TouchBro

Minimal Apple Silicon native menu bar app that maps a trackpad force click to a configurable keyboard shortcut (default: Cmd+C).

Completely free and open source • Inspired by BetterTouchTool

Features

• Menu bar app with a single settings window.
• Force-click detection via MultitouchSupport Apple's private framework.
• Configurable shortcut key + modifiers.
• App Exceptions: Exclude specific applications from triggering the shortcut (e.g., Finder is excluded by default).
• Autostart toggle.

Note

What is MultitouchSupport? It is a private macOS framework that provides low-level access to raw trackpad data. While standard macOS APIs only report high-level "Force Click" gestures (usually tied to Look Up), TouchBro uses this bridge to read the actual pressure (force) values from the trackpad sensors directly. This allows it to trigger shortcuts globally and instantaneously, even in apps where the native OS gesture is disabled or blocked.

Install — Remove Quarantine

If the app was downloaded/copied and macOS flags it as quarantined:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /path/to/TouchBro.app

If installed in /Applications:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/TouchBro.app

First Run

1. Launch the app.
2. Open Settings from menu bar.
3. Click Request Accessibility and grant access in System Settings.
4. Return to TouchBro.

Important

Why Accessibility? macOS requires apps to be "trusted" (granted Accessibility permission) to do two things:

1. Read selection: Silently query the text you have highlighted in other apps.
2. Simulate keys: Send synthetic Cmd+C or other keystrokes on your behalf. TouchBro never records your keystrokes or sends data anywhere; it only uses this to bridge your force click to the copy shortcut. App has no internet access.

App Exceptions

You can prevent TouchBro from activating in specific applications (e.g., games or apps that already use force-click for native features).

1. Open Settings.
2. Scroll to the Exceptions list.
3. Click + Add App to select an application bundle (Finder is excluded by default).
4. Any app in this list will be ignored by TouchBro.

Local build

From repo root:

./package.sh

This builds a release binary, assembles TouchBro.app, signs ad-hoc, creates TouchBro.dmg, and launches the app.