BTT Remote: mirror BetterTouchTool's Touch Bar user additions/actions

Feature Requests
, ,
1

Sorry if this has been asked before.

I'm looking for a way to (partially!) bring back the Touch Bar for Macs that don't have a physical Touch Bar (anymore), namely by using an old iPhone SE or iPhone Mini or iPad Mini without SIM and with always-on (no screen lock) as a Touch Bar replacement. As has been noted before, Apple's SideCar isn't compatible with BetterTouchTool's global Touch Bar additions.

But maybe we could recreate this functionality within BTT Remote. Is this possible? I.e. a way to mirror the user's Touch Bar additions incl. icons, groups, subgroups, nested actions etc. in BTT Remote? Maybe even include a full screen mode in BTT Remote for this functionality, which would mirror Apple's dark/black Touch Bar UI design?

I think it's not necessary—and probably not even possible, because there isn't one in the first place—to mirror the full macOS Touch Bar (à la SideCar), and at least for my needs that wouldn't even be necessary. (I'd be happy to just have touch functionality to trigger my individual workflows/scripts/programs, which I would port over from my Touch Bar MacBook Pro.)

BTT Remote, when connected to BetterTouchTool on a Mac via local network, based on the frontmost application & BTT's Touch Bar settings, would (I believe) have to load the relevant trigger UUIDs incl. the global ones, their icons and graphical tweaks, and recreate them in BTT Remote in the iOS or iPadOS UI. (Maybe this data could even be cached on i[Pad]OS to decrease network traffic.)

(Obviously, the UI placement of the Touch Bar icons would have to be different within BTT Remote simply due to the different screen ratio. We could also include a resize option in BTT Remote to include even more triggers than would be possible on a physical Touch Bar.)

2

I just looked at BTT Remote, and there is the option for remote actions. Would that suffice for a Touch Bar replacement?

3

OK, had a look at it. Remote actions for BTT Remote don't exactly solve the above. A user-friendly functionality would imho be to: (1) have a BTT Remote full-screen touch bar mode with "touch bar design" and global resize option, (2) hide the app specific menu (Go Back Bring To Front, Hide, Quit etc.) behind a ··· UI object, (2) allow more UI tweaks in BTT for remote actions display, similar to BTT for the real Touch Bar, (3) allow groups/subgroups for remote actions that open on tap, (4) automatically switch to the relevant remote actions, when the frontmost app in macOS changes. But for the time being, the current actions could suffice, I guess.

4

BTT Remote won't support the Touch Bar features, however it will soon suppport the "Floating Menu" which is currently available in the alpha versions. As soon as this stable, it will be integrated into BTT Remote

1 Like
5

:+1: Whatever will make it work, I'm down with it. Using BTT Remote as a Touch Bar replacement (with the proper UI) on a dedicated iPhone etc. would be fantastic.

6

@JayB Just one more thought. Most of what you want to do can be done with BTT and the free app "Touché".

If you put the Touché strip directly over the physical F-Keys of your Macbook, you have a pretty good imitation of the old Touch Bar but with real keys.

If I understand correctly, this will also be possible in the future without Touché, with the floating menus :smiley:

For now, If you want to test ...

1 Like
7

Thank you. I already tried Sindre Sorhus' Touch Bar Simulator, and I'd need to use the mouse or track pad to use it. The great thing of the Touch Bar was: keeping your hands on the keyboard. Only the Touch Bar could do that. So the closest thing (for me at least) is using touch on iOS BTT Remote very close by. And it's a great BTT helper app… just needs some love, I think. :wink:

8

Perhaps I did not express myself clearly. You don't need a mouse or the track pad.
You need your finger(s) just like with the real Touch Bar. :wink:

If you put the Touché strip directly over the physical F-Keys of your Macbook, you have a pretty good imitation of the old Touch Bar but with real keys.

9

@Frank1 I don't understand your comments about Touché... because it's not a physical item to lay across the FN keys on a keyboard...? You say Touché strip, that implies a physical item, right? But all I saw in that link and the bit only was that it's just an app that with a touch of your finger it brings up what looks like the Touch Bar strip that we all know... but it's on the screen, right? Which means you can't just touch it to input things like how we can by using the physical Touch Bar, tapping on it as we work. That's the disconnect here, I think, and why the desire to have BTT remote act like a Touch Bar, kept close by, would allow one to be working, typing on a keyboard and reach over and tap on a touchscreen (BTT remote) that mimics what the Touch Bar used to do. So as to NOT have to use a mouse/trackpad to move it to click on commands/shortcuts we've implemented.

10

Although it's really quite simple, it's apparently hard to understand... or explain well :wink:

A Macbook that doesn't have a Touch Bar has real, physical F-keys. F1, F2...
In the Touch Bar section, BTT can create a visual indicator, a button (an icon or a text or both).

This indicator (button), which is displayed by Touché, you put directly over the F1 key. Now you can define in the BTT section shortcuts what F1 should do.

Look at this Touché strip I use to format text.

image
image1982Ă—60 20.1 KB

The yellow button is directly above F1. When I select text and then press F1 the text is highlighted in yellow. The green button is directly above F2 and so on.

If I press and hold ⌥, 10 new icons appear, representing a function. The BTT shortcut is then not F1, but ⌥+F1.

I do everything with my fingers, nothing with the mouse. Is this understandable?

In the meantime you don't need Touché anymore, because you can do that with the new floating menus :smiley:

11

I did not understand what you meant at at first - but now I do*. That's a neat alternative then, the floating menu offered here (rather than Touché). Thank you for the extra details - much appreciated.
*well I understand what it can do...now to figure out exactly how to create it, ie: pressing a key (ie F1, F2) on keyboard somehow triggers an action (like insert time of day or paste special text). (I'm obviously not skilled in this stuff, but am trying to learn & better utilize all these tools.)