook to control it

Two taps left of the trackpad mute the speakers, two on the right mute the mic. Six slots in all — map them to a keyboard shortcut, an app, a Shortcut. Nothing to plug in: the sensor is already in your Mac.

DownloadFreeView source

Open source. 1.3 MB, no account. Apple silicon MacBook, macOS 14 or later.

Or build it yourself:

Two taps beside the trackpad. Nothing attached, nothing opened.

Menu bar only. Nothing to grant to start detecting.

Six gestures, no hardware

One, two or three firm taps, on the left or the right of the trackpad. Mute is what they do out of the box; what they do instead is up to you.

  1. Step 01

    Left side, speakers

    Double-tap left of the trackpad. The default output mutes through CoreAudio. Tap the same place again and it comes back.

    Left tap zone highlighted on the chassis, left of the trackpad.

  2. Step 02

    Right side, microphone

    Same gesture on the right. The default input mutes. The sensor sits left of centre, so this side lands quieter. High sensitivity covers that.

    Right tap zone highlighted on the chassis, right of the trackpad.

  3. Step 03

    Then assign the rest

    Each side has slots for one, two or three taps. A shortcut, an app, a Shortcut, volume, playback, sleep. One tap stays empty until you set it, because typing can look like a single hit.

    1. Left, 2 tapsMute speakers
    2. Right, 2 tapsMute microphone
    3. Any other slotYours to assign

What a tap can do

The menu bar is the whole interface. Settings is one window. The map persists across restarts.

  • Mute speakersToggles the default output. If a device has no mute control, volume is stored and set to zero, then restored.
  • Mute microphoneToggles the default input the same way. Useful on a call when the mute button is in another app.
  • Keyboard shortcutRecords any combo you already use, including CleanShot at ⌘⇧3. Needs Accessibility, asked for in Settings.
  • Open an appLaunches or brings forward any application you pick. No permission.
  • Run a ShortcutCalls shortcuts run with the name you type. Your existing Shortcuts stay the source of truth.
  • Media and volumePlay/pause, next, previous, and a one-step volume nudge. Media keys need Accessibility. Sleep display does not.

It asks how loud, not how hard

A fingertip tap and hard typing overlap in raw g. A fixed threshold cannot separate them, so the test is a ratio: is this much louder than the last second?

  • STA/LTAGravity comes off with a 60 ms high-pass. A 10 ms average is compared to a 1 s average of the same signal. Seismology uses the same test for earthquakes.
  • Typing raises the barWhile you type, the background rises, so keystrokes stop qualifying. When the machine is quiet, a light tap clears it.
  • A third hit cancelsA pair only counts once the chassis goes quiet. A third impact inside 0.25 s drops the gesture. That quarter-second is the latency you feel.
  • Side from the sign of zThe IMU sits left of centre. Taps either side twist the case opposite ways, and the vertical axis at the sensor flips sign.

Get it running

A 1.3 MB disk image, no installer and no account. Drag it across, clear one flag, and tap.

  1. Download and drag across

    Download TapMac 1.0 then drag it onto Applications in the window that opens.

  2. Clear the quarantine flag

    macOS will say TapMac is damaged. It is not — the app is signed by me rather than by Apple, and this is the message Gatekeeper shows for any download without an Apple-issued signature. Run this once, then open it:

  3. Tap twice beside the trackpad

    A hand appears in the menu bar. Play some audio, then two firm taps on the left. Nothing happening? make probe prints the ratio of every impact so you can pick High, Medium or Low.

Rather build it?

Nothing is quarantined when you build it yourself, so step 02 disappears. Needs the Xcode Command Line Tools — swiftc --version should print a version, and xcode-select --install installs them if not. The Xcode app is not required.

What it needs

Apple silicon MacBook (M1 and later). The IMU does not exist on Intel Macs, or on Mini, Studio, or iMac. macOS 14 (Sonoma) or newer.

Nothing leaves the machine

There is no account and no server of ours. The accelerometer is opened through IOKit. Detection runs on a dedicated thread so a tap still counts while a menu is open.

  • No microphoneSound is never sampled. Mute talks to CoreAudio device properties, not to a recorder.
  • No networkNo telemetry, no crash reporter, no licence check. The binary does not open a socket.
  • No key loggingThe detector reads acceleration. It does not watch the keyboard. Accessibility is asked only if you assign a shortcut or a media key.
  • Sensor needs no promptThe BMI286 sits on the Sensor Processing Unit. Opening it does not show a system permission dialog.
  • Open sourceMIT. Read the detector, the HID wake-up, and the mute path before you run them.
  • Ad-hoc signedBuilds from source skip Gatekeeper. A downloaded .app may say it is damaged until you clear quarantine: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/TapMac.app.

Questions

Will this damage the MacBook?

No more than typing. It is two fingertip taps on the top case, not a slap. The sensor is the same IMU the machine already uses.

Does it work on Intel, or on a desktop Mac?

No. The IMU is on Apple silicon MacBooks only. Mini, Studio, iMac, and every Intel Mac have nothing to read. install.sh exits with that message.

Does it need Accessibility to mute?

No. Mute and volume talk to CoreAudio. Accessibility is required only for keyboard shortcuts and media keys. Screen Recording is required only for the system screenshot action. Detection itself asks for nothing.

Taps are not detected.

Open the log from the menu, or run make probe. If tapping produces no lines, the ratio is below the bar: switch Sensitivity to High. Tap the top case beside the trackpad. It transmits better than near the hinge.

One side works and the other does not.

Expected on some chassis: the sensor is not centred, so the far side lands weaker. Switch to High. If left and right come out reversed, turn on Sides are backwards.

It mutes while I type, or on its own.

Switch Sensitivity to Low. If pairs keep getting cancelled, a third impact landed inside 0.25 s. Tap twice, then stop.

How do I point a tap at CleanShot?

Settings, pick a slot, choose Press Keyboard Shortcut, record ⌘⇧3. Grant Accessibility when asked. Do not pick Screenshot to Clipboard: that is macOS screencapture, not CleanShot.

How do I remove it?

make uninstall stops it, removes the login item, deletes /Applications/TapMac.app, and forgets its settings.