The glass trackpad on a modern MacBook is widely considered the best in the laptop industry. However, out of the box, Apple intentionally disables several of its most powerful multi-touch gestures to avoid confusing new users. By diving into System Settings, you can unlock these hidden gestures to drastically improve how you navigate macOS, manage open windows, and interact with applications.
How to Access Trackpad Settings
- Click the Apple Logo () in the top-left corner of the menu bar and open System Settings.
- Scroll down the left sidebar and click on Trackpad.
- The Trackpad menu is divided into three distinct tabs: Point & Click, Scroll & Zoom, and More Gestures. Hovering your mouse over any option will play a small video demonstrating exactly how the gesture works.
Essential Hidden Gestures to Enable
1. Tap to Click
By default, you must physically press down on the trackpad until it “clicks” to register a selection. Many users find this fatiguing over a long workday.
- Navigate to the Point & Click tab.
- Toggle on Tap to click.
- Now, a light, silent tap with one finger will register as a primary click, making navigation significantly faster and completely silent.
2. App Exposé (Swipe Down)
If you have multiple windows of the same application open (such as five different Safari windows or three Word documents), finding the right one can be frustrating. App Exposé solves this.
- Navigate to the More Gestures tab.
- Locate App Exposé and click the dropdown menu to select Swipe down with three fingers (or four fingers, depending on your preference).
- When you perform this gesture while an app is active, macOS will instantly push all other apps aside and neatly tile every open window of that specific application across your screen for easy selection.
3. Mission Control (Swipe Up)
While App Exposé shows windows for a single app, Mission Control gives you a bird’s-eye view of everything running on your Mac.
- In the More Gestures tab, ensure Mission Control is enabled and set to Swipe up with three fingers.
- A quick upward swipe will instantly reveal every open window across all applications, as well as your virtual desktop spaces at the top of the screen.
4. Show Desktop (The Spread Gesture)
If your screen is cluttered and you need to quickly grab a file sitting on your desktop background, you don’t need to manually minimize every window.
- In the More Gestures tab, toggle on Show Desktop.
- Place your thumb and three fingers clustered together on the trackpad, then spread them apart in a quick expanding motion.
- All open windows will instantly fly off the edges of the screen, revealing your pristine desktop. Performing the opposite gesture (pinching them back together) will pull all the windows back exactly where they were.