Active Touch Counter
Display currently detected contacts.
Tap, click or press Space to keep count.
Tap anywhere inside or press Space
How the Active Touch Counter Works
The Active Touch Counter shows the number of contacts touching the screen at this moment and updates the number on every touch start and touch end. The count rises when a finger lands and falls when a finger lifts.
- Touch the surface: Place 1 or more fingers on the counting area. The live number rises by 1 for each finger.
- Hold or move: Keep fingers down and move them. Movement does not change the active count.
- Lift fingers: Each lifted finger lowers the live number by 1. The number returns to 0 when the screen is clear.
- Watch cancelled contacts: A touch the system cancels, such as one taken over by a notification gesture, lowers the active count without a lift.
Active Touch Counter Formula
The Active Touch Counter value equals touch starts minus touch ends minus touch cancellations.
- Starts
- pointerdown or touchstart events
- Ends
- pointerup or touchend events
- Cancels
- pointercancel or touchcancel events
Example: A user lands 4 fingers, lifts 1 and the system cancels 1. The active count is 4 − 1 − 1 = 2.
Active Touch Counter Reference Table
The Active Touch Counter conversion table maps finger events to the active count shown on screen.
| Event sequence | Starts | Ends + cancels | Active count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 finger down | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 more fingers down | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 1 finger lifts | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Palm rejection cancels 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Last finger lifts | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| 5 fingers down at once | 8 | 3 | 5 |
About the Active Touch Counter
An Active Touch Counter is a live display of currently detected screen contacts. The value is a snapshot, not a running total, so the number goes up and down as fingers land and lift.
Touchscreen engineers call this the active contact count. The figure helps find ghost touches, which are contacts the screen reports when no finger is present. A clean screen shows 0 with no hand on the glass.
Ways to Use the Active Touch Counter
There are 5 main uses of an Active Touch Counter, including ghost-touch detection and palm-rejection checks.
- Ghost-touch detection: Place the device on a table with no hand near it. Any value above 0 points to a faulty digitizer or a charger fault.
- Palm-rejection checks: Rest a palm while writing with a stylus to see whether the palm counts as a contact.
- Stuck-contact checks: Lift all fingers and confirm the count returns to 0 within 1 frame.
- Gesture debugging: Developers confirm that a 2-finger gesture holds exactly 2 active contacts from start to end.
- Teaching touch input: Students see touch start, touch end and cancel events change a live number.
Tool Details
- Category
- Tally & Calculation
- Controls
- Taps and keys
- Input Support
- Touch, Pen, Mouse, Keys
- Offline Ready
- On your device