joshuak

Been dealing with this forever and finally went down the rabbit hole to understand it properly.

  The issue: macOS lets any app steal your keyboard focus whenever it wants. Technically, apps just call [NSApp activateIgnoringOtherApps:YES] and boom - your keystrokes are going somewhere else.

  Why I care:
  - I've typed passwords into the wrong window more than once
  - Constant interruptions kill flow
  - VoiceOver users have it way worse - they lose their whole navigation context

  Here's the frustrating part: this has been solved everywhere else for ages. Windows added ForegroundLockTimeout back in XP (2001). X11 window managers have had this forever. GNOME and KDE have had settings for it for decades. There's literally a Wikipedia article about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_stealing

  Jeff Atwood nailed it back in 2007: "Stealing focus from the user is never acceptable."

  I've tried everything - defaults write tricks, Hammerspoon scripts, random third-party apps. Nothing works reliably.

  All we need is one checkbox in System Settings. Apps that want attention bounce in the Dock instead of hijacking your keyboard. That's it.

  The accessibility angle is what gets me - Apple talks a big game about accessibility, but this is a real gap. What's a 2-second annoyance for me is a 30+ second disruption for screen reader users.

  Filed feedback (FB21568202). Curious if anyone's found workarounds that actually stick.