For Apple Silicon MacBooks on macOS 14 or later
Tap twice to mute your mic. Tap three times to play music. Tap four times to pick from a menu.
Knucklebop turns the motion sensor already inside your MacBook into invisible buttons. Tap the palm rest, or the desk right next to it, two to six times, and your Mac does something different for each count, in each app.
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A tap is a button.
The count is which one.
Tap the palm rest or desk
Two to six light taps beside the trackpad, or on the desk next to your MacBook. Your timing doesn't matter, just the count.
Knucklebop checks the app
Each app or website can have its own taps. Everything else uses your "anywhere" taps.
Your Mac does it
A small pill confirms what happened. One stray bump never counts.
Try it right here.
Pick an app, then click the palm rest (or focus it and press Space) a few times. This is exactly how the app decides what to do.
Rules in Zoom
Website rules beat app rules, and app rules beat "anywhere" rules. One pattern per tap count.
What can a tap do? Almost anything.
Pick from ready-made actions, or point a tap at any shortcut, automation or script.
🎙️ Meetings
- Mute in Zoom, Teams, Slack huddles and Google Meet, using each app's own shortcut so its button stays in sync
- Mute your mic everywhere, with an on-screen "Mic muted" pill
🎵 Music
- Play / pause
- Next and previous track
- Volume up, down, mute
🪟 Windows & desktops
- Mission Control
- Next / previous desktop
- Switch to last app
- Show desktop, Spotlight, lock screen
- Dark mode, screen saver
✂️ Editing & tabs
- Copy, paste, undo, screenshot
- Emoji picker, full screen
- New, close, next and previous tab
🕶️ Boss mode
- Hide every app and pause media in one move
- Optionally lock the screen too
🛠️ Power users
- Any keyboard shortcut
- Run a Shortcuts automation
- AppleScript or a shell command
Need more than five buttons? Open the tap menu.
Four taps opens a list of as many actions as you like. Each extra tap moves down the list; stop tapping and the highlighted one runs. Arrow keys and Return work too, and Esc cancels.
- Comes with switch app, desktops, play/pause, screenshot and confetti
- Add, remove and reorder items under Rules
Every app gets its own taps.
Ready-made rules switch on for the apps you already have installed. Change them, add your own, or turn any of them off.
Zoom · Teams · Slack
Mute in the app
Presses the app's own mute shortcut, so its button changes too.Google Meet
Mute in Meet
In Chrome, Safari, Arc, Edge or Brave. A Meet tab gets the Meet rule, not your global one.Spotify · Music
Play / pause
Next track
VS Code · Xcode
Toggle terminal / Build
Anywhere else
Mute mic
Tap menu
Confetti
Built to not misfire.
A tap has a sharp signature. Typing, trackpad clicks, picking up the laptop and the train ride home don't.
Never a single bump
Every pattern is at least two taps in quick succession. A dropped pen does nothing.
Ignores your typing
Taps during and just after keyboard or trackpad use are ignored.
Knows when you move
The gyroscope tells a tap from a lift or a tilt, and detection pauses in a moving car until things settle.
Test mode
See what would fire and why, without running anything.
Locked means locked
Nothing runs while your screen is locked, and the same rule can't fire twice from one burst.
Off in one click
Switch it off from the menu bar, or pause for 15 minutes or an hour.
And a little bit fun.
Fun mode is one switch. It goes quiet by itself whenever your mic or camera is on.
Tap sounds
Four packs: Woodblock, Bubbles, 8-bit and Drum kit. Try them in the demo above.
A drum kit on your palm rest
Soft taps hit the hi-hat, harder ones the snare and kick. Record a 10-second loop and export it. (Tap patterns take a break while you play.)
Click to play. Bigger dot, harder tap.
Ripples and confetti
Every tap sends a ripple across the bottom of your screen. Five taps throws confetti (try it above), and other taps can play a rimshot, a round of applause or have Bop wave hello.
This weekA weekly stats card worth a screenshot. And two secret tap patterns we won't tell you about.
Set up in four short steps.
- Download and open. Notarized by Apple. It lives in your menu bar.
- Calibrate. A few taps on each palm rest and the desk so it learns how hard you tap. Your taps animate on screen as you go.
- Double-tap to mute. Your first rule is ready: try it.
- Permissions only when needed. Accessibility for shortcuts and meeting-app mute, Automation for website rules. None for the system-wide mic mute.
Private by design.
Sensor data is processed on your Mac and never leaves it. The app has no analytics, no telemetry and no account. Its only network calls check your licence and look for updates. Website rules read the current tab's domain only when a tap pattern finishes, and never store it. It doesn't use your microphone to hear taps.
Pay once. Keep it.
Try every feature free for 7 days first. No account, no subscription.
- Every feature included
- Licence key by email
- Move it to a new Mac any time
- 14-day refund
Prices in US dollars; local taxes may be added at checkout. Payments by Dodo Payments.
Questions
How does it hear my taps?
MacBooks have a motion sensor (an accelerometer and gyroscope) in the base. A tap on the palm rest, or on the desk right next to the laptop, makes a tiny, sharp jolt that Knucklebop can recognise. It doesn't use the microphone.
Do I need to tap in a rhythm?
No. Only the number of taps matters, from two to six. Keep them reasonably close together (under about 0.7 seconds apart by default; you can make it longer).
Why isn't it on the Mac App Store?
macOS has no public API for this sensor, so Knucklebop uses an undocumented system interface. That's fine for apps you download directly (Knucklebop is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple), but not allowed on the App Store. We don't hide this. If a macOS update changes the interface, Knucklebop shows a clear message instead of failing silently.
Do I need an account?
No. Buy, and your licence key arrives by email. Paste it into Settings › General in the app and you're done.
What happens when the trial ends?
Knucklebop keeps your patterns and rules but stops running actions until you enter a licence key. Nothing is deleted.
How do I move my licence to a new Mac?
On the old Mac, choose Settings › General › Deactivate this Mac, then enter your key on the new one. If the old Mac is gone, email us and we'll sort it out.
How do updates work?
Knucklebop checks for updates once a day and asks before installing. Rarely, an update is required (for example, when a macOS change breaks tap detection); then actions pause until you install it, and the menu bar says so.
What permissions does it need?
None for the system-wide mic mute. Accessibility lets it press your meeting app's own mute shortcut and other shortcuts. Automation (asked per browser) lets website rules see which site is open. No microphone access.
Will typing or bumping the laptop set it off?
It ignores taps while you type or use the trackpad, rejects lifts and tilts, pauses when everything is shaking, and every pattern needs at least two quick taps, so a single bump never counts. Test mode shows exactly what it would do.
Does it work with the lid closed?
No. With the lid closed the Mac sleeps (or, in clamshell mode, the laptop usually isn't where your hands are). Taps on the top edge of the lid aren't supported either.