Close, reopen and switch browser tabs with trackpad gestures
A Mac trackpad has no gesture of its own for closing, reopening or stepping through browser tabs. Out of the box, tabs are a keyboard job: Command-W closes the tab in front, Shift-Command-T brings back the one you just closed, and Control-Tab moves to the next. To do the same with your fingers you need a gesture app such as Trill, whose Browser set closes a tab with a four-finger swipe down, reopens it with a four-finger swipe up, and switches tabs with a TipTap.
Below are the keyboard shortcuts first, because they work in every major browser today, then the gestures, how to switch them on, and what to do when macOS already uses a four-finger swipe for something else.
What macOS gives you for tabs
The trackpad gestures macOS ships are mostly about pages. Scrolling, zooming and swiping back and forward between pages all work in a browser, but none of them is there to close a tab, bring one back or move to the next one. The swipe between pages setting lives in System Settings, Trackpad, More Gestures, if you want to see which fingers yours uses.
For tabs, the keyboard does the work. These shortcuts behave the same way in Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Brave:
- Command-T opens a new tab.
- Command-W closes the tab in front.
- Shift-Command-T reopens the last tab you closed.
- Control-Tab moves to the next tab, and Control-Shift-Tab to the previous one. (Firefox has a setting that makes Control-Tab jump to the tab you used last instead.)
- Command-L jumps to the address bar, which is often the next thing you want after a new tab.
In Safari, Shift-Command-] and Shift-Command-[ also move to the next and previous tab, and the History menu has Reopen Last Closed Tab if the shortcut slips your mind.
Keyboard shortcuts are hard to beat when both hands are on the keys. The case for gestures is the rest of the time: you are reading, one hand is already on the trackpad scrolling, and reaching across for Command-W to close a finished article breaks the rhythm. A tab gesture means the hand that is scrolling can also tidy up.
The tab gestures in Trill’s Browser set
Trill comes with six ready-made Gesture Sets, each a few gestures for one kind of work, switched on with one click. The Browser set is the one for tabs. It works in Safari, Chrome, Arc, Firefox, Edge, Brave and Orion:
| Gesture | What it does |
|---|---|
| Four-finger tap | Opens a new tab |
| Four-finger swipe down | Closes the tab |
| Four-finger swipe up | Reopens the tab you closed |
| TipTap right | Moves to the next tab |
| TipTap left | Moves to the previous tab |
The two swipes are easy to learn as a pair. Down puts a tab away and up brings it back, so a tab closed by mistake is one swipe from returning, with no need to remember where the browser keeps its history.
A TipTap is a tap with one finger while another rests on the trackpad (TipTap explained step by step). Leave one finger down, then tap once beside it with a second finger: tap on the right of the resting finger to go to the next tab, on the left to go to the previous one. It takes a few goes to get the feel, and after that it is quicker than Control-Tab, because the hand that is already on the trackpad never moves.
The set only works in those seven browsers. A four-finger swipe down in Mail, Pages or Finder does not close anything, unless you give it a job there yourself. That is a good thing: a close gesture that worked in every app would sooner or later close a window you wanted to keep.
Switching the Browser set on
- Open Trill. The welcome suggests the Gesture Sets that fit the apps already on your Mac, and says why (“Picked because you have Spotify”).
- Switch on Browser with one click. Add any other set that suits you, or leave it at one while you learn.
- Allow Accessibility when macOS asks. Trill needs it to press keys and clicks for you, and macOS asks once. Until it is allowed, Trill’s menu says “Trill can’t press keys or move windows yet” and offers Allow Accessibility.
- Open a browser with a few tabs, put four fingers on the trackpad and swipe down. The tab in front closes.
- Swipe up with four fingers. It comes back.
On a Force Touch trackpad you feel a tick under your fingers the moment Trill recognises the gesture, before the tab closes. On a trackpad without Force Touch, Trill shows each gesture on screen instead. Either way you know the swipe was heard, which matters most while a gesture is new and you are not yet sure your fingers did the right thing.
To see a browser’s gestures at a glance, hold Trill’s Hyper Key (Caps Lock, or whichever key you chose) for a moment. Trill’s cheat sheet shows every gesture and shortcut that works in the app in front, and disappears when you let go. Show cheat sheet in the menu bar menu does the same.
When macOS already uses a four-finger swipe
macOS keeps some multi-finger gestures for itself. In System Settings, Trackpad, More Gestures, Mission Control can be a swipe up with three or four fingers, and App Exposé a swipe down with three or four fingers. The catch is that the three-finger choice for Mission Control answers to four fingers as well, so unless Mission Control is set to Off there, a four-finger swipe up opens it. Left alone, the Browser set’s swipe up would open Mission Control and reopen a tab at the same moment, which is no use to anyone. The swipe down meets App Exposé only if you have switched App Exposé on.
Trill does not let that happen quietly. When one of its gestures is the same as a gesture macOS is using, it keeps its own gesture off, marks it “Blocked by macOS” and offers the fix in one click: turn the gesture off in macOS, or pick another gesture for the job. If you turn Mission Control’s swipe off, Control-Up Arrow still opens it. The general case has its own post: when a trackpad gesture clashes with macOS, and how to fix it.
Which fix to choose depends on habit:
- You use that macOS gesture every day. Keep it, and give the tab action another gesture.
- You rarely use it, or reach Mission Control another way (the keyboard, or a hot corner). Let Trill turn the macOS gesture off.
Trill changes a macOS setting only when you click that fix. Every change is written down, and Put back returns them exactly as they were, so trying the four-finger version for a week costs nothing.
Your own tab gestures
If the set’s choices do not suit your hands, record your own. Press New gesture and do the gesture on the trackpad. Trill names the gesture it saw, you pick what it does, and the rule reads back as a sentence, so you can check it says what you meant.
For tabs, the actions are already there: New tab, Close tab, Reopen closed tab, Next tab and Previous tab. Press keys covers the rest, because anything your browser has a shortcut for can be given a gesture: Command-L, or a shortcut from a browser extension.
Each gesture works everywhere or only in the apps you choose. Some combinations worth trying:
- A click in the top-right corner of the trackpad that closes the tab, in your main browser only (see clicking a trackpad corner to run an action).
- A TipTap in a browser that is not in the set’s list, set to next and previous tab for that browser alone.
If a gesture you record is one macOS already uses, you get the same “Blocked by macOS” note and the same one-click fix.
Questions
Is there a built-in Mac trackpad gesture to close a tab?
No. The gestures macOS ships cover scrolling, zooming and swiping back and forward between pages. Closing a tab, reopening it and moving to the next one are keyboard shortcuts unless you add a gesture app.
Does the Browser set work in every browser?
It works in Safari, Chrome, Arc, Firefox, Edge, Brave and Orion. For any other browser, record the gestures yourself with New gesture and choose that browser as the app they work in.
Can BetterTouchTool do this as well?
Yes. BetterTouchTool supports per-app trackpad gestures, including tip-taps, and has more than 600 built-in actions, and it covers far more devices than Trill. Trill’s case is that the tab gestures arrive ready-made in one set, switched on with one click, with a tick under your fingers when each one lands.
What does Trill cost?
$29 once, not a subscription, for up to 3 Macs. It is free for 24 hours from the first launch with every feature and no card, and you have 30 days to ask for a refund.