Download BetterTouchTool for Mac

In the edit

BetterTouchTool runs on any Mac from macOS 10.15 onwards, whether it is Intel or Apple Silicon. That covers everything from an older iMac to the latest M-series MacBook Pro, so compatibility is rarely a concern. At its core, BetterTouchTool is a macOS utility that lets you take control of how your Mac responds to input. You can assign custom keyboard shortcuts, build your own Touch Bar widgets, and set up gestures for the trackpad, Magic Mouse, a regular mouse, the Siri Remote, or the Apple Remote. The real strength is that these rules can be targeted to specific applications — one set of gestures for Lightroom, another for Final Cut Pro, and a third for the Finder. For photographers and creative pros who work through long editing sessions, this kind of per-app control saves time. You can set a three-finger swipe to trigger an AppleScript in Capture One, or map a keyboard shortcut to run a custom URL scheme. BetterTouchTool also supports HTTP requests for more advanced widget creation, so the automation possibilities go well beyond simple clicks.

Don't try to set up everything at once

The first mistake is trying to set up everything at once. BetterTouchTool can do so much that it is tempting to open the preferences and start assigning gestures, keyboard shortcuts, and Touch Bar buttons all in one sitting. That usually ends with a confusing mess of overlapping triggers and a lot of frustration. It works better to start small: pick one input device — the trackpad, for example — and assign maybe two or three gestures you actually miss from your normal workflow. Once those feel natural, add more.

Another frequent error is forgetting to scope actions to specific applications. A beginner might assign a trackpad gesture to close a window, then wonder why it fires in the middle of a Photoshop edit. The solution is to use BetterTouchTool's per-app rules. A gesture that closes a tab in Safari should not do the same thing in Lightroom. Setting a trigger to work only in the app you need takes an extra moment but saves hours of accidental shortcuts.

Some people also ignore the built-in clipboard manager early on. They install BetterTouchTool purely for gestures, then later discover the clipboard history feature and wonder why they did not use it sooner. It is worth enabling from day one. The same goes for the screenshot tool with on-the-fly editing — it is not the main reason people download the app, but it is a handy extra that does not require a separate utility.

A smaller but common mistake is not checking whether a gesture already exists in macOS. BetterTouchTool lets you override system gestures, but sometimes people assign something that conflicts with a built-in shortcut they rely on. A quick check of the macOS trackpad and keyboard preferences before you start building saves that kind of headache.

Culling wedding photos with custom Lightroom shortcuts

I was editing a batch of wedding portraits on a Tuesday afternoon. Lightroom was open, and I had a few hundred raw files to cull. The problem was the repetitive keystrokes — rating images, switching between the loupe and grid view, flagging rejects. Normally I would reach for the keyboard, but my left hand was busy holding a stylus for the tablet.

BetterTouchTool was already running in the menu bar. I had set it up a few weeks earlier, but only for basic trackpad gestures. That afternoon I decided to expand it. I opened the preferences and created a new group of triggers specifically for Lightroom. I set a three-finger swipe up to switch to the grid view, and a three-finger swipe down to go back to the loupe. A four-finger tap became the shortcut for the crop tool. It took maybe ten minutes to map out the handful of actions I used most often during culling.

Once I went back to the photos, the difference was immediate. I could swipe between views without moving my hand off the trackpad. The rating system I mapped to a combination of a keyboard modifier and a trackpad click, so I could flag an image as a pick with a single gesture. By the end of the session I had culled the set in roughly the same time it usually takes, but with far less hand movement and fewer interruptions to my rhythm.

Later that evening, while editing in Affinity Photo, I used a different set of gestures BetterTouchTool had assigned to that app. A two-finger double-tap switched between the brush and the eraser. The same app, the same trackpad, but entirely different behaviour depending on what I was doing. That is the point — you set it once and it adapts to the task at hand.

Who benefits most: photographers and video editors

BetterTouchTool is useful for anyone who spends hours at a Mac and wants to reduce repetitive strain or speed up common actions. But some users benefit more than others.

Photographers and video editors who work in a single application for long stretches will find the per-app triggers especially valuable. A gesture that works in Final Cut Pro should not do the same thing in Logic Pro. BetterTouchTool lets you build a different control scheme for each program, so your muscle memory stays consistent within each app.

People who use a MacBook with a Touch Bar will find the custom widget support a good reason to look at the app. The built-in Touch Bar controls from Apple are fine for basic tasks, but BetterTouchTool lets you create widgets that run AppleScripts or send HTTP requests. That opens up automation that the standard Touch Bar cannot offer.

Users who rely on accessibility or have physical discomfort from repeated keyboard use will appreciate the gesture system. Mapping complex keyboard shortcuts to a simple trackpad swipe or a mouse movement can reduce the amount of typing and reaching across the keyboard. It is not a replacement for proper ergonomic setup, but it helps.

Developers and power users who are comfortable with AppleScript and custom URL schemes will get the most advanced use out of it. The ability to trigger scripts from a Touch Bar widget or a gesture means you can build a personal automation layer that sits on top of macOS without writing a full application.

The clipboard manager you probably missed

BetterTouchTool includes a built-in clipboard manager that stores multiple copied items. It is not front and centre in the preferences, but once you enable it, you can cycle through recent clipboard entries with a keyboard shortcut. For anyone who copies and pastes text or code frequently, it saves the step of switching to a separate clipboard app.

The screenshot tool with on-the-fly image editing is another feature that does not get much attention. It lets you capture a portion of the screen and add basic edits before saving. It is not meant to replace a dedicated screenshot utility, but it is there when you need a quick annotation without opening another program.

BetterTouchTool also supports the Siri Remote and the Apple Remote. That is a niche convenience, but if you use a Mac connected to a television or a projector, having a physical remote that can trigger actions in Plex, VLC, or Keynote is genuinely useful. The same gesture system applies to the remote, so you can map a button press to a specific action in a specific app.

For users who prefer a torrent download, you can find BetterTouchTool through various channels. BetterTouchTool customizes gestures, shortcuts, and trackpad actions for power users on Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.

Mac it needs

• macOS 10.15 or later
• Intel or Apple Silicon Mac