Switch focusbetween monitorson a Mac

October 4, 2026 · by Talha Bekci, maker of KeyFollow

You look at your second monitor, start typing — and the text lands in the window you last clicked on the other screen. On a Mac, keyboard focus stays with the last window you clicked, not with the screen you're looking at or the one under your mouse pointer. Moving the pointer to another display doesn't move focus either.

There is no built-in "focus the next display" shortcut in macOS. Here's what you can do instead, from zero setup to fully automatic.

1. Click (the default)

Clicking inside a window on the other screen gives it focus. It works, but with two or three screens you do it dozens of times a day, and you have to find the pointer first. If you lose it, shake the mouse: macOS briefly enlarges the pointer (System Settings → Accessibility → Display → Pointer → Shake mouse pointer to locate).

2. Built-in keyboard shortcuts

• ⌘ Tab switches apps. Focus goes to that app's front window, wherever it is.
• ⌘ ` (Command + backtick) cycles through the windows of the current app. Handy when both screens show the same app, like two browser or editor windows.
• ⌃ F4 moves focus to the active or next window (System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Keyboard). On many keyboards you also need fn.

None of these knows about displays: they go by app and window order, so reaching "whatever is on my left screen" can take several presses.

3. Terminal's hidden focus-follows-mouse setting

Apple's Terminal has an old hidden preference that gives a window focus when the pointer moves over it:

defaults write com.apple.Terminal FocusFollowsMouse -bool true

Quit and reopen Terminal. It only works between Terminal windows, not for other apps. Undo it with -bool false.

4. AutoRaise: focus follows the mouse everywhere

AutoRaise is a free, open-source utility that focuses (and optionally raises) whatever window is under the pointer after a short delay. It works across all apps and screens. The trade-off: focus now jumps whenever your mouse drifts, which some people love and others find chaotic.

5. A hotkey with Hammerspoon

Hammerspoon (free) lets you script macOS in Lua. This snippet in ~/.hammerspoon/init.lua makes ⌃⌥⌘ → focus the frontmost window on the next screen and moves the pointer there:

hs.hotkey.bind({"ctrl", "alt", "cmd"}, "right", function()
  local screen = hs.mouse.getCurrentScreen():next()
  for _, w in ipairs(hs.window.orderedWindows()) do
    if w:screen() == screen and w:isStandard() and w:isVisible() then
      w:focus()
      break
    end
  end
  local f = screen:frame()
  hs.mouse.absolutePosition({x = f.x + f.w / 2, y = f.y + f.h / 2})
end)

Reload the config from the Hammerspoon menu. One keystroke instead of a hunt for the pointer — but you still have to remember to press it.

6. Tiling window managers

If you already use a tiling window manager, it has a command for this: yabai -m display --focus next in yabai, or focus-monitor next in AeroSpace, bound to a key. Powerful, but a big change to how your whole desktop works.

7. Let focus follow your head

Every option above still needs an action from you: a click, a hotkey or a mouse movement. The newest approach skips that. Head-tracking utilities use your Mac's camera to notice which screen you turn to, and move keyboard focus there before you start typing.

That's what I built KeyFollow for. A few things that matter in daily use:

• It waits for a real turn of the head. Quick glances and looking down at your phone are ignored, and it never switches while you're typing or using the mouse.
• It doesn't click for you. Focus moves to the window you last used on that screen, and the pointer follows.
• Private. Frames are analyzed in memory with Apple's Vision framework and thrown away. Nothing is recorded or sent.
• Light. Around 10% of one CPU core while tracking, and the camera turns off when your Mac locks.

Which one should you use?

• Two screens, mostly one app: ⌘ `.
• You like keyboard shortcuts: the Hammerspoon hotkey.
• You want focus to follow the pointer: AutoRaise.
• You want it to just happen when you look at a screen: KeyFollow.