> Accessibility and Input Monitoring on macOS, explained

Any Mac app that reacts to your typing — text expanders, layout switchers, window managers — has to ask for privacy permissions. The prompts look alarming, so it is worth knowing exactly what they mean.

> Input Monitoring

Input Monitoring lets an app receive keyboard events from other applications. Without it, an app sees only keystrokes made while its own window is focused. A layout corrector needs this to notice that you just finished a word in Slack or Safari.

> Accessibility

Accessibility lets an app read and control interface elements of other apps: read the text around the cursor, select a word, and post synthetic key events. TextSwitcher uses it to replace the mistyped word in place.

> What macOS still protects

• Secure text fields (passwords) do not deliver keystrokes to other apps while active.
• Each permission is granted per app and can be revoked at any time.
• Apps cannot grant these permissions to themselves; you must toggle them in System Settings.

> How to review or revoke

Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, and separately → Input Monitoring. Turn an app off, or select it and press “−” to remove it. Changes take effect immediately; some apps need a restart to notice.

> Questions to ask any keyboard utility

• Does it send typed text anywhere? (TextSwitcher does not — processing is local.)
• Does it store a history of what you type, and can you clear it?
• Does it skip password fields and other sensitive inputs?
• Is the app signed, and does it update over a verified channel?

Note that replacing an app with an unsigned or ad-hoc-signed build can make macOS treat it as a new app, so you may need to grant both permissions again.