Display every key and shortcut you press as an on-screen overlay while you record, stream, or teach. Six themes, typing sounds, click ripples, and a shortcuts-only mode - all running on your Mac.
It draws the keys you press as an overlay on top of whatever is on screen, so anyone watching a recording or a live demo can see the exact shortcut you used. It is meant for screencasts, tutorials, conference talks, streams, and classroom demonstrations where the audience needs to reproduce what you did.
macOS requires Input Monitoring permission before any app can observe keyboard events. Without it, the system will not tell GlowKeys that a key was pressed, so the overlay stays empty. Grant it in System Settings under Privacy & Security, then Input Monitoring, and switch GlowKeys on.
Almost always this is the Input Monitoring permission. Open System Settings, go to Privacy & Security and then Input Monitoring, confirm GlowKeys is listed and enabled, and quit and reopen the app afterwards - macOS only applies the new permission to a fresh launch. If it is enabled and still empty, toggle it off and on again, then relaunch.
In shortcuts-only mode the overlay ignores ordinary typing and shows only key combinations that use a modifier, such as Command-S or Control-Option-Right Arrow. It keeps the screen clean while you write an email or type code, and still surfaces the commands your audience actually needs to see.
Yes. GlowKeys ships with six themes ranging from a bold neon style to a subtle, minimal look that blends into most interfaces. Pick whichever reads best against the app you are demonstrating and the resolution you record at.
Yes. Turn on the follow-cursor option and the overlay moves with your pointer instead of sitting in a fixed corner. That keeps the keys next to whatever you are pointing at, which reads better in tight crops and zoomed recordings.
A click ripple is a brief circular highlight drawn where you click. It lets viewers tell a mouse click apart from a keypress, which matters in tutorials where a step is "click here" rather than "press this".
Yes. The overlay floats above fullscreen apps and across Spaces, so it stays visible during Keynote presentations, fullscreen Xcode or Final Cut sessions, and anything else you present at full size.
Yes. GlowKeys draws into the normal window layer, so screen recorders capture it like any other on-screen content. This includes QuickTime screen recording, ScreenFlow, OBS display capture, and video calls that share your screen.
No. GlowKeys draws each key as you press it and then discards it. Nothing you type is written to disk, kept in a history, or transmitted anywhere. The app works entirely on-device and does not need a network connection.
GlowKeys does not receive text from secure input fields, because macOS switches on secure input when you type into a password field, and that blocks keyboard observation system-wide. As a habit, still stop the overlay before entering credentials on a recording you plan to publish.
The stats view summarises how many keystrokes you made and which shortcuts you use most. It is a quick way to see which commands are worth teaching first, or which ones you reach for often enough to be worth a dedicated key.
Yes. The menu bar item lets you start and stop the overlay and switch modes without bringing the main window forward, so you do not interrupt a recording or a live stream to change a setting.
GlowKeys requires macOS 13.0 or later and runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
Keystroke and shortcut overlay for macOS screencasts, tutorials, live streams, and classroom demos.
Set the overlay up once and every clip you record explains its own keyboard steps.
Record a ten-second test clip first and play it back at the size your audience will watch. Overlay text that looks fine on a Retina display can be unreadable once the video is scaled down.
Try this in GlowKeys: Keystroke Visualizer →Keep viewers in sync without narrating every shortcut.
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