Tactile

Tactile taps your trackpad's haptic motor as the cursor passes over clickable things, so the interface feels physical.

This is the first public release. Universal build for Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

Install

1. Open Tactile-1.0.dmg and drag Tactile onto the Applications folder.

2. Tactile is signed but not yet notarized by Apple, so Gatekeeper blocks it on first launch. Open Terminal and run:

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Tactile.app
   

   If that reports a permission error, prefix it with sudo and enter your password.

3. Launch Tactile from Applications and grant Accessibility access when asked. That permission is what lets it read which elements under the cursor are clickable.

Is this safe?

Yes. The app is code signed with the developer's Apple certificate and runs with the hardened runtime. The command above only strips the "downloaded from the internet" quarantine flag so the signed app is allowed to open; it changes nothing else on your system. The full source is in this repository if you would rather build it yourself.

Requirements

• macOS 14.6 or later
• A Force Touch trackpad (the built in trackpad on modern MacBooks, or a Magic Trackpad)

In this release

• Haptic feedback over buttons, links, menus, the Dock, and menu bar items
• Contextual danger feel on destructive controls
• Keyboard haptics: fire on shortcuts, every key, or your own recorded combinations
• Scroll haptics with an adjustable tick interval
• Haptic Studio for building your own patterns by strength and timing
• Synthesized click sounds (thock, clack, cream, silky) plus custom sound import with a waveform trimmer
• Separate sound and haptic assignment per element type
• Profiles with menu bar switching and per app profiles
• Optional Chrome integration for richer web page coverage
• Automatic updates through Sparkle