Version History

License restoration and usage insights

• Updated license verification. Existing licensed installations need one online restore after updating; purchased licenses and activation limits are preserved.
• Anonymous usage analytics help identify permission, setup, and activation problems. Turn collection off in Settings.
• Trackpad and Joystick movement, plus fist pause, remain free without a time limit.

Free movement, without a timer

• Trackpad and Joystick movement, plus fist pause, are free indefinitely. Unlock the other gesture actions with a one-time license.
• Locked gestures are recognized and show an unlock hint without executing the action. Continue using free movement after closing the upgrade window.
• Choose Fist or Distance as your Lift method in Settings. No calibration step.
• Right-click uses the one-handed gesture. Gesture instructions now use plain sentences.
• Improved scrolling with partially visible fingers and more stable hand control.

More natural hand control

• Two-finger scrolling follows your hand movement. Hold still to stop, wherever your hand is.
• Recognize visible scroll fingers even when your wrist is outside the camera frame.
• More stable pinch-and-drag through brief tracking interruptions and angled hand poses.
• Restored two-hand shortcuts, smoother return to one-hand control, and shorter gesture instructions.

Performance

• Intel Macs use an explicit CPU inference thread budget while retaining the full hand model and two-hand gestures.
• Lower background processing and fewer interface updates when Control and preview are off.
• Standby leaves the CPU time to rest when recognition is slow. Control and two-hand start gestures retain their full processing budget.

Movement and control

• Trackpad-style relative movement is now the default for new installations. Existing movement preferences are preserved.
• Improved fine movement, slow curves, fractional cursor motion, and transitions between movement speeds.
• Game mode adds relative mouse movement data for compatible applications. Compatibility depends on the game and its input settings.

Settings and gestures

• Settings are organized into Movement, Scrolling, Hands & gestures, Appearance, License, and Support & reset.
• Improved finger-state interpretation using 3D hand landmarks when available.
• Saved settings are restored consistently, including preferences saved by older versions.

Camera and control

• Camera capture and preview rendering run independently, so a slow preview does not hold up hand tracking.
• Tracking consumes the newest camera frame and keeps full acquisition speed while control or preview is enabled.
• Pinch release lets go of the original mouse button even if the other hand changes its modifier during a drag.

💻 Intel Macs

• The Intel download finally contains an Intel app. Earlier Intel builds shipped an Apple Silicon engine that could not start at all, which looked like “the camera does not work” no matter what permissions you granted

📷 Camera

• AirTrackpad opens the camera you chose and no other. It no longer looks for cameras by opening every device on your Mac, which is what kept asking your iPhone to become a webcam
• Unplugging a webcam now says “No camera detected” and offers the picker, instead of quietly moving you onto a different camera
• The camera list no longer wakes any device to build itself

🐦 Gestures

• Drags no longer let go halfway. A hand that is briefly hard to read keeps the gesture you are holding rather than dropping it
• A pose has to be held for a moment before it takes over — single bad frames can no longer grab the cursor — while clicks stay instant

🔧 Improvements

• The status button in the header now tells you what is actually wrong and what to press, instead of showing the same six words for four different problems
• AirTrackpad asks for camera permission when it starts, and tells apart “never asked” from “you said no” — they need different things from you and used to look identical
• Returning from Settings while the app is still starting no longer reports “Engine stopped”
• Smaller download: 226 language packs the app never used have been removed

🔒 Privacy

• AirTrackpad now asks macOS for the camera and nothing else — earlier builds also requested the microphone, your photo library and Apple events, none of which the app uses
• Removed the microphone, screen-recording and Bluetooth permission descriptions that were declared but never needed
• No audio libraries are bundled any more

🐦 Gestures

• A fist is recognised as a fist only when your thumb closes onto your folded fingers, so pointing and half-closed hands no longer stop the cursor by mistake

🔧 Improvements

• Smaller download and a quicker start — a packaging fault was putting a large unused graphics stack back into every release
• Logs moved to the standard macOS location, ~/Library/Logs/AirTrackpad, and existing logs are moved for you

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Choosing a camera from the dropdown in Settings works
• “Clear Logs” confirms when it is done instead of appearing to hang

🐦 Gestures

• Scrolling latches on and scrolls by pixels, like a real trackpad, instead of dropping out mid-gesture
• Scroll speed no longer bottoms out at the low end of the slider

🔧 Improvements

• Light and dark themes across every window
• A crash handler that no longer crashes on its way out

🐦 Gestures

• Scroll stays locked in while your hand moves, instead of dropping out mid-scroll
• Gaming mode: make a fist to re-centre the joystick without losing your aim

🔧 Improvements

• Much faster launch — about six seconds quicker to the camera
• Smaller download
• Light and dark themes that follow your Mac’s appearance
• Notarized by Apple, so it opens without security warnings

🐛 Bug Fixes

• AirTrackpad now tells you when macOS Accessibility permission is missing, instead of clicks and scrolling silently doing nothing
• License details appear in Settings instead of loading forever

🔒 Security

• Pinned Ed25519 public key for license verification
• Removed NODE_ENV development bypass in packaged builds
• Hardened production license configuration validation

✨ New Features

• Real license server integration with activation validation
• Single device activation per license
• Device transfer support via email

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed license activation flow
• Improved error messaging

🔧 Improvements

• Code-signed macOS builds
• Refactored codebase for maintainability
• Updated website with clear licensing terms

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed camera permission handling on macOS
• Improved gesture detection accuracy

🔧 Improvements

• Performance optimizations
• Better error messages

🎉 Initial Release

• Joystick-style hand tracking control
• Palm-based anchor point for stable tracking
• Gesture support: pinch to click, fist to stop, scroll gestures
• Local processing - all data stays on your device
• Cross-platform support (macOS, Windows, Linux)
• Minimap visualization
• No calibration required