Hold-Tap Behavior

Summary

Hold-tap is the basis for other behaviors such as layer-tap and mod-tap.

Simply put, the hold-tap key will output the 'hold' behavior if it's held for a while, and output the 'tap' behavior when it's tapped quickly.

Hold-Tap

The tapping_term_ms parameter decides between a 'tap' and a 'hold'.

Simple behavior

By default, the hold-tap is configured to also select the 'hold' functionality if another key is tapped while it's active:

Hold preferred behavior

We call this the 'hold-preferred' flavor of hold-taps. While this flavor may work very well for a ctrl/escape key, it's not very well suited for home-row mods or layer-taps. That's why there are two more flavors to choose from: 'tap-preferred' and 'balanced'.

Flavors

  • The 'hold-preferred' flavor triggers the hold behavior when the tapping_term_ms has expired or another key is pressed.
  • The 'balanced' flavor will trigger the hold behavior when the tapping_term_ms has expired or another key is pressed and released.
  • The 'tap-preferred' flavor triggers the hold behavior when the tapping_term_ms has expired. It triggers the tap behavior when another key is pressed.

When the hold-tap key is released and the hold behavior has not been triggered, the tap behavior will trigger.

Hold-tap comparison

Basic usage

For basic usage, please see mod-tap and layer-tap pages.

Advanced Configuration

This example configures a hold-tap that works well for homerow mods:

#include <behaviors.dtsi>
#include <dt-bindings/zmk/keys.h>
/ {
behaviors {
hm: homerow_mods {
compatible = "zmk,behavior-hold-tap";
label = "HOMEROW_MODS";
#binding-cells = <2>;
tapping_term_ms = <150>;
flavor = "tap-preferred";
bindings = <&kp>, <&kp>;
};
};
keymap {
compatible = "zmk,keymap";
default_layer {
bindings = <
&hm LCTRL A &hm LGUI S &hm LALT D &hm LSHFT F
>;
};
};
};

If this config does not work for you, try the flavor "balanced" with a medium tapping_term_ms such as 200ms.

Comparison to QMK

The hold-preferred flavor works similar to the HOLD_ON_OTHER_KEY_PRESS setting in QMK. The 'balanced' flavor is similar to the PERMISSIVE_HOLD setting, and the tap-preferred flavor is similar to IGNORE_MOD_TAP_INTERRUPT.

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