I feel like I may have mentioned this sometime a while back, but I can’t believe it’s not fixed. But if I didn’t, here’s the issue.
In you have your Trackpad so enabled, you can tap-to-click and you can two-finger-tap to Control-Click. And of course, Control-Click is how you access the contextual menus everyone on the Mac. So anywhere you want a contextual menu on the Mac, you can two-finger-tap on your trackpad…
…everywhere, that is, except for one place: on a message in Messages! There, I find that I HAVE to actually press the Control key and click (not tap) the trackpad. The trackpad gestures do not work.
That contextual menu is very useful, especially if you want to use the super-cool Reply feature:
It would make more sense if it were a third party app that might have failed to comply with Apple’s UX guidelines, but this is a core Apple app. My best guess is that this app shares code with the mobile version; and since the mobile platform has different and possibly conflicting gestures, maybe that’s causing the problem?
Thoughts??
[EDIT: I just noticed that a two-finger CLICK will get me the contextual menu. So I was wrong that the Control key is required. But the CLICK should also not be required; just the TAP with the two-fingers. And while the two-finger tap works fine on my Mac mini + Trackpad, it does not work on my MBA M2 without actually clicking.]
I’m not at my Mac now, but I believe the standard gesture in the messages app is long single-press to get this - which matches the gesture on iOS/iPadOS.
Which version of macOS are you on? The two-finger tap for context menu works just fine for me in Messages on Big Sur. It takes a few seconds if the text bubble I’m tapping on isn’t already selected, but it does come up.
Two finger tap working in Messages on my built-in Trackpad with Sequioa 15.2.
Or did you mean Bluetooth Trackpad? If so maybe the settings between built-in and external conflict, if that is possible… but then the issue would be across apps.
On my M2 MacBook Air, two-finger press launches the control-click menu. I hate finger taps, so I’ve disabled that, but I re-enabled it just to test ,and two-finger tap works as well.
Om my M1 Pro Mac mini with Magic Trackpad, it’s the same.
No, this is the trackpad built into my MacBook Air M2.
I do see, however, that the two-finger tap is working as Control-Click on my Mac mini M2 (also running Sequoia 15.4.1). I don’t think that has always been the case, but it’s working now. On my mini I use an Apple Magic Trackpad.
Seeing the same as @ddmiller here. If your original post was purposely distinguishing between a tap and a click, then I can’t help you since (like Doug) I don’t use taps, only clicks. However, two finger clicks from my bluetooth trackpad work just fine to activate the contextual menu in Messages. No control key press required.
[Edit: this was posted before seeing your last reply to @TBTdn.]
