Aug 23, 2017  The Touch Bar can also run other Touch Bar apps and you can use them as though you have an actual physical Touch Bar on your Mac. MacOS lets you screenshot the Touch Bar but the virtual one has a button to do that as well.

Apple's Interface Guideline for the Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro says that it is intended to be used as an input device, not a secondary display.

The Touch Bar shouldn't display alerts, messages, scrolling content, static content, or anything else that commands the user's attention or distracts from their work on the main screen.

That hasn't stopped some developers from creating uniquely useless apps that are fun, if not functional. You won't find these apps in the App Store because Apple wouldn't approve them, but you can download and install them directly and make your Touch Bar sparkle.

Note: Apps on this list might not be from identified developers and haven't been security checked by app review staff. That means they could have bugs, malware, spyware, or other problems. Please take this into consideration before downloading apps from unidentified developers and always backup your Mac.

Here are the best Touch Bar apps you won't find in the App Store!

Today, Stencyl supports:. iOS (iPhone/iPad). Android. Windows. Video game design software download. Mac.

Touch Bar Nyancat

It's Nyan Cat in your Touch Bar – complete with music! Sometimes I trigger Nyan Cat just to make me smile. Nothing beats a rainbow Pop Tart cart running across your Touch Bar!

Knight TouchBar 2000

If you want to make your Space Gray MacBook Pro look really cool, grab this funny little tool and see Kit's light runner in your Touch Bar. Hum along to the Knight Rider soundtrack while you ask Siri to look something up for you. Seriously, you'll feel like a rock star.

Touchbar Santa

When the weather starts to get frightful, but the fire feels so delightful, invite Santa to rock your Touch Bar for a while. Sip hot cocoa while a remix of Jingle Bells is sung by Ol' Blue Eyes (that's Frank Sinatra for you youngsters). Just like most thing around the holidays, you'll get sick of this pretty quick.

TouchBarBar

If you are longing for a nice, refreshing beverage, but have to wait until quittin' time, you can scratch that itch with this funny little gag. It puts four alcoholic beverage emojis on your Touch Bar. When you tap one, you'll hear the sound of the selected beverage being poured. Refreshing!

Touch Bar Dino

Here is one of the first mini-games you can play on the Touch Bar. Its a game called Dino and it's based on the hidden Easter egg dinosaur game in Google Chrome. Tap the screen to jump over the cacti. Simple, fun, and makes great use of your Touch Bar (considering it's completely useless).

Touch Bar Space Flight

This is another one of the first mini-games for the MacBook Pro. You actually use keys to maneuver. Use the up and down arrows to avoid getting hit by incoming baddies and use the space bar to wipe them off the map with your laser fire. Talk about a time waster. Best of all, your boss will think you're just typing away like a good little worker!

SL on Touch Bar

This is just a silly little joke for the Touch Bar. It's based on a coding joke about a steam locomotive showing up on your screen when you accidentally type 'ls' into a command line. What makes it special, though, is that you can change the look of the little locomotive if you know what you're doing. Your steam engine can become a bullet train!

TouchSwitcher for Touch Bar

This has quickly become one of my favorite Touch Bar tools and I'm betting it will show up in the App Store eventually. Its an app switcher for all apps that you have open on your MacBook Pro. Every app that you have open will appear in the Touch Bar. Then, you can simply tap one and go directly to it. Normally, you'd have to press Command and Tab on your keyboard to access the app switcher. Sure, some of us remember the keyboard shortcut, but for those that don't, TouchSwitcher is a gem. Plus, you can see what apps are open without having to cover your screen with that big icon list. This is a winner in my book.

Your favorites?

Do you have any favorite Touch Bar apps that aren't available in the Mac App Store? Put them in the comments!

Updated July 2019: Updated for the latest MacBooks with Touch Bars.

MacBook Pro

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The MacBook Pro's Touch Bar is a fascinating feature that allows you to interact with your MacBook like never before. You'll be able to use it for all manner of built-in apps, but there will be a ton of third-party apps with Touch Bar support as well!

Here are the best apps with Touch Bar support so far!

Pixelmator Pro

Pixelmator is an epic photo and graphic editing program that lets you create and manipulate images, illustrations, and a whole lot more. They're best known for their robust painting tools, which are fully customizable.

With Pixelmator's Touch bar shortcuts, you can quickly switch between tools, find customizations for those tools, and more. The on-board filter preview shows you a thumbnail of what the effect looks like, right on the Touch Bar, which you can tap into to see on the full screen.

BetterTouchTool

This is not a Mac App Store app, but it's probably the best-known dedicated Touch Bar app. It's almost like IFTTT for the Touch Bar. You program in recipes, like 'Open Safari to iMore.com' or 'Open Slack to my work channel.' It works with any app you have downloaded to your MacBook Pro, whether it has its own Touch Bar support or not.

You have to side load BetterTouchTools outside of the Mac App Store because it needs to access your system settings. You can download it from Folivora.ai directly and then move it from your downloads folder into your Applications folder. You'll likely have to give permission to install it when GateKeeper pops up.

Evernote

If you have a subscription to Evernote, or only use the note-storing app on two devices (one of them being your 2016 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar), you can take advantage of some great tools that are right at your fingertips.

You can tap the Touch Bar to create a new note, search for content in your notes, add tags, change font colors using a color slider (and a color picker), and mark up images and notes (Premium account users can also mark up PDFs). You can also use the Touch Bar to change the display style (grid, list, side bar, etc.) and sort your notes by date created, title, date updated, source URL, and size.

If you're looking forward to having easy access to your most important tools in Evernote, use it with your Touch Bar and you'll be set.

Adobe Photoshop

The biggest name in image alteration, Photoshop's Touch Bar integration was announced and demonstrated at Apple's October 2016 event.

With Touch Bar, you'll be able to alter images in ways that would normally require a bunch of mouse clicks, like changing the color balance or brightness of an image. Instead, you'll be able to slide along the Touch Bar and watch things change in real-time.

djay Pro 2

Also demonstrated at the Mac event was Djay Pro, which lets you mix tracks, scratch, fade, control playback, sample, and much more using just the Touch Bar.

You can mix a whole song using multi-touch and even alter the waveform, right on the Touch Bar. No need to touch the trackpad.

If you're an amateur DJ or just want to see what it's all about, check it out!

Mac Touch Bar Customize

Final Cut Pro X

The widely used video-editing app will receive Touch Bar support, allowing you to easily scrub through your timeline, adjust audio, fine-tune your cuts, and much more, all on the Touch Bar.

Most folks are likely used to using hotkeys already and probably won't change their ways, but for people just start out with FCP, the Touch Bar offers a very accessible foray into editing.

Microsoft Office

The iWork suite is great, but many folks prefer Microsoft Office, so it's awesome that Microsoft has added Touch Bar support to the Office suite.

You'll be able to use brand new features in apps like Word, Powerpoint, and Excel. For example, the Touch Bar will take you into Word Focus Mode, which removes all the commands and ribbons, allowing you to better focus on your Word document.

In Powerpoint, you'll be able to manipulate graphic elements, reorder things on the fly, and more.

You'll also be able to perform all the most popular functions of Outlook right from the Touch Bar, like sending email, replying, attaching documents, and more!

1Password

1Password helps you store all of your passwords in one spot and keeps them secret, keeps them safe.

Bar Game For Kids

With Touch Bar supports, you'll be able to create a secure note or password at the tap of a button, and only you will be able to see your 1Password account, thanks to Touch ID! You'll even be able to create logins for many popular sites, just by tapping their logos on the Touch Bar — no browser needed.

1Password gets more secure and more convenient, thanks to Touch Bar support.

Sketch

Sketch, the vector drawing app, is for collaborating on graphic design and creating interfaces for your web pages and apps. It's not meant to be the final product. It's like a sketchbook for your ideas where you can prototype what you want something to look like before finalizing your page.

With the Touch Bar, you can switch colors and shapes on the fly, as well as many more features.

Mail Designer 365

If you often send out digital newsletters and haven't heard of Mail Designer Pro 3, then you've been missing out. Mail Designer Pro lets you create mobile-ready newsletters with all the tools you need to make yours look great. In terms of Touch Bar, Mail Designer Pro 3 currently supports:

• Text formatting (including visual styles)
• Scrubbing through design templates
• Text style, formatting and layout controls
• Adjust background color and tint, or zoom background images
• Switch between desktop & mobile layouts, pull up a smartphone preview or toggle layout guides

Mac Touch Bar

So if you're in for everything you could possibly need to make a kickass newsletter, from hundreds of fonts to graphics to flexible layout designs, and much more, then check out Mail Designer 365.

PCalc

Are you a scientist? Engineer? Mathematician? Calculator enthusiast? PCalc is awesome for all of the above or for folks who just want or need a feature-heavy calculator. No more TI-83 for you!

You get an optional RPN mode, multi-line display, and your choice of button layouts. If you feel like getting your hyper-nerd on, PCalc even supports hexadecimal, octal, and binary calculations.

AND, you can customize what appears on the Touch Bar, so the buttons and items that you use the most are literally always at your fingertips.

Your favorites?

It's quite apparent that the Touch Bar benefits artists the most. What's your favorite third-party app with Touch Bar support?

Amazon Games App Mac

Let us know in the comments below!

Updated July 2019: Added BetterTouchTool and Pixelmator Pro to the list.

Best Touch Bar Apps

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