BetterTouchTool 6.471 includes a large set of new features, refinements, and reliability improvements. The biggest areas of work are the new Launcher, much improved mouse gestures, BTT Mobile, AI assistants, plugin creation, and lots of smaller fixes and improvements across the app.

New BetterTouchTool Launcher

The new Launcher is the largest addition in this release. It can be shown, hidden, or toggled from any BetterTouchTool trigger and can be configured as one or multiple independent launcher instances.

• Search and run installed apps, running apps, windows, BetterTouchTool actions, configured triggers, floating menus, clipboard history, files, folders, System Settings panes, AI assistants, calendar items, reminders, notes, timers, emoji, and Now Playing controls.
• Organize launcher sections into folders and groups, reorder sections, pin frequently used items, add files and folders as shortcuts, configure visibility modes, and set custom titles, subtitles, icons, keywords, aliases, groups, and sort order.
• Use fuzzy matching, abbreviation matching, keyword search, per-query learning, general usage learning, custom per-item shortcuts, and result ranking to find things faster over time.
• Browse files directly inside the Launcher, including file search, folder navigation, previews, Quick Look, Open With, Reveal in Finder, Copy Path, Trash, drag and drop, and recently opened files.
• Use built-in utility surfaces for timers, calendar/reminders, speech dictation, emoji, unit conversion, currency conversion, math results, notes, Now Playing, and Apple TV Remote.
• Open floating menus inside the Launcher, embed floating menus below the prompt, and expose Searchable Lists or Custom Context Menus as expandable launcher entries.
• Use launcher plugins and Simple JSON launcher items to add dynamic search results, child items, commands, keyboard shortcuts, and full launcher-hosted surfaces.
• Continue AI assistant conversations directly inside the Launcher, keep long-running conversations alive as pills, and reopen recent conversations from search.

Gestures, Keyboard, and Input

This release includes many improvements for triggers, gestures, haptics, shortcuts, and input automation.

• Reliability of mouse gestures has been improved a LOT by finally identifying and fixing a critical bug that has been there for ages
• Improvements for Magic Mouse and Trackpad gestures. Many of the gestures now support click press/release action categories. For example a three finger click can now trigger one action sequence on "click down" and another action sequence on "click release".
• Keyboard shortcuts that have advanced trigger conditions assigned can now use the "If conditions fail, let the shortcut pass through" option. This makes many setups much easier.
• New Key Sequence visualizer that helps a lot in identifying issues with Key Sequences
• New predefined action "Set / Press / Release Selected Modifier Keys". This action is very customizable with lots of compatibilitiy options and can help triggering actions in apps that require you to hold a specific set of modifier keys. This has often been problematic in the past.
• Added an "Allow Parallel Execution" option so duplicate matching triggers can run together instead of showing a conflict menu.
• Added a new action to set, press, or release multiple selected modifier keys at once, including left/right variants.
• Improved simulated keyboard shortcuts with options to include currently held modifiers and send at a lower system level for apps that ignore standard simulated events.
• Smooth scrolling modifier received multiple refinements, including per-axis scroll modifier filtering, reduce/disable scroll acceleration options, better direction changes, smoother momentum/ease-out behavior, and fast-scroll stutter fixes.
• Fixed several edge cases around stuck modifiers, key sequence recording, right-click plus scroll gestures, mouse-up triggers with modifiers, and sleep/wake modifier state.

Actions and Automation

• Added Quit Specific Application, with support for normal quit and optional force quit fallback.
• Send Shortcut to Specific App can now target the active app or the app under the cursor.
• Custom Click can now send mouse events to the currently hovered window, even if it is not focused.
• Find Text on Screen now stores recognized text and success state in variables, can continue execution when no match is found, and provides better diagnostic output.
• Added Power Mode Changed triggers and the power_mode variable for reacting to Automatic, Low Power, and High Power mode changes.
• Added Running Processes and other useful condition variables, plus faster variable lists and better rule editor navigation.
• Added Toggle Mute Microphone, with support for all connected input devices and restoring previous volume levels.
• Improved speech dictation, including a Launcher dictation surface, review actions, restart recording, and saving transcripts to variables.
• New predefined actions "Apple TV: Show Remote" and "Apple TV: Control Device". With these you can control all of your Apple TVs from your Mac.

AI Assistants and h@llo.ai (all optional and disabled by default)

AI assistant support has been expanded across setup, model selection, automation, chat UI, external integrations, and plugin creation.

• Added ChatGPT subscription / Codex sign-in via OAuth, so supported AI features can use a ChatGPT account without requiring an API key.
• Added GPT-5.5 and many newer OpenAI/Codex model choices, plus improved model pickers for OpenAI, OpenAI-compatible servers, Codex CLI, OpenCode CLI, and ChatGPT subscription accounts.
• Redesigned AI setup flows around Cloud API, Local Model, and CLI Tool choices, with better support for LM Studio, Ollama, Jan, LocalAI, Apple Foundation Models, Claude CLI, Codex CLI, and OpenCode CLI.
• Added fetch/test helpers for model setup, better handling of local servers without API keys, show/hide toggles for API keys, and cleaner hiding of fields that do not apply to the selected provider.
• Added and refined the AI skills system, including active/optional/off skill states, skill search, categorized skill lists, custom skill editing, optional skill requests, and safer defaults for the BetterTouchTool AI Config Assistant.
• Added background automation tools that can inspect and control specific apps or windows without activating them or moving the real mouse cursor. This includes background clicks, text entry, key presses, scrolling, app launching, menu bar actions, screenshots, and UI structure inspection.
• Added an optional fake cursor overlay for visualizing what background automation is doing.
• Added a BetterTouchTool MCP server so external AI clients such as Codex and Claude Code can use configured BetterTouchTool assistants with their permissions and tools.
• Improved AI chat reliability and polish: smoother streaming, better message queuing, cleaner tool-call rendering, better error messages, screen reader support, improved conversation restoration, better CLI conversation context, and safer loop protection.
• Improved the BetterTouchTool AI Config Assistant with clearer setup, renamed labels, better default skills, better routing instructions, and automatic setup when first used.

Plugins

Plugin creation and installation are now much more capable.

• Added support for launcher plugins that can contribute native results, child items, commands, shortcuts, and custom launcher surfaces.
• Added support for JSON action plugins using the .bttjsonplugin format, allowing configurable plugins to be distributed without compiling Swift code.
• The Plugin Manager now recognizes launcher plugins, trigger plugins, and JSON plugins more reliably.
• BetterTouchTool now registers as an editor for .bttjsonplugin files.
• The AI Plugin Creator can create and edit action plugins, launcher plugins, trigger plugins, floating menu widgets, Stream Deck plugins, Touch Bar plugins, Swift plugins, and JSON plugins.
• Swift plugin creation is safer and clearer: failed compilations no longer appear as successful, previous approval state is cleared after failures, and the assistant can edit existing Swift plugin files without rewriting everything.

BTT Mobile

BTT Mobile is still only available via TestFlight but will be submitted to the App Store very soon.

• Added an Active App tab for seeing and controlling the currently active Mac app, including activate, hide, quit, and force quit actions.
• Added a Settings screen for showing or hiding tabs such as Menus, Active App, Launcher, and AI Chat. The selected tab is now remembered between app launches.
• Improved AI chat on mobile with model and tool pickers, clearer empty states, thinking output support, working indicators, better tool result icons, and better privacy for inline links.
• Improved floating menu sync and nested menu updates, especially for large menu collections and deeply nested items.
• Improved pairing, reconnecting, stale connection handling, duplicate server handling, certificate error reporting, and multi-device connection stability.

Floating Menus

• Floating menus can now appear inside the Launcher or be embedded below the Launcher prompt.
• Added new visibility action for App-Specific Floating Menus: "Show Via Action, Restore When App Becomes Active again" visibility option for app-specific floating menus.
• Free-moving and fixed-initial-position menus better remember their last position when closed automatically during app switching.
• Web view floating menus can use BetterTouchTool variables inside URLs or HTML content.
• Drawer widgets gained much better drag and drop support for files, URLs, images, colors, text, rich text, HTML, RTF, and browser-specific clipboard formats.
• Floating menu tooltips were refined for better positioning, dismissal, and less intrusive display.
• Improved floating menu resizing, mobile sync efficiency, item lookup, nested variable tracking, and layout reliability.

Stream Deck and Logitech

• Added a Switch Stream Deck Plugin Profile action, including bundled starter profiles, profile/page switching and target device selection.
• Added MX Master 4 support for Haptic Sense feedback power and thumb-button press sensitivity
• Improved Logitech receiver re-detection after sleep or reconnect.

• Small update, mostly improves on the features introduced with the previous update. For full version details have a look at the development overview thread https://community.folivora.ai/t/development-overview-thread/42667/28

Logitech Devices

• Much faster button setup on reconnect via caching
• Fixed Fn key inversion on Logitech keyboards
• Support for the new G Pro X2 Superstrike mouse
• Many bugfixes, better after-wake-from-sleep handling

Smooth Scrolling (normal mice)

• Simplified configuration of the Smooth Scroll Modifier with a single Smoothness slider
• Support for very slow auto-scroll speeds (0.01–0.05) and finer speed control
• Horizontal-only trackpad scroll simulation option
• Fixed rubber banding, swipe navigation, and momentum issues in Safari

Trackpad & Mouse Gestures

• New edge swipe gestures — 1-finger and 2-finger swipe gestures along all four trackpad edges (left, right, top, bottom), with continuous triggering and animated previews
• Circle gestures — Draw clockwise or counter-clockwise circles on the trackpad or Magic Mouse to trigger actions, with configurable circle count and shape tolerance
• Long Touch gestures — Hold 1–5 fingers stationary on the trackpad or Magic Mouse for a configurable duration to trigger actions
• All swipe gestures now have an additional action trigger category "Quick Flick". This allows to trigger different actions when doing a fast swipe.
• Mouse button drag gestures — Fixed Right-click drag gestures (up/down/left/right) with both discrete and continuous action modes

Key Sequences / Typed Strings

• Import snippets from files — Import text snippets from CSV, JSON, Espanso YAML (subset), and AutoHotkey (subset) files with auto-detection and batch import
• Fixed modifier-only key sequences with minimum hold time not triggering reliably

New Actions

• Auto Scroll (Toggle) — Continuous auto-scrolling with visual overlay and cursor-based direction/speed control
• Change/Set Audio Output & Input Device, Toggle Mute Microphone, Set Audio Input Volume
• Play Sound File — Play system or custom sound files (AIFF, WAV, MP3, M4A, CAF, AAC)

New Triggers

• Audio Output/Input Device Changed — React when default audio devices switch, with optional regex filtering

Floating Menus

• Drawer Widget — Drop target for collecting and organizing files with grid, list, and horizontal layouts, toolbar, drag-to-remove, and Quick Look support
• Now Playing Widget — Shows current track with album artwork, progress bar, and per-app filtering
• Weather Widget — Current conditions, forecasts, and configurable units/location
• Custom Plugin Widgets — Third-party or user-created widgets with interactive controls
• Lock screen support — Floating menus can optionally remain visible on the lock screen
• New positioning modes — "Fixed Initial Position, Then Free Move" and "Disable Drag" option
• Horizontal/vertical alignment and sub-menu positioning options
• "Above Menu Bar" window level
• Search/filter field in the configuration panel
• New templates: Drawer Widget, Circular App Switcher, Notch Menu
• Cleaner/more compact preset exports, various bug fixes

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Fixed modifier key release issues (ghost modifiers, premature clearing, stuck state after secure input)
• "Key Down Only" / "Key Up Only" labels in action descriptions with usage warnings

Window Management & Spaces

• Improved "Move Window to Space" reliability on macOS 15+
• Fixed Spaces detection when "Displays Have Separate Spaces" is off

Live Touch Visualization

• Redesigned touch visualization with smooth trails, force indicators, and gesture logging

Usage Statistics

• Updated/modernized usage statistics window with daily trend charts and most-used trigger rankings

Clipboard Manager

• Retrieve selected items via scripting (AppleScript/JavaScript) in selection order
• UI fixes for sidebar toggling and focus rings

AI Assistant / h@llo.ai (beta, fully optional, off by default)

• "Ask AI" configuration assistant — Built-in AI assistant in preferences for creating triggers, shortcuts, automations, and floating menus via natural language
• Claude Code CLI, Codex CLI & OpenCode CLI support — Use Claude Code CLI, Codex CLI and OpenCode CLI as an AI backend
• Model Fallback Chain — Automatic fallback to backup models on API errors
• Model browser — Browse and select AI models across providers with live pricing info
• Persistent AI memory — The AI remembers details across conversations with on-device embedding fallback
• Adaptive thinking for Claude 4.6 models with configurable effort levels
• Custom skills, prompt blocks, and scheduled AI tasks
• Various UI improvements: thinking indicators, skill cards, context panel, code block copy buttons

Plugin System Improvements (experimental)

• Swift plugin support — Write plugins in pure Swift, auto-compiled from .swift files (see docs)
• Hot reload — Plugins recompile and refresh automatically when source files change
• Plugin trust & security — Plugins require user approval; modifications prompt re-approval
• Plugins install to user folder and are bundled when sharing/exporting triggers

Other

• Icon picker screenshot capture — Take a screenshot and use it as an icon
• Customizable preferences toolbar (right-click to rearrange)
• Improved JSON import/export with categorized action grouping
• Animations respect macOS "Reduce Motion" setting
• Fixed conditional actions (If/Else) execution order
• Fixed some triggers from deactivated presets still executing
• Improved Apple Shortcuts reliability
• New InputVolume built-in variable
• Added/improved translations for Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish
• Various stability and performance improvements

This is a pretty huge release that touches many parts of BTT

Normal Mouse Related Changes

• Lots of improvements for normal mouse setups in BetterTouchTool.
  • Multi button clicks or button click+scroll triggers can now be recorded.
  • Easy setup for short/long button presses.
  • Easy setup for drag up/down/left/right gestures. You can also assign the new predefined actions "Start Smooth Zoom", "Start Smooth Space Switch", "Start Smooth Rotate" or "Start Smooth Scroll" to these drag categories to simulate native gestures while dragging with a mouse button.
  • Various scroll modifiers, for example trackpad like smooth scrolling (much improved), zooming, rotating and space switching. In general improved the behavior of scroll modifiers a lot. Scroll modifiers now also support advanced trigger conditions to make them only active in certain situations.
  • Updated the documentation for normal mice on https://docs.folivora.ai/docs/802_normal_mice_assigning_actions.html
  • Logitech Support (example presets & documentation @ https://docs.folivora.ai/docs/4000_logitech.html) has come a long way since its initial release in December. Huge thanks to the many testers! Now most of the Logitech mice and keyboards are supported directly in BetterTouchTool without the need for any other mouse driver/software! Here are some of the mice/keyboards that have been tested successfully: MX Master 3, MX Master 3S, MX Master 4, MX Master 3S For Mac, MX Anywhere 3, MX Anywhere 3S, MX Vertical, MX Ergo Precision, M720, G402, All G502 variants (Proteus Core, Proteus Spectrum, HERO, HERO Wireless, X, X PLUS, X Wireless), G903 / G903 HERO Keyboards: MX Keys, MX Keys Mechanical, MX Keys For Mac, MX Keys Mini, MX Keys Mechanical Mini
  • Various new Logitech related predefined actions, e.g. for haptic feedback, toggling ratchet mode, switching hosts etc.
  

  Other Changes

  • You can now right-click a floating menu (in the BTT configuration) and choose "Save As Template", then you'll be able to reuse it later.
  • Easier advanced keyboard shortcut setup via Action Trigger Categories
  • Stream Deck Plugin Mode has been completely rewritten. BTT will not need to restart your Stream Deck software anymore.
  • Stream Deck MK2 Scissor Keys is now supported in full control mode.
  • Powerful new predefined actions "Start / Stop Dictation / Recognizing / Transcribing Speech". These use Apple's new local AI models for speech transcription and only work on macOS 26 and higher. The transcription is happening 100% offline.
    
  • New predefined actions: "Start Smooth Scrolling" and "Stop Smooth Scrolling"
  • New predefined action "Start Smooth Zoom" and "Stop Smooth Zoom"
  • New predefined action "Start Smooth Rotate" and "Stop Smooth Rotate"
  • New predefined action: "Debounce", which prevents following actions in the action sequence from triggering for a specified amount of time.
  • The predefined action "Access / Interact With / Click Specific UI Element" can now save the value or description of a specified element to a variable.
  • The predefined action "Save / Restore Window Layout" can now also launch the referenced apps if they are not running yet.
  • Drawing gesture scopes (see https://docs.folivora.ai/docs/701_drawings.html#scopes
  • Fixed an issue with the "Specific App Did Create Window" and "Specific App Did Destroy Window" trigger. This works also with system apps, e.g. you can use com.apple.notificationcenterui to trigger this whenever notification centers shows a new notification.

  Fixes

  • Fixed issue when dragging folders between apps
  • Fixed: Floating menu templates can now also be used with specific apps / CAGs and won't be always added to "All Apps" anymore.
  • Fixed: When using drawing / mouse gestures the space key sometimes stopped working
  • UI Changes: Due to various recent Xcode issues I was forced to (finally) migrate away from using Storyboards for BTT's UI. The UI is now generated programatically. During this migration I also applied the basic Tahoe styling. There will be some differences compared to how it looked before, but the functionality is mostly the same. This was a huge internal change, so if you encounter any bugs, please report them.