Change volume and brightness by sliding along the trackpad edge
macOS has no trackpad gesture for volume or brightness. Out of the box you use the volume and brightness keys on the keyboard, or the sliders in Control Center. To change them by sliding a finger along the edge of the trackpad, you need a gesture app: in Trill, the Media set makes a slide along the right edge change the volume and a slide along the top edge change the brightness, in steps you can feel.
Here are the built-in ways first, including a trick for finer steps, then the edge slides, and what to watch for near the edges macOS already uses.
The built-in ways, and finer steps
The keys. The top row of a Mac keyboard has keys for brightness down and up, and for mute, volume down and volume up. Each press moves the level one step, and macOS shows the new level on screen.
Smaller steps. Hold Shift and Option while you press a volume or brightness key, and each press moves the level in a smaller step than usual. It is the way to get a level between two steps, for quiet music late at night or a screen that is slightly too bright in a dark room.
Control Center. Click Control Center in the menu bar for Display and Sound sliders. Dragging a slider is the quickest way to make a big change, from near silence to loud, in one movement.
Sound in the menu bar. If you change the volume often, System Settings, Control Center (in macOS 14 and 15) lets Sound show in the menu bar all the time, so a volume slider is one click away instead of two.
All of these work well. What they share is that your hand has to leave the trackpad, or your eyes have to find a slider. If you are scrolling through a video timeline or reading with one hand on the trackpad, an edge slide keeps the hand where it is.
The Media set: volume on the right edge, brightness on the top
Trill comes with six ready-made Gesture Sets, each switched on with one click. The Media set works in every app and has three gestures:
| Gesture | What it does |
|---|---|
| Slide one finger along the right edge | Changes the volume |
| Slide one finger along the top edge | Changes the brightness |
| Five-finger tap | Plays or pauses |
A slide is one finger moving along an edge of the trackpad, not across it. Put a fingertip near the right edge and run it along that edge, and the volume changes as you go. The top edge works the same way for brightness. Trill reads slides on the left, right and top edges, never the bottom.
The change happens in steps rather than as one continuous sweep, which is what makes it easy to stop at the level you want instead of overshooting it.
The five-finger tap is the third gesture in the set: play and pause without looking for the media key or the app’s window. Put the whole hand down lightly and lift it.
Feeling each step
On a Force Touch trackpad, Trill taps back as you slide. Two of its haptic patterns are made for slides (the rest are in feeling a tick when a gesture works):
- Step: a light tap at each step of the slide, so you can count the change by feel.
- Limit: a different tap when the slide reaches 0% or 100%, so you know the volume is at the bottom or the top without looking.
That is the part that makes an edge slide better than a slider on screen. Turning the volume down in a meeting becomes a matter of running a finger along the edge and counting a few taps, with your eyes on the people talking. When you feel Limit, you are at the end, and there is nothing further that way.
All of Trill’s haptics share one Strength setting: Off, Light, Medium or Strong. If the steps feel busy, try Light. On a trackpad without Force Touch, the slides still work, and Trill shows each gesture on screen instead of tapping back.
Switching the Media set on
- Open Trill. The welcome suggests Gesture Sets that fit the apps already on your Mac, and says why (“Picked because you have Spotify”).
- Switch on Media with one click.
- If macOS asks for Accessibility, allow it. Trill uses it to press keys and clicks for you, and macOS asks once.
- Put one finger near the right edge of the trackpad and slide it along the edge. Then try the top edge.
If you use Trill’s Hyper Key, hold it for a moment and the cheat sheet shows every gesture and shortcut that works in the app in front, the Media slides included. Show cheat sheet in the menu bar menu does the same.
Near the edges macOS already uses
macOS has one trackpad gesture that starts at an edge: Notification Center, which is a swipe left from the right edge with two fingers, set in System Settings, Trackpad, More Gestures. It is a different movement from Trill’s volume slide. Notification Center is two fingers moving inwards, away from the edge. The volume slide is one finger moving along the edge.
If you record a gesture of your own that macOS already uses, Trill keeps yours off, says why (“Blocked by macOS”) and offers the fix in one click: turn the gesture off in macOS, or pick another gesture. Trill changes a macOS setting only when you click that fix, and Put back returns every change exactly as it was.
Some apps want the trackpad to themselves. Games, remote desktops and virtual machines are the usual ones. Add them to Ignore these apps and Trill is off while one of them is in front, slides included. To stop everything for a while, pause Trill from the menu bar for 15 minutes, for 1 hour, or until you resume.
Your own slides
The set uses two edges. The left edge is free, and any slide can be recorded fresh. Press New gesture and slide a finger along an edge. One finger at an edge also moves the pointer, so Trill asks you to do it once more before it records it. Then Trill names the gesture it saw, you pick what it does (Volume slide or Brightness slide, for example), and the rule reads back as a sentence. Once the slide is added, the pointer holds still while you slide. Each gesture works everywhere or only in the apps you choose.
Some arrangements worth trying:
- Swap the edges. If brightness feels more natural on the side, record a slide on the left edge for brightness and leave the top edge alone.
- Volume in one app only. If the Media set is more than you want, skip it and record a single right-edge slide for volume in the app where you listen most.
- Play and pause elsewhere. If five fingers feels like too many, record a different gesture for play and pause and keep the slides.
Edge slides in BetterTouchTool and Trill
BetterTouchTool can do edge slides as well: its version 6.884 added continuous gestures, including 1- or 2-finger slides along the trackpad edges. It covers far more devices and features than Trill, with more than 600 built-in actions, and it costs less: at the time of writing (October 2026), $15 for a standard licence with two years of updates or $25 for a lifetime licence (the exact price depends on country and taxes), with a 45-day trial and one licence for all your personal Macs.
Trill’s case is that the volume and brightness slides come ready-made in one set, switched on with one click, with Step and Limit taps under your finger as you go. It costs $29 once for up to 3 Macs, and it is free for 24 hours from the first launch with every feature.
Questions
Can I slide along the bottom edge of the trackpad?
Not in Trill. It reads slides on the left, right and top edges, never the bottom.
Does the edge slide work on a Magic Trackpad?
Yes. Trill’s gestures work on a MacBook’s built-in trackpad and on a Magic Trackpad. The Step and Limit taps need a Force Touch trackpad.
Is there a way to get finer volume steps without any app?
Yes. Hold Shift and Option while you press the volume or brightness keys, and each press moves the level in a smaller step.