A tiny macOS menu bar app that turns a 3-finger trackpad tap into a middle click — open links in new tabs, close tabs, and more.
Tap the trackpad simultaneously with 3 fingers to open links in a new tab
Features
Lightweight by design. Runs silently in the background with zero configuration required.
Touch the trackpad with 3 fingers simultaneously — the middle click fires the instant you lift them. No button to press, no Force Touch required.
Lives quietly in the menu bar. No Dock icon, no windows. Enable or disable with a single click from the status item.
Toggle "Launch at Login" from the menu. Once set, MiddleClick is always ready after every restart — without thinking about it.
Works on macOS 12 through macOS 26 (Tahoe). Handles the changed MTTouch struct layout that breaks other implementations.
Internals
Built on Apple's private multitouch API and CoreGraphics event simulation.
MiddleClick registers a callback with Apple's private MultitouchSupport.framework to receive raw per-finger touch data from the trackpad at every frame.
When exactly 3 fingers touch the surface and then all lift simultaneously, the gesture is confirmed. 4+ fingers are ignored to avoid conflicts with system gestures.
numTouches == 3 → activeA pair of CGEvent mouse events (otherMouseDown + otherMouseUp) is posted at the current cursor position via CGEventPost(.cghidEventTap).
Posting CGEvent globally requires the Accessibility permission. MiddleClick requests it once at first launch and polls until granted.
Requirements
MiddleClick is lightweight and has minimal dependencies.