The short answer. Sharptooth is the Bluetooth manager proper: devices, hotkeys and automation, from the menu bar. Magic Switch solves the specific problem of moving a Magic Keyboard, Mouse and Trackpad between Macs, which is a switching problem rather than a pairing one. UnnaturalScrollWheels fixes the scroll direction for a physical wheel while leaving the trackpad alone, which is the only correct behaviour and not the one macOS ships. Type2Phone turns the Mac into a keyboard for an iPhone, iPad or Apple TV. AirPoise is the strange one: it reads AirPods motion sensors for posture reminders and head gestures. The dividing question is whether you are managing connections, managing devices, or compensating for a decision macOS made on your behalf.
This guide covers 5 bluetooth and peripheral managers for macOS. Every fact below is drawn from the same verified records that back each app’s own page. The recommendations are our editorial judgment, not payment.
Quick comparison
| App | What it is | Pricing | Licence | Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AirPoise | menu bar utility | Open source | MIT | 1.0.0 |
| Magic Switch | Mac utility | not published | not published | — |
| Sharptooth | system tool | Free | not published | — |
| Type2Phone | Mac utility | not published | not published | — |
| UnnaturalScrollWheels | system tool | Open source | GPL-3.0 | 1.4.2 |
What actually decides this
- Connection or behaviour. Pairing, disconnecting and switching hosts are connection problems. Scroll direction, key repeat and gesture mapping are behaviour problems. A manager that does the first will not fix the second, and vice versa.
- How many hosts the peripheral moves between. One Mac needs nothing. Two or three Macs need a switch, and the mechanism matters: a hardware button, a menu bar command, or a keyboard shortcut that has to work on the machine you are leaving.
- Whether the device exposes anything beyond input. AirPods report motion. A Magic Trackpad reports force. Most peripherals report nothing, which is why the tools that do something unusual are tied to specific hardware.
- What the system setting already does. macOS can invert scroll direction globally. The reason these tools exist is that the global setting is wrong for one of the two input devices on almost every laptop, and fixing it per device is not something the system offers.
- Whether it survives a reconnect. A peripheral that reconnects as a new device can lose its per-device settings. Tools that key off a device identifier survive; tools that key off a port do not.
- What it asks for in permissions. Bluetooth access, input monitoring and accessibility are three separate grants, and a menu bar utility that manages devices usually wants at least two. The permission is a larger commitment than the app, because it stays granted after the app is gone.
Our picks
- Sharptooth — Its record describes managing Bluetooth devices with hotkeys and automation, which is the connection case. Choose it when you want Bluetooth devices managed with hotkeys.
- Magic Switch — Its record describes switching Magic Keyboard, Mouse and Trackpad between multiple Macs, which is the multi-host case. Choose it when one keyboard and mouse have to serve several Macs.
- UnnaturalScrollWheels — Its record describes inverting scroll direction for physical wheels while keeping natural scrolling for trackpads, which is the per-device behaviour case. Choose it when the wheel scrolls the wrong way and the trackpad is fine.
- Type2Phone — Its record describes using the Mac as a keyboard for those devices, which is the cross-device input case. Choose it when you want to type on an iPhone, iPad or Apple TV from the Mac.
- AirPoise — Its record describes using AirPods motion sensors for head-posture reminders and head-gesture shortcuts, which is the sensor case. Choose it when you want posture reminders from the AirPods you already wear.
The apps
AirPoise
AirPoise is a menu bar utility for macOS. Menu bar app that uses AirPods motion sensors for head-posture reminders and configurable head-gesture shortcuts. It is released under MIT.
What it does. Mac menu-bar app: AirPods posture coaching and head-gesture shortcuts. On-device, no camera, no cloud.
AirPoise is listed with current version 1.0.0.
Full profile and verified facts for AirPoise →
Magic Switch
Magic Switch is a Mac utility for macOS. Switch Magic Keyboard, Mouse, and Trackpad between multiple Macs. Its pricing is not published.
Full profile and verified facts for Magic Switch →
Sharptooth
Sharptooth is a system tool for macOS. Menu bar tool for managing Bluetooth devices with hotkeys and automation. It is free.
Full profile and verified facts for Sharptooth →
Type2Phone
Type2Phone is a Mac utility for macOS. Use Your Mac as Keyboard for iPhone, iPad & Apple TV. Its pricing is not published.
What it does. Share your Mac.
Full profile and verified facts for Type2Phone →
UnnaturalScrollWheels
UnnaturalScrollWheels is a system tool for macOS. Invert scroll direction for physical scroll wheels while maintaining “Natural” scrolling for trackpads on MacOS. It is released under GPL-3.0.
What it does. Invert scroll direction for physical scroll wheels while maintaining “Natural” scrolling for trackpads on MacOS.
UnnaturalScrollWheels is listed with current version 1.4.2.
Full profile and verified facts for UnnaturalScrollWheels →
How to choose
- Free of charge. Sharptooth — no payment is required.
- No licence fee, source available. AirPoise and UnnaturalScrollWheels — the source can be read and, under the terms of each licence, reused.
- Pricing not published in our data. Magic Switch and Type2Phone — check the developer’s own site before assuming anything about cost.
Open source: AirPoise and UnnaturalScrollWheels (2 of 5).
Common mistakes
- Buying a switching tool for a pairing problem. They are different failures with similar symptoms.
- Inverting scroll direction globally and breaking the trackpad in the same gesture.
- Expecting a generic Bluetooth manager to expose device-specific features. Only the vendor knows those.
- Assuming per-device settings will survive a reconnect when the device presents a new identifier.
How this guide was put together
Each app’s facts come from its own record: the developer’s own pages and repository, the App Store listing where one exists, and the documentation, each with a source grade and an access date. Where a fact rests on the developer’s own statement rather than on something we verified independently, the sentence says so. Where our data has no value for something, the guide says “not published” instead of guessing.
A price appears here only where the record carries one from a stated source; the guide never estimates one, and it records the pricing model alongside so the two can be read together. Prices change and vary by region, so each app links to its own page for the current detail.
The facts and the recommendations are kept apart on purpose. Everything in the app entries, the comparison table and the answers above is composed from the records. The short answer, the criteria and the picks are our editorial judgment: they reflect what we would choose and why, and they are not paid for. Where we make a recommendation we name the condition it applies under, because we do not call anything “the best” without explaining the criteria.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I choose between these bluetooth and peripheral managers?
There is no single answer — it depends on what you need. This guide covers 5 bluetooth and peripheral managers: AirPoise, Magic Switch, Sharptooth, Type2Phone and UnnaturalScrollWheels. They differ mainly in pricing model, licence and the trade-offs each one carries. Pick by the trade-off you care about rather than by rank.
Are these bluetooth and peripheral managers free?
Pricing across this group: open source (AirPoise and UnnaturalScrollWheels), not published (Magic Switch and Type2Phone) and free (Sharptooth). Where we list pricing as not published, the developer does not state a model we could verify — check their own site before assuming anything about cost. We quote a price only where the record carries one from a stated source, and we never estimate one. Prices change and vary by region and by store, so always check the developer’s own page for the current figure.
Which of these bluetooth and peripheral managers are open source?
AirPoise (MIT) and UnnaturalScrollWheels (GPL-3.0) are open source.
Do these bluetooth and peripheral managers support Apple Silicon?
Our data does not carry an explicit Apple Silicon statement for any app in this group, so we do not claim one. The absence of a statement is not the same as the absence of support.
How do I choose between them?
Start with how you pay: the guide groups these apps by pricing model, because the budget is the constraint most people actually have. Then check the trade-offs listed for each app: the limitations are the part that decides most people’s choice, because they describe what the app will not do for you.
