In the resulting window ( Figure D), click +Touch Bar Button. I’m going to show you how to add a couple of handy buttons to the Touch Bar, allowing you to navigate virtual desktops and then launch an application. The main window gives you a good indication of the flexibility BetterTouchTool offers ( Figure C). Once you’ve taken care of the permissions, open the tool. In the resulting window ( Figure B), click the lock in the lower-left corner, type your password, click the Privacy tab, and then click to enable BetterTouchTool. To take care of this, click on the Open System Preferences button in the BetterTouchTool warning window. Once the installation is complete, a new window will open, explaining why the app needs permission to the Accessibility API ( Figure A). The last steps of the installation involve clicking Continue at the privacy statement and then either allowing or disallowing the collection of anonymous usage and crash reporting (which will help the developer improve the app). You download the file, open Finder, navigate to the Downloads directory (or wherever you saved the file), double-click on the saved file, and answer a few quick questions (most of which are in the form of “Are you sure you want to open this file?”). There’s really no need to offer a step-by-step walk-through of the installation. To learn more about the difference licenses, check out this price matrix. Once the trial is over, the app costs $6.50 for a standard license. Before we do, know that the app isn’t free. And so when I set out to discover how to better the Touch Bar, I came upon a single app that opened my eyes as to what the feature can do.īetterTouchTool is a simple app (not found in the App Store) that allows you to tweak not only the Touch Bar, but:Īnyone who’s serious about customizing the input devices on their Macs will be quite happy with how this tool improves the efficiency of interaction. But I’m always looking to further my experience. In fact, I find the interaction with the device much improved because of this. I’ll admit, I have a MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar and I actually use the feature.

Bettertouchtool macos