Questions
Does your MacBook have an accelerometer?
Yes, if it is a recent Apple silicon MacBook. The M4 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro have a motion sensor inside the case, and I tested it on both with InputConfig's Tap the Mac. It did not work on the M1 Pro MacBook Pro I tried. Apple does not document the sensor or give apps a public way to read it; open-source projects found it by reading the hardware directly. Desktop Macs and Intel Macs have none. Below: what it is, which MacBooks, how to check yours in half a minute, and what it is good for.
What it is
It is a small motion sensor, the same kind of part that tells a phone which way up it is, run by the chip's own sensor hardware rather than by macOS apps. Apple has never said what it uses it for. Developers noticed it in teardowns and in the list of devices the Mac reports, and several open-source projects on GitHub now read it, most of them from the command line with administrator rights. InputConfig reads it from inside the Mac App Store sandbox, with no Terminal and no password. It samples the sensor about 800 times a second and reads only acceleration, looking for the sharp spike a knock makes.
Not the old Sudden Motion Sensor
Older Intel and PowerPC laptops had a Sudden Motion Sensor that parked the hard drive's heads if the laptop fell. Solid-state storage made that pointless, and it was a different part with a different job. The sensor in Apple silicon MacBooks is new, and nothing on the Mac uses it for drop protection.
Which MacBooks
| Mac | Result |
|---|---|
| M4 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro | Works. Tested with InputConfig's Tap the Mac. |
| M1 Pro MacBook Pro | Did not work in our testing. |
| Other Apple silicon MacBooks | Not tested here. The check below tells you in seconds. |
| Intel MacBooks | No. The old Sudden Motion Sensor is not readable by apps. |
| Mac mini, iMac, Mac Studio, Mac Pro | No motion sensor. |
Checked on 22 September 2026. The lid angle readout some apps show comes from a separate hinge sensor, not this one.
How to check yours
- Install InputConfig and add a row with the input type Tap the Mac, or activate the built-in Tap the Mac preset.
- Open the row's Options and click Calibrate Taps.
- The status chip says whether the sensor is listening, and the live trace jumps when you knock on the palm rest.
If the chip says the sensor is not available, that Mac does not publish it.
InputConfig is free on the Mac App Store. macOS 14 or later, no account, no tracking, open source.
What it is good for
- Tap shortcuts: knock twice on the palm rest to open Mission Control, three times to start dictation, or any other output. See Tap the Mac.
- Hands-light control: a knock with a knuckle or the side of a hand is a button for someone who cannot reach one.
- Curiosity: seismograph demos and novelty apps that play a sound when you slap the laptop, which is where most of the attention has gone.
What other people report
Teardowns of the M2 MacBook Air in July 2022 found a motion sensor Apple had never mentioned, and the news at the time could only guess what it was for. Since then, open-source projects on GitHub have read it on M2, M3 and M4 MacBooks, and developers of other tap apps say the original M1 MacBook Air and some other M1 models do not publish it. Most of those projects run from Terminal with administrator rights.
I only call a Mac working here when I have tested it myself. Everything else in this section is what other people report, so use the check below before you rely on it.
Questions
Does the MacBook Air M4 have an accelerometer?
Yes. We tested Tap the Mac on M4 MacBooks, and the sensor works.
Does an M1 MacBook have an accelerometer that apps can read?
It did not work on the M1 Pro MacBook Pro we tested. The check on this page tells you for your own Mac.
Does a MacBook have a gyroscope?
Apple does not document one. The motion sensor apps can read is used here for taps, and that is all InputConfig reads from it.
Can I turn the sensor off?
There is no switch in macOS. InputConfig only reads it while a Tap the Mac row is running, and nothing leaves your Mac.
Does the MacBook Neo have an accelerometer?
We have not tested one yet. The check on this page takes half a minute: add a Tap the Mac row, open Calibrate Taps, and the status chip says whether the sensor is listening.
Does the MacBook Pro have an accelerometer?
The M4 MacBook Pro does; I tested it. The M1 Pro MacBook Pro I tested did not publish one that apps can read. For M2 and M3 models other developers report that it is there, and the status chip in InputConfig's tap calibrator settles it for your own Mac in seconds.
Is there an app that shows the MacBook accelerometer without Terminal?
Yes. InputConfig is free on the Mac App Store and needs no password or Terminal. Its tap calibrator draws a live trace of the sensor over the last four seconds and marks every knock. It shows tap strength, not raw X, Y and Z numbers, so for raw data the GitHub projects are the better tool.
Can my MacBook play a sound when I slap it?
InputConfig does not play sound files. A tap can run a Siri Shortcut, and what that shortcut does, a sound included, is up to you. There is no need to hit the laptop hard either; a fingertip or knuckle on the palm rest is enough for the sensor.
Related
Free. macOS 14 or later. No account, nothing leaves your Mac. Open source on GitHub.