Skip to main content

Touch ID without the Magic Keyboard? Yup, it’s possible

Touch ID now comes built into the standard Mac Magic Keyboard, but for those that use third-party keyboards, you’re out of luck. In lieu of Apple selling a stand-alone Touch ID button, a developer who goes by the name Khaos Tian recently shared his mod work on Twitter that resolves this problem.

The developer removed the Touch ID components from an actual Magic Keyboard and concocted a miniature accessory that gives you secured logins and payments you need without it taking up your whole desk.

Recommended Videos

Standalone Touch ID button 😆 Pulled out the parts from Magic Keyboard and it worked nicely. pic.twitter.com/rZsThyEzQB

— Khaos Tian (@KhaosT) April 6, 2022

His image shows a rudimentary setup, plugged into a hub via a USB-C to USB-C cord, but he reported that the rig works well.

Khaos Tian’s project comes not long after The Basic Apple Guy shared his April Fools’ Day joke of a “Magic Button,” of a similar concept.

9to5Mac noted that Touch ID on the Magic Keyboard is a popular feature for many Mac users; however, the peripheral isn’t without its issues, specifically with security. Typically, Touch ID sensors have a built-in Secure Enclave feature; however, with the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, the feature is built-in to the Mac itself. The keyboards feature a “hardware Public Key Accelerator (PKA) block,” the publication notes, which communicates between the Secure Enclave and Touch ID.

The "Magic Button," a fake Apple product created as an April Fools' joke.
An April Fools joke created by The Basic Apple Guy. Image used with permission by copyright holder

Overall, this has made consumers trust the keyboard less as an overall accessory, but they don’t mind it as an authentication tool. Some users have been known to keep a Magic Keyboard at their station so they can use Touch ID while using a third-party Keyboard as their primary keyboard.

Touch ID was first introduced to MacBook Pro in 2016, while the first stand-alone Magic Keyboard with Touch ID came out last year alongside the 24-inch iMac.

Apple has the opportunity to take consumer feedback and improve the security features on its keyboard and computers. Still, this concept mulling in the wild might be of interest to the brand. The Basic Apple Guy priced his own “Magic Button” at $49, which seems on par for Apple in real life.

Fionna Agomuoh
Fionna Agomuoh is a Computing Writer at Digital Trends. She covers a range of topics in the computing space, including…
Don’t wait for macOS Sequoia. This app already has its best feature
Apple's Craig Federighi introducing the new window tiling feature in macOS Sequoia at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024.

When Apple lifted the shroud on macOS Sequoia at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, there were a lot of headline announcements: Apple Intelligence, iPhone mirroring, a new Passwords app, plus a whole lot more. Yet it was the much more modest announcement of window snapping and tiling that really caught my eye.

For years, Windows users have been able to point to the lack of macOS window snapping as proof of the inferiority of Apple’s operating system. After all, if Apple couldn’t even get such a simple productivity feature right, what else was it failing at?

Read more
Corsair just stepped up its keyboard game — in a big way
The Corsair K65 Plus Wireless keyboard on a pink background.

I've had a contentious relationship with Corsair keyboards over the last couple of years. The landscape for mechanical keyboards has been changing, and Corsair (along with brands like SteelSeries and Razer) felt behind the curve, selling the same standard mechanical keyboards for the same high prices that were available years ago.

That's changing with the Corsair K65 Plus Wireless.

Read more
Apple has a chance to fix its worst product next year
Magic Mouse next to a Mac keyboard on a desk.

Apple updated all of its Mac desktops in 2024, but left the worst part untouched: the accessories. In particular, we're talking about the infamous Magic Mouse. The mouse has been dunked on for years at this point, often pointed to as an example of the worst of Apple's design ethos. Despite all the positive changes to Macs over the past few years, the Magic Mouse has remained stagnant.

A new report, however, indicates that the Mac accessories will undergo a major change in early 2024. The Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse will reportedly all be moving to USB-C to match the latest iPhone, after having previously used the Apple-exclusive Lightning connection. This seems like an obvious change that probably should have happened earlier. In fact, it was even rumored to happen in time for the launch of the M3 iMac -- but it didn't.

Read more