Nicheloom visits: 58,280 all-time · 7,637 in the last 7 days

The opportunity tracker for new startups.

Today: 1,008 launches · Niche of the day: specialized calculation tools · See what launched today →

Knock

Knock on your MacBook to control your Mac

Get picks like this daily. Today's launch numbers, the top launches, AI and tech news, and a daily opportunity pick, straight to your inbox.

Want to reach these readers? Sponsor an issue.

Knock turns taps on your MacBook into instant actions. Switch tabs, change desktops, play/pause music, open apps, run custom scripts, or take screenshots - all with a simple knock. Tap the desk beside your laptop or knock on the MacBook’s chassis (not the trackpad). Knock uses the built-in accelerometer in Apple Silicon MacBooks to trigger customizable shortcuts.

PH · launched Mar 16, 2026 · 168 upvotes (top 88%) · 2 views

Niche: macos system utilities · 448 launches, 31 in the last 7 days ▼ -30% · Explore this niche →

Category and tags

  • Horizontal
  • Workflow automation
  • B2C
  • Not AI
  • Commercial product
  • Mac
  • Productivity
  • Menu Bar Apps

Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗

Could you build this?

Partial While macOS menu bar apps are straightforward, tapping into undocumented private IOKit APIs to read low-latency Sudden Motion Sensor (SMS) accelerometer data reliably on modern Apple Silicon Macs requires specialized low-level systems engineering.

What it would actually take: A developer needs Swift/Objective-C with low-level IOKit/CoreFoundation bindings to read Apple accelerometer hardware registers. On Apple Silicon, accessing raw internal sensor data is restricted and undocumented, requiring reverse-engineered private frameworks and continuous calibration algorithms to separate accidental desk knocks from typing vibrations without draining battery.

Competitors

Other products that read as similar to this one : 970 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.

Attention rank: #959 of 971 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).

Launched 120 days after the earliest competitor.

  • KnockSense · ph · 2026-11-12 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.82
  • mactap · ph · 2026-09-10 · 3 upvotes · similarity 0.72
  • KnockKnock · ph · 2026-10-16 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.68
  • Sway · ph · 2026-09-13 · 4 upvotes · similarity 0.61
  • Tack+ · ph · 2026-09-30 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.57
  • lidtap · github · 2026-10-30 · 119 upvotes · similarity 0.56
  • JUMP · ph · 2026-10-29 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.56
  • EdgeBar · ph · 2026-11-06 · 107 upvotes · similarity 0.55

The niche, labels, vibe code rating and competitor comparison on this page are analysis by Nicheloom. If you use them, please credit nicheloom.com. How you may use our data.