- A new app turns Apple’s trackpad into a weight scale
- Results with Trackweight App are surprisingly accurate
- However, there are certainly boundaries, however, the need to place one fingers on the trackpad while weighing an object.
If you ever need a set of weight scales in a pinch, it is possible to use your MacBook, or not.
Tom’s hardware saw A new app for Macos that converts the humble MacBook trackpad into a compact waiting scale, a surprisingly accurate, as illustrated in the demo video clip posted on X (see below).
You can change your Mac trackpad to a weight scale pic.twitter.com/kxbhrvfag3July 21, 2025
Krish Shah developed an app called Trackwett, which uses Apple’s force touch sensor to give you an estimated weight for any item placed on the trackpad.
Now, there is a warning that as you can see in the video, it is necessary to relax your finger on the trackpad while weighing – as Shah explains, trackpad pressure recording only arises when capacitance is detected by MacBook (meaning your finger, or any other conductive object).
The clear defect here is that the weight of your fingers is going to be registered in reading reading, so relax it as lightly on the trackpad as possible. By all accounts, the weight given is still very accurate – although I would not recommend taking it as an accurate reading, looking at the above catch.
The app uses an open multi-touch support library to tap in the trackpad event in MacoS, including the padded pressure reading from the pad. Interestingly, Shah explains (on) Github) That the data we get from multi-touch support is already in the village “which is easy.
Analysis: Other warnings and compatibility
It is a clean short move for MacBook, but there are some limitations, including, as seen, accuracy, which is not going to be spot-on, but a good estimate.
In addition, the weight of metal items is problematic (due to their conductivity, they will possibly be detected as a finger press), so they will require a small piece (or paper) of fabric (or paper) to break the contact with the trackpad (or again, to intervene with reading).
Apparently, you cannot weigh large items on a trackpad, either, although the developer of the app has claimed that the object of 3.5 kg has been successfully weighed without damaging the MacBook. What is going well – I will not try myself, mind, or really God warns us as stuff Tongue and cheek in fashion.
If you are thinking about compatibility, you will need a force touch trackpad on your apple laptop, meaning MacBook or new (or a MacBook Pro from 2015) since 2016. You will need to run at least Macos 13 (to be the required multi-touch support library) and the app sandbox disabled (to provide low-level access to trackpad data). As always, install any third-party software at your risk, should you consider this project more than curiosity.
Interestingly, old iphones with 3D touch can also be used to weigh objects (capacitive ones) – and in that case it appears to be very accurately.
