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Tap the Mac
A MacBook has a motion sensor inside it. InputConfig reads it and turns a knock on the palm rest or the lid into an input. Double taps and triple taps are told apart, typing is ignored on purpose, and there is no controller, cable, or accessory involved. Two taps for Mission Control, three for dictation, and you never touched a key.
Setting it up
- Activate the built-in Tap the Mac preset under Feature Showcases, or add a row to any preset with the input type Tap the Mac.
- Pick Double tap or Triple tap.
- Pick the output: a system function, a key, a macro, a Siri Shortcut.
- Knock twice on the palm rest, firmly, about as fast as a double click. The row fires.
Taps less than a third of a second apart count as one gesture, so tap-tap is a double and a pause starts over. A single tap is offered too, but one knock is easy to make by accident, so the built-in preset uses double and triple.
Typing is ignored
Keystrokes shake the chassis too, so the app watches for typing and discounts taps that arrive while keys are going down. You can type normally with the preset running and knock when you mean it.
Where to knock
The palm rest either side of the trackpad is the most reliable. The lid works, with a firmer knock. A MacBook on a soft surface such as a bed absorbs the tap; a desk or a lap is better. The Live Visualizer shows the tap detector's level so you can find the spot and the force that register.
Which Macs
MacBooks whose chip publishes the motion sensor: every M2 and later MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, and the M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra machines. The base M1 MacBook Air and the 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro do not publish it, so the input type is not offered there, and desktop Macs have no motion sensor at all. A preset that uses only Tap the Mac runs with no controller connected.
Why it exists
For a lot of people the hard part of a laptop is the keyboard and trackpad, not the screen. A knock is a large, forgiving movement that a closed fist, a knuckle, or the heel of a hand can make. Two knocks for dictation gives a full text input to someone who cannot type, with nothing to buy and nothing to carry.
Questions
Will it fire when I set the laptop down?
Setting it down is one bump, not two or three quick ones, so no. A bumpy train can produce false doubles; deactivate the preset when travelling if it does.
Can I change the tap timing?
The window is fixed at a third of a second between taps, chosen from measurements of real knocks. Triple tap is the safer choice for anything you do not want to fire by accident.
Does it need any permission?
Only the Accessibility permission the app already has for sending output. Reading the sensor needs nothing extra.
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