Kleanly
One tap in the notch locks your keyboard and trackpad
Start new thread

Kleanly - One tap in the notch locks your keyboard and trackpad

by
•
Kleanly lives in your MacBook's notch. Tap it once and your keyboard and trackpad are locked, so you can wipe everything down while your video keeps playing. Kids can slap the keys during a cartoon and nothing gets typed. Double tap the trackpad when you're done. New since our first launch: the notch control, in-app updates, moving your license to a new Mac yourself, and a small tab on displays without a notch.

Add a comment

Replies

Best
Maker
📌
Hey Product Hunt! Kleanly first launched here about a year ago as a simple way to lock your keyboard and trackpad while you clean your Mac. Version 2 is a big rework: • It lives in the notch: hover, tap play, and you're cleaning • Your screen stays on, so the video keeps playing while you wipe the keys • Toddler-proof: kids can slap away during a cartoon and nothing gets typed • Double tap the trackpad to unlock • Optional dark overlay for wiping the screen • In-app updates, and you can move your license to a new Mac on your own • Works on Macs without a notch too, as a small tab at the top of the screen I'd love to hear how you clean your Mac today and what would make Kleanly better.

 Great, minimal app with only the required feature, also while wiping my screen I usually turn down the brightness to zero, I think you can add one more option that does this in one click. Congrats for the launch!

Maker

 Thanks Aryan! The dark overlay gets you most of the way there: turn on Clean Screen and the display is covered with a dark layer, and you can choose how dark it goes. Dropping the actual brightness to zero in the same tap is a good idea though, I am adding it to the list.

 I like how Version 2 focuses on the small details that make cleaning a Mac less annoying.

Maker

 Thanks Audrey! That was the whole idea behind version 2. The core has always been the same, lock the keys, so this time the work went into the small stuff: hover the notch, tap, and the screen stays on so whatever you were watching keeps playing while you wipe.

The notch interaction is actually pretty clever Feels much easier than opening an app just to lock the keyboard.

Maker

 Thanks Trevor! That was the whole point of the rework. Opening an app and hunting for a button every time you want to wipe the keys felt like too much friction, so now it is hover, tap, clean.

I can definitely see the toddler use case especially when a cartoon is playing and little hands are everywhere.

Maker

 Thanks Grace! That is honestly where the idea came from. Lock it before the cartoon starts and the keys can take a beating without a single letter getting typed.

Keeping the screen on while cleaning is a nice detail I’d probably use it mostly for wiping down the keyboard.

Maker

 Thanks Nathan! Keyboard wiping is the main use for me too. Keeping the screen on means you can also leave a video or a call running while you do it, instead of locking the whole Mac.

The double tap to unlock is a neat touch No need to hunt around for a button after you’re done.

Maker

 Thanks Sharayu! I wanted stopping to be as easy as starting, and since the trackpad is right there under your hands, a double tap on it felt like the natural way to say done.

Good call supporting Macs without a notch too The little tab seems like a simple way to keep the same workflow.

Maker

 Thanks Daniel! I did not want to leave external displays and older MacBooks out, so on screens without a notch it becomes a small tab at the top. Same hover, same tap.

the toddler use case is honestly pretty practical. I can see this being useful whenever kids are watching something and inevitably start pressing random keys.

Maker

 Thanks Rahul! That is exactly the scenario it was built for. One tap before the show starts and the random key presses go nowhere, while the video keeps playing.

The dark overlay sounds useful for me when cleaning the display itself. I’d probably find it easier to spot fingerprints and dust against a darker screen.

Maker

 Thanks Jamie! That is exactly why the overlay exists. Smudges and dust are much easier to spot on a dark screen, and you can pick how dark it goes in Settings.

the kids-slapping-the-keyboard-during-a-cartoon use case sold me more than the cleaning one honestly. what happens if the app crashes or the mac restarts while it's locked, does it come back locked and stuck, or does a reboot always clear it

Maker

 Thanks Gal! A reboot always clears it. The lock is an event tap that lives inside the Kleanly process and nothing about it is saved to disk, so if the app ever crashes macOS drops the tap on the spot and the keyboard and trackpad come straight back. After a restart Kleanly comes up unlocked. The one exception is opt-in: if you turn on Start Cleaning When Opened in Settings, it starts a session whenever the app launches, and a double tap on the trackpad still ends it.

 good, that's the answer I was hoping for - crash-safe by default instead of fail-locked. the opt-in "start cleaning when opened" is the one setting I'd be nervous about pairing with the kids use case though, since a relaunch after a crash would silently re-lock it on you. might be worth a one-line warning in the settings toggle itself.

Would be nice to have an invisible mode that requires a password typed to unlock but perhaps that's a different app entriely hahaha

12
Next