The Trackpad Gesture That Opens Launchpad on Mac

There's a faster way into Launchpad than hunting for its Dock icon: put your thumb and three fingers on the trackpad and pinch them together, like picking something up off the glass. Launchpad opens instantly, type a few letters, hit Return, and the app launches — hands never leave the trackpad and keyboard.

Enable the pinch

1. Open System Settings → Trackpad.
2. Select the More Gestures tab.
3. Turn on Launchpad.

The gesture is on by default on macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia, so if pinching does nothing, this toggle is the first thing to check — and turning it off again is the undo.

The motion: rest your thumb and any three fingertips on the trackpad, then draw them together toward the center. It's a grabbing motion, not a two-finger photo pinch. Once Launchpad is open, just start typing an app's name and press Return — no need to click the search box.

Inside Launchpad the trackpad keeps working: swipe left or right with two fingers to move between pages of apps, and pinch outward (or press Esc) to leave without launching anything. Drag one app icon onto another to make a folder, exactly like iOS.

The reverse gesture shows the desktop

Spread the same four digits apart and every window slides off-screen to reveal the desktop — handy for grabbing a file you just downloaded. That's a separate toggle, Show Desktop, in the same More Gestures tab. The two gestures mirror each other: pinch in for Launchpad, spread out for desktop, and in both cases reversing the motion puts everything back.

The pairing makes a tidy drag workflow: spread to expose the desktop, grab the file, then — mid-drag, with your other hand or a quick reverse spread — bring your windows back and drop it where it belongs. No minimizing, no window shuffling.

If the pinch won't register

• Check the toggle — resetting trackpad settings or migrating from an old Mac can leave it off.
• Use your thumb — four fingertips in a row won't work reliably; macOS looks for a thumb-plus-fingers pinch. Keep the thumb low on the trackpad, fingers above it.
• Make the movement decisive — a slow, small pinch can read as a two-finger zoom. Start with digits spread wide and pinch in one smooth motion.
• Old hardware — the gesture needs a multitouch trackpad that can track four contacts; every MacBook from 2015 on and every Magic Trackpad handles it. It doesn't exist on the Magic Mouse at all, whose surface only tracks one- and two-finger gestures.
• Something's already open — the pinch does nothing while a full-screen video or another overlay owns the screen; leave full screen first.

Other ways into Launchpad

If the pinch never becomes habit, Launchpad has three more entrances:

• F4 — on Apple keyboards the F4 key (rocket/grid symbol) opens Launchpad directly.
• A custom shortcut — assign one under System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Launchpad & Dock → Show Launchpad.
• A hot corner — map a screen corner to Launchpad under System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Hot Corners. Pair it with a modifier key there if you worry about accidental triggers.

Worth saying: many longtime Mac users skip Launchpad entirely and launch apps with Spotlight (Cmd + Space, type, Return). The pinch is for people who like seeing the grid — if that's you, it's the fastest way there. And if you go all-in on the gesture, you can reclaim a Dock slot by removing the Launchpad icon entirely; the pinch, F4, and Spotlight cover every launching need without it.