How to get Mac gestures on a regular mouse

Can you use Mac gestures with a regular mouse?

Yes, but you need an app to do it. We checked Apple's Mac User Guide, whose version list now starts at macOS 27 Golden Gate. None of the pages we read have gesture settings for a non-Apple mouse. On a regular mouse, gestures come from a remapping app that watches a held button and the direction you move it.

We make mouzeclick, one of the four apps below. We checked every price and platform on the maker's own page on 3 November 2026. Where a page doesn't say, we wrote "Not published".

In short:

• Mac Mouse Fix has trackpad-style Mission Control and desktop swipes built in, for $2.99 plus taxes once.
• Logi Options+ is Logitech's own app for its mice.
• BetterTouchTool lists 600+ triggers and 600+ built-in actions.
• mouzeclick is built first for video editors: per-app shortcuts, with three wheels on top.

If you only need buttons, not gestures, start with how to remap mouse buttons on a Mac.

How do I get Mission Control and desktop swipes on a mouse?

Mac Mouse Fix has these as built-in gestures. Hold button 4 and drag up for Mission Control, or drag left and right to move between desktops. Its page lists each gesture and says which trackpad gesture it copies.

1. Check your mouse has at least 5 buttons: left click, right click, wheel click and two side buttons. With fewer, the page says some features are harder to reach.
2. Install Mac Mouse Fix. It is free for 30 days, and only the days you actually use it count.
3. To change an action, move the pointer inside the "+" field.
4. Click the mouse button you want to set. Double click, click and drag, and other inputs work there too.
5. Choose an action, such as Smart Zoom, or a keyboard shortcut.

The page says anything you can do with a keyboard shortcut can go on the mouse. Its examples are copy and paste, the volume and a new tab in Safari.

After the trial it costs $2.99 plus local taxes, once, with no subscription. If you pay on Gumroad through PayPal in a currency other than euros, PayPal adds a 4.5% conversion fee. The source code is on GitHub. The page doesn't list supported macOS versions.

How do I use Mac gestures with a Logitech mouse?

Use Logi Options+ if your mouse is on Logitech's supported list and your Mac runs macOS 14 or later. Logitech says you can assign gestures to any mouse button. You then hold it and move up, down, left or right to navigate windows, control songs and more.

1. Check your model. Logitech's Options+ page features MX Master 4, MX Master 3S, Lift and Signature M650, among others. The full list sits behind "View all supported devices".
2. Check your macOS version. The Mac download is for macOS 14 or later; the Windows one is for Windows 10 or later.
3. Install Options+ and pick your mouse.
4. Assign gestures to a button, then set what up, down, left and right do.
5. For different actions per app, use app-specific customization. Logitech names Safari, Chrome, Edge, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Zoom and Teams.

Logitech's page describes the features but not the click path, so the labels in your copy may differ. It also doesn't say which button is the gesture button on each mouse, and it shows no price.

Options+ has a few extras:

• Actions Ring, an on-screen overlay of tools at the cursor.
• Haptics, for now only on MX Master 4.
• Flow and Easy-Switch, for working across several computers.
• Pointer and scroll adjustment.

Logitech says the MX Master 3S comes with ready-made app settings for Photoshop, Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro. For an editor's view of that mouse, see the MX Master in Premiere Pro and After Effects. For per-app buttons without Logitech's app, read our Logi Options+ alternative comparison.

There are two other routes on a Logitech mouse. BetterTouchTool advertises "full Logitech control with no extra drivers". Mac Mouse Fix warns that on some mice running maker software such as Logitech Options, not every button is recognised.

Can I draw shapes or chord buttons as gestures on a Mac?

Yes: BetterTouchTool does both. Its home page lists multi-button chords, button plus scroll, modifier plus button, and shapes you draw while holding the right button.

Examples from folivora.ai:

• Button 4 + drag left or right: switch space.
• Button 4 + drag up or down: zoom in or out.
• Button 4 + left click: new tab.
• Button 3 + scroll up or down: volume up or down.
• Right button + draw a heart, or any shape you define: add to favourites.
• Left click a Dock icon: switch between showing and hiding the app.

What else the pages we checked say:

• 600+ triggers across every input device and 600+ built-in actions.
• Trackpad-like scrolling with scroll modifiers.
• Trackpad, Magic Mouse and normal mouse gestures, on the downloads page. It is the only app here whose page lists Magic Mouse gestures.
• Circular launchers that open with a gesture or a long click.
• Keyboard shortcuts that are global or scoped to one app or a group of apps.

The pages show no price and no Windows version. More detail: BetterTouchTool alternatives compared and radial menu apps for the Mac and Windows.

How do I set different mouse gestures for each app?

Choose an app that publishes per-app settings: Logi Options+, mouzeclick, or BetterTouchTool for keyboard shortcuts. The Mac Mouse Fix page doesn't mention per-app settings, so don't count on per-app gestures there until you test it.

Per-app gestures matter most to editors. A drag that splits a clip in your editor is no use in Safari. Here is a starting plan. Send each gesture to your editor's own shortcut for the job:

• Hold Mouse 4 and move left: undo.
• Hold Mouse 4 and move right: redo.
• Hold Mouse 4 and move up: play or stop.
• Hold Mouse 4 and move down: split at the playhead.
• Hold Mouse 5 and scroll: zoom the timeline.

How each app handles it:

• Options+ names Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro and Photoshop among its app-specific presets.
• mouzeclick gives every app its own profile and switches the moment you change windows. Its Mac page names Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, Final Cut and Chrome among the apps you can set up.

For the Premiere side in detail, see Premiere Pro mouse shortcuts on any mouse.

Where mouzeclick fits (we make it)

mouzeclick turns hold-and-move on a mouse button into per-app shortcuts. It runs on macOS 12 or newer, on Apple Silicon and Intel, with any mouse your Mac sees: wired, wireless or Bluetooth. There is no driver.

1. Drag the app to Applications. The Mac install guide shows each screen.
2. Allow it once: System Settings › Privacy & Security › Security › Open Anyway. Apple has not notarized the app yet, so macOS asks the first time. The Terminal route is xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/mouzeclick.app.
3. Turn on mouzeclick under Accessibility and Input Monitoring, then quit it and open it again.
4. Click the menu-bar icon › Open settings, paste your key and press Activate.
5. Press each mouse button once. The settings page is then built around the buttons your mouse really has.
6. Pick an app, pick a button, and fill its slots.

Buttons and slots. mouzeclick reads up to five standard buttons (left, right, middle, Mouse 4 and Mouse 5) plus scroll and tilt. Each button has eleven slots: tap, hold and move in four directions, a chord with another button, or hold and scroll. A slot can send a key, a shortcut you record, or a macro of keys, clicks, waits, typed text and launches. Keyboard hotkeys work per app too.

The three wheels.

• Options wheel (F8): 48 favourites per app, on three rings.
• Orbit switch (F9): your open apps as icons, up to 12 on a ring. Rest on an app and the wheel shows its windows, or a browser's tabs.
• On a MacBook keyboard these two use Fn + F8 and Fn + F9.
• Tool wheel, in Premiere Pro and After Effects only: 112 tools in Premiere and 114 in the After Effects Tool wheel. Open it with F10 or a held right button.

What it doesn't do.

• Mission Control: we have not confirmed that macOS system shortcuts such as Mission Control fire from mouzeclick, so we don't promise it. If system gestures are what you want most, Mac Mouse Fix is the better pick.
• Offline use: mouzeclick needs an internet connection while it runs. If the connection drops, the shortcuts pause and the mouse acts normally until it returns.
• Mouse hardware: DPI, battery and lighting stay with your mouse maker's software.
• Final Cut: there is no Final Cut panel, though the mouse app works there like in any app.

Where another app is the better pick.

• Mac Mouse Fix, for Mission Control, App Exposé, desktop swipes and Launchpad as built-in gestures, at the lowest published price here.
• Logi Options+, if you own a supported Logitech mouse and want Actions Ring, or haptics on an MX Master 4.
• BetterTouchTool, for gestures you draw as shapes, or for Magic Mouse gestures.

Mac and Windows. These parts are Windows only: the After Effects and Premiere Pro workspaces, auto, styled and Hinglish captions, Retakes, cloud sync and in-app updates. On a Mac you still get:

• the mouse app, gestures and all three wheels
• the 22 Premiere Pro and After Effects extensions
• Studio's Silence, Timeline and Guides tabs
• the Toolbar and Search effects

Price and trial. One key runs on one computer at a time, Windows or Mac. The price is $25 a month, $249 a year, or $499 once for one of the first 100 lifetime keys. The trial is 3 days, with no card.

Why are my Mac mouse gestures not working?

Usually the button never reaches the app. Either the mouse has too few buttons, another program holds the button, or a permission is off. Work down this list.

• Count your buttons. Mac Mouse Fix's gestures need 5: left, right, wheel click and two side buttons.
• Magic Mouse. Mac Mouse Fix doesn't support it. BetterTouchTool's downloads page lists Magic Mouse gestures.
• Maker software. Mac Mouse Fix says some mice running software such as Logitech Options don't show every button. Quit the other app and test again.
• macOS version. Options+ needs macOS 14 or later; mouzeclick needs macOS 12 or newer. The Mac Mouse Fix and BetterTouchTool pages we checked don't publish a range.
• mouzeclick permissions. Accessibility and Input Monitoring must both be on. Quit mouzeclick and open it again after you turn them on.
• mouzeclick blocked on first launch. Use System Settings › Privacy & Security › Security › Open Anyway.
• mouzeclick offline. Shortcuts pause without a connection and come back when it returns.
• The gesture runs but nothing happens. The shortcut it sends may not match the one your app uses. Check the app's own menu for the key, and record it again.
• Side buttons dead in every app. Start with the side-button fixes before blaming the gesture app.

What is the best mouse for Mac gestures?

Any mouse with at least five buttons: left, right, wheel click and two side buttons. That is Mac Mouse Fix's stated minimum for its gestures, and it gives every other app here a spare button to hold.

Choose a Logitech model from the supported list if you want the Options+ extras:

• Actions Ring, whose Easy-Switch bubbles work on any MX mouse.
• Haptics, only on MX Master 4 for now.
• Flow across computers.

mouzeclick works with any wired, wireless or Bluetooth mouse and leaves DPI, battery and lighting to the maker's software. Buy for your hand and your desk. For the models editors use, see the best mouse for video editing.

Questions people ask

Sources

Checked on 2026-11-03. Prices and features change: each link goes to the maker's own page.

1. Logitech: Logi Options+ (checked 3 Nov 2026)
2. Logitech: MX Master 3S product page
3. Folivora: BetterTouchTool home page
4. Folivora: BetterTouchTool downloads
5. Folivora: BetterTouchTool keyboard shortcuts
6. Mac Mouse Fix home page (price, trial, gestures)
7. Apple: Mac User Guide

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