Everyday movements
Open Trackpad on your phone. These are the starting controls; you can change them in Settings.
| Movement | What it does |
|---|---|
| Move one finger | Moves the Mac’s pointer. |
| Tap | Left-clicks. |
| Tap with two fingers | Right-clicks. |
| Touch and hold, then move | Drags. |
| Tap, then quickly touch and move | Starts a drag using tap-and-drag. |
| Move two fingers | Scrolls. |
| Pinch with two fingers | Zooms smoothly in apps that support Mac trackpad zoom. |
| Turn two fingers | Rotates in supported apps, such as Photos, Maps and Preview. |
| Double-tap with two fingers | Smart zoom, when enabled in Settings. |
You can also hold a click button below the trackpad while moving another finger to drag. Tap the keyboard button labelled Type on the Mac to open a typing field without leaving Trackpad.
Pointer and click settings
Tap the phone’s Settings gear and find Trackpad.
| Setting | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Pointer speed | How far the Mac’s pointer moves for your finger movement. |
| Tap to click | Whether a quick single-finger tap clicks. |
| Two-finger tap to right-click | Whether a two-finger tap opens the contextual menu. |
| Show click buttons | Shows Click and Right-click buttons under the trackpad (beside it in landscape). |
Enable Show advanced settings for these additional controls:
| Advanced setting | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Acceleration | How strongly faster finger movements increase pointer travel. |
| Touch and hold | Chooses Drag, Right-click or Nothing. |
| Tap, then drag | Enables tapping once and quickly touching again to drag. |
| Drag lock | Keeps a drag held after you lift your finger, until you tap again. |
| Three-finger drag | Moves windows and selects text with three fingers. Off by default; enabling it disables three-finger swipes. Four-finger gestures still work. |
| Show touches | Shows touch indicators on the trackpad. |
Change one setting at a time and try it on a window or file you can safely move.
Pointer smoothing handles uneven touch timing and brief Wi-Fi delays automatically, including at high pointer speeds. Acceleration controls how much faster finger movements increase pointer travel, with a gradual response as you speed up and slow down.
Games and apps that read raw mouse movement keep receiving it even when the visible pointer reaches the screen edge.
Scrolling and zoom
Under Scrolling & zoom, adjust Scroll speed. Natural scrolling makes content follow your fingers; Momentum keeps a flick scrolling after you lift them.
Pinch to zoom zooms smoothly like a Mac trackpad by default, in apps that support it, such as Safari, Photos, Preview and Maps. With Show advanced settings on, Pinching → Presses ⌘+ and ⌘− restores shortcut-based zoom. Choose Zooms smoothly to switch back.
Rotate is on by default. Turn two fingers to rotate photos, maps and PDFs in apps that support rotation.
Smart zoom is off by default. Turn it on to double-tap with two fingers to zoom into a web page or PDF, then double-tap again to zoom back out. Two-finger right-clicks wait a moment longer while CmdPalm checks for the second tap.
Scroll strip offers Short, Long or Hide. Scroll strip width offers Normal, Wide or Extra wide. Turn on Scroll strip at the screen edge to slide a finger along the phone’s side or case to scroll without looking. With Show advanced settings on, Scroll strip side places it on the Right or Left, and for the short strip, Hold to keep scrolling (on by default) keeps scrolling while you hold its handle at the top or bottom.
Starting gestures
Three- and four-finger gestures begin with these assignments:
| Gesture | Three fingers | Four fingers |
|---|---|---|
| Swipe up | Mission Control | Apps (Launchpad on macOS 15) |
| Swipe down | App Windows | Show desktop |
| Swipe left | Space to the right | Next tab |
| Swipe right | Space to the left | Previous tab |
| Tap | Middle click | Nothing |
| Pinch together | Nothing | Apps (Launchpad on macOS 15) |
| Spread apart | Nothing | Show desktop |
Pinch your thumb and three fingers together to show your apps, or spread them to show the desktop. Three-finger pinch and spread start unassigned. With Three-finger drag on, three-finger swipes are disabled.
Space navigation follows the direction of the content: swiping left reveals the space to your right. Tab switching depends on the focused Mac app.
Change a gesture
- Enable Settings → Show advanced settings.
- Under Gestures, choose a swipe, tap, Pinch together or Spread apart row in Three fingers or Four fingers.
- Make sure Enabled is on (turning it on starts with Mission Control), choose the action and its details, then tap Save.
To disable one gesture, open its row, turn Enabled off and save. Gesture assignments belong to the current device and can be copied to another device.
Release a held input
Tap the hand button labelled Release all keys and buttons if dragging or a modifier seems stuck. For an immediate stop across all devices, turn off Allow control in CmdPalm’s Mac menu.
Releasing all keys and buttons or disconnecting the phone also stops its scrolling momentum. When several devices scroll or zoom, ending one device’s gesture does not end another’s.