SideswipeEdge sliders
Right edge for volume, left edge for brightness. Slides move in the same steps as your keyboard keys.
Official build 0.9.5 · macOS 13 or later
Your trackpad has edges. Use them.
Slide a finger up the right edge for volume, the left edge for brightness. A light tick under your finger on every step. Sideswipe lives in the menu bar and does nothing until you touch an edge.
Sideswipe is a Mac app. Open this page on your Mac to download it.
BrightnessVolumeSkip · double-tap: play/pause
Try it: drag up or down along an edge of the trackpad.
Five gestures, one trackpad.
Every edge has one job. Nothing happens in the middle of the pad, so normal pointing and scrolling stay untouched.
- 1Left edge: brightnessSlide up or down with one finger.
- 2Right edge: volumeSame steps as the keyboard keys, with a tick on each.
- 3Top-right corner: muteDouble-tap, and feel the stronger buzz.
- 4Bottom edge: skip tracksSlide sideways, keep going to keep skipping, slide back to go back.
- 5Bottom edge: play or pauseDouble-tap anywhere along the strip.
1/16
of the range per step, exactly like the keyboard keys.
1/64
per step with Precise Sliding or Shift and Option held.
0
Dock icons, windows or helper apps. Just a menu bar icon.
Small gestures, no new window.
Everything happens on the trackpad edges, and the controls are the ones your Mac already has.
Quick mute
Double-tap the top-right corner. You feel a stronger buzz so you know it worked.
Media strip
Slide along the bottom edge to skip, and keep sliding to keep skipping. Slide back to go back. Double-tap the bottom edge to play or pause. It works with any app that answers the keyboard's media keys.
Haptic ticks
A light tick under your finger on every step. Off, light, medium or strong.
Fine control
Hold Shift and Option for quarter steps, or turn on Precise Sliding to get them without holding anything.
Cursor freeze
The pointer stays put and out of the way while you slide.
Active area
Let slides start anywhere along the edge, or only in the lower three quarters, half or quarter. Good if a thumb rests near the top.
Swap sides
Brightness on the right and volume on the left, if you prefer.
Menu bar only
No Dock icon and no windows. Idle CPU rounds to zero because it only wakes when a finger is on the pad. Its one network request is a daily check for updates, which you can switch off.
Questions
Will it get in the way when I scroll or click?
No. Only a deliberate one-finger slide that starts right on an edge counts. A graze does nothing, a second finger cancels it, and touches are ignored while you type and for a short delay after your last key press, so a resting palm doesn't change anything. You can change that delay, or turn it off, under Settings → Pause while typing. If it trips during full-screen video or games, turn on Settings → Pause in full screen. If your thumb still trips it, narrow the edge width, limit the active area to the lower part of the pad, or require a modifier key.
Which Macs does it work with?
Any Mac running macOS 13 Ventura or later, Apple silicon or Intel. It is built for the MacBook trackpad, where the haptic ticks work too. A Magic Trackpad should work for slides; Magic Mouse support is experimental and off by default.
Does double-tapping the bottom edge click anything?
Sideswipe itself never clicks. A double-tap on the bottom edge plays or pauses. But if you have Tap to Click turned on in System Settings → Trackpad, macOS treats taps as clicks too, so the double-tap can also click whatever the pointer is over. Turn Tap to Click off, or switch off Double-Tap to Play or Pause in the Media Strip menu.
Does brightness work on external monitors?
It changes whatever your keyboard's brightness keys change: the built-in display or an Apple display. Most third-party monitors don't let macOS set their brightness.
macOS says the app is damaged or can't be opened.
Sideswipe isn't notarized by Apple, so macOS blocks the first launch. Control-click the app and choose Open, or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Sideswipe.app in Terminal once.
Why does it need Accessibility access?
Sideswipe changes volume, brightness and playback by sending the same key presses your keyboard does, and macOS only lets apps do that with Accessibility access. It records nothing, and only notes when you last pressed a key (never which key) so a resting palm is ignored while you type.
How do updates work?
Sideswipe checks for a new version once a day and installs it when your Mac has been idle for a couple of minutes, then restarts itself. Your Accessibility permission carries over, because every release is signed with the same certificate. You can check right away from the menu bar icon → Settings → Check for Updates, or turn off Update Automatically there. An update signed by anyone else is refused.
How do I remove it?
Quit Sideswipe from its menu bar icon, turn off Open at Login if you enabled it, drag Sideswipe from Applications to the Trash, and remove it from Privacy & Security → Accessibility.