Multi-touch test - how many fingers does your screen detect?

The number that matters is the one it delivers

Your device reports a figure through navigator.maxTouchPoints — usually 5 or 10 — but that is what the digitiser advertises, not what it manages. This counts the pointers that actually arrive while your fingers are down, and keeps the highest number seen.

The peak is kept deliberately, because it disappears the instant a finger lifts. A test that reported the count at the moment you pressed Done would report whatever you happened to be holding at that second.

Why it matters

Two simultaneous points is the floor for anything useful: below that, pinch-to-zoom does not work and two-finger scrolling is unreliable. A screen that manages one point is a screen with a real fault, even though single taps feel normal.

Games and music apps use more — four or five for on-screen controls, sometimes ten. If a device is being bought for that, the peak here is the figure to check.

How to run it

Place as many fingers as you can on the pad at once, hold them for a moment, then lift. Try both hands. Spread them out: some panels handle several touches well when they are far apart and merge them when they are close together, which is itself a fault worth knowing about.

Related tools

Touchscreen test finds dead zones; the full device health check includes both alongside everything else.