Does your MacBook have an accelerometer?
InputConfig is completely free on the Mac App Store. You don't have to make an account, there are no subscriptions, and nothing is locked. Optimized for Apple silicon.
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 Tap the Mac in InputConfig. It did not work on the M1 Pro MacBook Pro in our testing, and desktop Macs and Intel Macs have none. 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. For any other MacBook, the status chip in InputConfig's tap calibrator tells you in half a minute whether yours listens.
On this page
Steps
- Install InputConfig and activate the built-in Tap the Mac preset, or add a row with the input type Tap the Mac.
- Open the row's Options and click Calibrate Taps.
- Read the status chip at the top of the calibrator.
- Knock on the palm rest and watch the live trace jump.
Check yours in half a minute
- You: Activate the built-in Tap the Mac preset, or add a row with the input type Tap the Mac. Open the row's Options and click Calibrate Taps, then knock on the palm rest.
- InputConfig: Wakes the sensor, shows its state in a status chip at the top, and draws a live trace of the last four seconds.
- Check: Read the chip, and watch the trace jump when you knock.
What the chip says:
- Listening, in green. The sensor works.
- Waking sensor, or Sensor parked, waking, in orange. The app is bringing the sensor back after it went quiet. Give it a moment.
- Blocked by macOS, in red. macOS refused to switch the sensor on.
- Sensor not responding on this Mac, in red. It is there but sent nothing.
- A reason, in red. Such as no chassis accelerometer published on this Mac: that Mac does not offer one to apps.
See which MacBooks have it
| 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 above 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.
Know what the sensor 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.
It is not the old Sudden Motion Sensor. Older Intel and PowerPC laptops had one 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.
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. InputConfig does not play sound files, though a tap can run a Siri Shortcut that does.
What InputConfig reads, and when
- Only acceleration. InputConfig samples the sensor about 800 times a second, looking for the sharp spike a knock makes. It shows tap strength, not raw X, Y and Z numbers.
- Only while something needs it. A running preset with a Tap the Mac row, or the preset editor, the tap calibrator or the Live Visualizer being open. There is no switch for the sensor in macOS.
- Inside the sandbox. It reads the sensor from inside the Mac App Store sandbox, with no Terminal and no password. On macOS 27 the sandbox does not let InputConfig switch the sensor on, so taps are heard only while the sensor is already on, and the status chip says which state it is in.
- Not the gyroscope. The open-source project apple-silicon-accelerometer says the same part holds a gyroscope beside the accelerometer, and reads both. Apple documents neither, and InputConfig uses acceleration alone, for taps.
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 above before you rely on it.
The short version
- M4 MacBook Air and Pro. Yes, and I tested both.
- M1 Pro. It did not work in our testing.
- Anything else. Open Calibrate Taps in InputConfig and read the status chip.
For your own Mac, the calibrator's status chip is the answer to trust.
Questions
Does the M4 MacBook Air or MacBook Pro have an accelerometer?
Yes. I tested Tap the Mac on M4 MacBooks, Air and Pro, and the sensor works. For M2 and M3 models other developers report that it is there. The status chip in the tap calibrator confirms it in seconds.
Does an M1 or M1 Pro MacBook have an accelerometer apps can read?
It did not work on the M1 Pro MacBook Pro in our testing, and developers of other tap apps report that some M1 models do not publish it. The check on this page settles it for your own Mac.
Does the MacBook Neo have an accelerometer?
I 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.
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.
Does picking up my MacBook count as a tap?
No. Lifting or tilting the laptop shows gray in the calibrator and is ignored. Only sharp knocks count.
Does a MacBook have a gyroscope?
Apple does not document one. An open-source project that reads the sensor directly says recent Apple silicon MacBooks have a gyroscope beside the accelerometer, in the same part, and reads both. InputConfig uses only the acceleration, to hear a knock on the case.
Related
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