Anyone who’s ever switched from a traditional mouse to a Mac trackpad knows the feeling: you reach for the middle-click to open a link in a new tab, or try to middle-drag to pan around a design canvas, and nothing happens. The Mac trackpad simply doesn’t have a middle button, and that missing functionality becomes frustrating fast.
I recently discovered MiddleDrag, a free and open-source utility that fills this gap. The app maps three-finger taps to middle-clicks and three-finger drags to middle-drag operations. It’s a simple concept, but the implementation is remarkably clever. The developer intercepts raw touch data via Apple’s private MultitouchSupport framework before the system processes it, which means MiddleDrag coexists peacefully with macOS gestures like Mission Control and Exposé.
In my workflow, this has been particularly useful for web browsing and design work. Three-finger tapping to open links in background tabs feels natural after about a day of use, and the three-finger drag works smoothly in applications like Figma and Photoshop for panning around large canvases. The app also shines in 3D modeling software, where middle-drag is essential for viewport navigation in tools like Blender or FreeCAD.
MiddleDrag includes a menu bar interface with straightforward settings. You can adjust drag sensitivity from 0.5x to 2x, depending on how much trackpad movement you want to translate into drag motion. There’s also a “Require Exactly 3 Fingers” mode that ignores four or more fingers, useful if you tend to rest extra fingers on the trackpad. The app requires Accessibility access to function, which is standard for utilities that modify input behavior.
The project is actively maintained with over 25 releases documented on GitHub. It requires macOS 15.0 (Sequoia) or later and works with both built-in trackpads and the Magic Trackpad. Installation is available through Homebrew, MacPorts, or direct .pkg installer downloads. The entire project is MIT licensed, so the source code is fully accessible if you want to verify what it’s doing or contribute improvements.
This fills a real gap for Mac users who miss middle-button functionality, whether you’re a designer panning around mockups, a developer navigating code with precision, or just someone who prefers keyboard-free tab management while browsing. The learning curve is minimal, and the app stays out of your way once configured.
