Every Globe-key tap switches your language. Each app keeps its own.
- macOS Sequoia | Tahoe | Golden Gate
- Free
- Fixed Globe keyNow input properly changes on every key tap
- Language per appEach app remembers its own input.
- Label with inputA badge by the cursor over text fields.
- Lives in the menubarNo dock icon, no windows, nothing to manage.
- Stays on your MacNo account, no network, no analytics.
Installation
- 1Allow Accessibility
System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. Switch GlobeTap on — it's what lets the app see the Globe key at all.
- 2Free up the Globe key
System Settings → Keyboard → "Press key to" → Do Nothing. Otherwise macOS keeps its own handler on the key and the two work against each other.
- 3Set per-app rules
Optional. In Per-App Rules, add the apps you care about and give each one an input source — switching to an app then applies its language for you.
Tradeoffs
Freeing the Globe key (step 2) means macOS stops using it for anything of its own, and GlobeTap only switches the input source — it doesn't take the rest over. Holding the key is untouched: the F-row toggle, the Touch Bar, and shortcuts like -Q keep working.
- No emoji picker on the key
If the key was set to Show Emoji & Symbols, that goes. Control-Command-Space still opens the Character Viewer.
- No dictation double-tap
Pressing the key twice no longer starts dictation. Give it another shortcut in System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation.
- No system switching either
macOS's own Change Input Source is off while the key reads Do Nothing. Set it back if you ever remove GlobeTap.
Questions
- Yes. No price, no trial, no licence key, no account, no upsell. It scratches an itch I had, and it's small enough that charging for it felt silly.
- Switching your input source requires Accessibility access, which App Store sandboxing doesn't permit. Direct download is the only way an app like this can work — so GlobeTap is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple instead.
- It's the only API macOS offers for observing input system-wide and acting on it. GlobeTap uses it for exactly three things: the Globe key press, which app is frontmost, and whether the element under your pointer is a text field. It never reads what those fields contain and never records what you type — and the app has no network code at all, so nothing could leave your Mac even in principle. The Privacy Policy spells this out in full.
- For now, download the newest version from this page and replace the old one — your settings are kept. Automatic updates may come later if the app grows enough to need them.
- macOS Sequoia 15 and Tahoe 26 — support for macOS 27 is expected after its stable release. Universal binary, native on Apple Silicon and Intel.