Canadian developer turns MacBook Pro into scales using touchpad
Canadian developer and blogger Krish Shah has unveiled a new app called TrackWeight for macOS that uses the pressure sensors of the Force Touch touchpad on a MacBook to weigh objects.
Canadian developer and blogger Krish Shah has unveiled a new app called TrackWeight for macOS that uses the pressure sensors of the Force Touch touchpad on a MacBook to weigh objects.
«Apple devices have a private API that exposes these values as soon as you place your finger on the trackpad. So, as soon as you lightly place your finger on the trackpad, you can weigh anything you want!», — Shah wrote in a post on X (Twitter).
Due to the peculiarities of Apple’s Force Touch, you need to keep your finger on the touchpad for TrackWeight to work properly. This may slightly affect the accuracy of the weight measurement, but the developer says that despite this, «it is quite accurate».
Tom’s Hardware notes that it’s not yet known how accurate the TrackWeight’s measurement range is, but it’s likely sensitive enough for items weighing more than a few dozen grams, but shouldn’t exceed a few kilograms. Shah said he’s weighed items up to 3.5 kg.
I tested the accuracy by putting my MacBook on top of a weighing scale and recording a video while adding pressure, then comparing frames.
— Krish Shah (@KrishRShah) July 21, 2025
You can see it’s pretty accurate! pic.twitter.com/etP8qlrGCh
The developer of TrackWeight also warned about possible errors when weighing metal objects. He suggests weighing them on a paper towel to avoid confusing them with finger touches. Users should also keep any objects within range of the touchpad for accurate measurements.
The TrackWeight app should work fine with any Apple laptop equipped with Force Touch (MacBook Pro 2015 or later, MacBook 2016 or later).
The app is marked as «experimental and educational.» The developer urges not to use it for weighing «critical» substances, for commercial purposes, or in other cases where weighing and measurement accuracy is extremely important.
The program code is available on GitHub and is distributed under the MIT License, which permits reuse within proprietary software, provided that all copies of the software or a substantial portion of it contain a copy of the terms of the MIT License, as well as a copyright notice.
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