From Mac OS 26 / 26.1, in settings the launchpad shortcut has been removed from the settings and the gesture STILL works, but in a different way.
I want to be able to disable it or to customise it: if you know how to do it I'd appreciate your help, thanksss <3!
In your screenshot you already have disabled the "Show Desktop" gesture - that should also disable the launchpad - doesn't it for you?
DUDE you’re right! Turning off “Show Desktop” disable the launchpad gesture!
Now there is still an issue: I would like to customise the “4 Fingers Gesture - 1 Thumb 3 Fingers Pinch” or the “4 Fingers Gesture - 1 Thumb 3 Fingers Spead” - BUT when the “Show Desktop” is off, both of these gesture don’t do anything/can’t be customise.
May you let me know if you have a solution for this? I’d LLOOOOOVE if you would, that was my gesture for at least 9 years! thanks!
@Andreas_Hegenberg Is there a solution to this issue? I have this problem as well.
@Andreas_Hegenberg Are you able to help?
Hiya.
As @Ray mentioned, there are issues with the pinch gestures as it relates to the launchpad (which has since been replaced with an Applications popup window in Tahoe.)
Specifically, what I am trying to do is this: Using either “Pinch With Thumb And 4 Fingers” (preferred) or “Pinch With Thumb And 3 Fingers”, to issue a keyboard shortcut of type “Send Key Down and Key Up”.
The problem is that when the macOS setting “Show Desktop” (under Trackpad Gestures - More Gestures") turned off (which I don’t want to do because I use the 5-finger spread gesture to show the desktop), BetterTouchTool does not react at all when I issue the 2 gestures I mentioned at the top of this msg.
With the “Show Desktop” macOS setting turned on, BetterTouchTool still does not react on either of those two aforementioned gestures. Both gestures seem to be intercepted by the OS and ends up showing me the default macOS applications popup window.
If I change the gesture on my BetterTouchTool trigger to, say, 5 finger tap, then it works fine. I can’t get those other 2 gestures to work in its place.
Is it possible to get either one of them to work, @Andreas_Hegenberg ?
@Andreas_Hegenberg Hello again. It’s been 2 weeks since I posted my initial question and a week since my follow up message to your reply. Is there a solution to this or am I missing something?
@Andreas_Hegenberg Any support on this issue?
You can not use the macOS gestures for that, you will need to configure the behavior you want with some of BTT's gestures. (In general for BTT to work properly it is best to disable most of the system gestures that could conflict)
@Andreas_Hegenberg That’s what I did, as mentioned. I tried using the BTT gestures and disabling the system gestures, but the BTT gestures aren’t working.
maybe there is a misunderstanding on how that gesture works? Here is a quick capture of the "pinch with thumb and 3 fingers" gesture via BTT's Live View:
@Andreas_Hegenberg The gesture works fine in the Live View. But if you wouldn’t mind just taking the time to set up a trigger on your Mac using either one of the gestures I pointed out to confirm that what I am saying is that the gesture does not cause the trigger to execute.
The gesture does not work (i.e. the underlying trigger is not executed) regardless of whether the “Show Desktop” system setting is turned on or off.
I have exported a simple gesture for you to try to save you some time. Here it is (also attached):
[
{
"BTTLastUpdatedAt" : 1771003798.705164,
"BTTTriggerType" : 194,
"BTTTriggerTypeDescriptionReadOnly" : "Pinch With Thumb And 3 Fingers",
"BTTTriggerClass" : "BTTTriggerTypeTouchpadAll",
"BTTUUID" : "6FF93DBA-9F3F-4712-A3B3-43B25900245E",
"BTTOrder" : 0,
"BTTActionsToExecute" : [
{
"BTTLastUpdatedAt" : 1771003604.598139,
"BTTTriggerParentUUID" : "6FF93DBA-9F3F-4712-A3B3-43B25900245E",
"BTTIsPureAction" : true,
"BTTTriggerClass" : "BTTTriggerTypeTouchpadAll",
"BTTUUID" : "86260671-FE65-440C-AAC3-495F0CEA6284",
"BTTPredefinedActionType" : 49,
"BTTPredefinedActionName" : "Launch Application or Open File or Start Apple Script …",
"BTTLaunchPath" : "\/System\/Applications\/Calculator.app",
"BTTOrder" : 0
}
]
}
]
Please try that.
If it doesn’t work for you either, then there is an issue in BetterTouchTool that needs to be fixed, if possible.
If it works for you, then I am doing something wrong and I would appreciate knowing what that is.
Thank you.
PS: I am on Tahoe 26.2.
exported_triggers.bttpreset (844 Bytes)
Your gesture setup works fine here and launches Calculator fine ;-(
Does the gesture show up in "Recently Used" in BTT when you try to trigger it?
@Andreas_Hegenberg No, it does not show up in Recently Used.
Clarification: Earlier when I said “The gesture works fine in the Live View.” I was only referring to the fact that my fingers were being tracked properly, but that the action was not being triggered, so I didn’t see the text appear indicating that the action was triggered.
After some more experimenting and repeated attempts at issuing the gestures, I managed to get it to work SOMETIMES. The rate of success is very low. Sometimes it takes 20 to 30 tries before I get the action to trigger.
Here’s a video:
@Andreas_Hegenberg Also, I am discovering that the 2 finger “Pinch In” gesture can be triggered using 3 fingers (not 100% of the time, also with some rate of failure) despite the gesture being listed in the “2 Finger Gesture” category.
Video:
Any thoughts, @Andreas_Hegenberg ?
Unfortunately I don't know, the pinch gestures work very consistently here:
However I seem to be doing them slightly different. Most likely BTT's algorithm doesn't recognize your thumb correctly. Unfortunately there is not much you can do about it right now, I'll check whether the algorithm can be improved.
@Andreas_Hegenberg Ok, after you said that I’ve tried experimenting with different thumb placements and I’ve arrived at the following solution:
First thing I did was to disable the following setting:
Advanced Settings → Trackpad → Thumb/Palm Handling → Thumb/Palm Handling
Then, I changed:
Advanced Settings → Trackpad → Pinches → 5 Finger Pinch Required Distance
to 0.1
Then I had to alter my pinch technique such that my thumb is laying on its side so that it causes a bigger touch surface when it makes contact with the trackpad. This is unnatural for me as my thumb is usually positioned more at a 45 degree angle to the surface of the trackpad which would, I guess, cause it to have a smaller footprint, or so to speak, which BTT probably has trouble tracking it as a thumb.
In any case, with these settings changes and thumb adjustment, I am able to perform the pinch-type gestures much more accurately now.
It would be great to not have to lay my thumb down like that to get it to work, but it’s good enough for now. Hopefully this info will help you with whatever refinements you look into implementing.
Thanks for the help!