Haptics on macOS?

[sghng]

I'm looking into how haptics feedback on macOS, as requested in #6422. I saw that some functions have been added in #8266, but when I try to invoke them, haptic feedback is not played.

  async changeWorkspaceShortcut(offset = 1, whileScrolling = false) {
    // Cycle through workspaces
    let workspaces = await this._workspaces();
    let activeWorkspace = await this.getActiveWorkspace();
    let workspaceIndex = workspaces.workspaces.indexOf(activeWorkspace);

    // note: offset can be negative
    let targetIndex = workspaceIndex + offset;
    if (this.shouldWrapAroundNavigation) {
      // Add length to handle negative indices and loop
      targetIndex = (targetIndex + workspaces.workspaces.length) % workspaces.workspaces.length;
    } else {
      // Clamp within bounds to disable looping
      targetIndex = Math.max(0, Math.min(workspaces.workspaces.length - 1, targetIndex));
    }

    let nextWorkspace = workspaces.workspaces[targetIndex];

    // Only trigger haptic feedback if we're actually changing workspaces
    if (nextWorkspace && nextWorkspace.uuid !== activeWorkspace.uuid) {
      // Trigger haptic feedback for workspace switching on macOS
      console.log('[ZenWorkspaces] Triggering haptic feedback for workspace change');
      console.log('[ZenWorkspaces] Services.zen available:', !!Services.zen);
      console.log(
        '[ZenWorkspaces] playHapticFeedback method available:',
        !!Services.zen?.playHapticFeedback
      );

      // Check if haptic feedback preference is enabled
      try {
        const hapticEnabled = Services.prefs.getBoolPref('zen.haptic-feedback.enabled', false);
        console.log('[ZenWorkspaces] Haptic feedback preference enabled:', hapticEnabled);
      } catch (error) {
        console.error('[ZenWorkspaces] Error checking haptic feedback preference:', error);
      }
    }
  }

I am seeing log messages but no haptics...

[dosubot[bot]]

Hi @sghng! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the desktop team.

There are recent reports confirming that haptic feedback is implemented and can be triggered on macOS, but there have been bugs—like endless or continuous haptics when dragging or pinning tabs—which have been fixed in newer branches, showing that the feature is actively maintained and platform-specific behaviors are possible (#9805, #9803). Your logs confirm the JS code path is running, so the issue is likely in the native layer or platform checks.

Make sure your hardware supports haptics (e.g., MacBook trackpad), the zen.haptic-feedback.enabled preference is true, and you’re not running in a VM or unsupported device. If all of those are correct, it’s possible there’s a silent failure or missing native implementation for your scenario. You might want to check for native errors or try enabling debug logging for the native code to see if the haptic call is being made and if it’s returning any errors.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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