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Haptic Touch Bar
p/haptic-touch-barThe missing haptic feedback for Touch Bar keys
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Channing Dai

Haptic Touch Bar - The missing haptic feedback for Touch Bar keys

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Haptic Touch Bar uses the built-in haptic engine of your Macbook Pro to provide haptic (force) feedback whenever you press a keyboard key on the Touch Bar.

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5key
Amazing idea. I like it. But the feedback seems not work in all the space. Just for F1~F12?
Channing Dai
Maker
@5key Thanks for your feedback! The haptic feedback is available for all keyboard keys (Esc, F1-F12) to make the Touch Bar much easier to touch type. However when the Touch Bar shows app contextual buttons & actions, you always have to directly look at it to know what's there, and that makes the hapic feedback far less useful.
Jordi Bruin
@5key @channing but could it technically be added to those custom keys as well? Would be nice from a consistency standpoint! Cool app, can't wait to try it when I get myself a new Macbook!
Channing Dai
Maker
@5key @jordibruin That should be possible for buttons. For other Touch Bar controls that may be more useful (like sliders and color pickers), I'm afraid there is no way to support them.
Nick Abouzeid
@5key @jordibruin @channing Agree with Jordi - would love a way to know that I'm hitting the play/pause button, or interacting with the touch bar in any way. Could even have the haptic feedback trigger continuously or as a function of the velocity you slide the volume. Not sure if this is technically feasible. Regardless, kudos, this is my new favorite app 👏
adrian
I didn't even know the touchbar had haptics
Channing Dai
Maker
@aadrnn You're right, the Touch Bar doesn't. This app utilizes the haptic engine created for the Force Touch trackpad.
Channing Dai
Maker
Hey Product Hunters! Haptic Touch Bar is a simple app I wrote for the new MacBook Pro models with Touch Bar. As a Vim enthusiast who needed to press Esc 1000 times a day, it was extremely painful for me to touch type the virtual keys on Touch Bar. Without any force feedback, I found myself unconsciously and frequently looking down at the Touch Bar to make sure the keys were actually hit. To make my life easier, I wrote this app which utilizes the haptic engine of the Force Touch trackpad to provide haptic feedback whenever you press a Touch Bar key. Personally I find this app indispensable when I: - Use Vim and Vim mode in various editors. - Develop with JetBrains IDEs which have lots of F1-F12 hotkeys - Play with Windows virtual machines. Give it a try if you use MBP with Touch Bar. Feedback is highly appreciated. Thanks!
⽃™

it would be nice if you add some options to choose appearance of menubar icon

Pros:

add missing feature

Cons:

ugly menubar icon

Sooraj Chandran
Nice app. Will installing this affect the warranty I have on my mac in any way ?
Channing Dai
Maker
@iamsooraj Not at all. This app works in a way that is similar to simulating a force touch trackpad press. It's very safe and reliable.
Sooraj Chandran
@channing Excuse me if I sound stupid. But how do I check if it's working properly?
Channing Dai
Maker
@iamsooraj Just press Ees key on your Touch Bar and check if you can feel or hear the haptics.
Channing Dai
Maker
@iamsooraj That's weird. What is your MacBook Pro model (13'/15', 2016/2017) and macOS version (Sierra or High Sierra)?
Channing Dai
Maker
@iamsooraj Thanks for the info. That model seems to use the traditional keyboard instead of the Touch Bar (https://support.apple.com/en-us/...).
Tregg
Works beautifully, and as described. Elegant solution.
Channing Dai
Maker
@treggify Thanks. I'm glad you find it useful!
Daniel Greenberg
I downloaded it and it does NOT work
Channing Dai
Maker
@15greenberg What is your MacBook Pro model (13'/15', 2016/2017)? Note that this app is designed for keyboard keys (Esc, F1-F12) on Touch Bar, contextual app buttons are not supported at the moment.
Sam Goudie
Nice idea, it would be cool to see this in more touch-bar apps. I didn't even know there was haptic feedback available.
Channing Dai
Maker
Control Strip buttons (volume, brightness, etc.) are now supported! Try the latest version: https://www.haptictouchbar.com/
Kitty Quinn
My experience thus far: Pros - It does work - It helps me know if I fat fingered something Cons - Sometimes hangs, requires force quit, runs at high CPU while hung - High CPU for what it is doing (.7-~2%" on 6 core i7) - Quite a few threads for what it is doing (6, sometimes 7)