Fix: Unity Input System Touchscreen Click Not Detected

A Unity mobile game uses the new Input System with a “Tap” action bound to <Mouse>/leftButton. The editor with mouse works perfectly. On Android device, taps register nothing. The phone’s touchscreen is treated as a separate device the action doesn’t bind.

The Pointer Abstraction

The Input System has a Pointer base class that Mouse, Touchscreen, and Pen all derive from. Bindings written against <Pointer> match any of them. Bindings against the concrete class only match that class.

Fix 1: Bind to Pointer

Open the .inputactions asset. For the Tap action:

• Path: <Pointer>/press (or for position: <Pointer>/position)
• Use Interaction: Press (default trigger on press)

Now Mouse left button, Touchscreen tap, and Pen tap all dispatch through this single binding.

Fix 2: Add Explicit Touchscreen Binding

If you need to keep Mouse-specific bindings (e.g., for right-click), add a second binding to the same action:

• Binding 1: <Mouse>/leftButton
• Binding 2: <Touchscreen>/primaryTouch/press

Both paths now dispatch to the same callback.

Fix 3: Enable Touch Simulation for Editor

For testing touch-only logic in the Editor without a device:

using UnityEngine.InputSystem.EnhancedTouch;

void OnEnable() {
    EnhancedTouchSupport.Enable();
    TouchSimulation.Enable();
}

Mouse clicks now also generate Touchscreen events. Tests Touchscreen-bound actions in the Editor without a phone.

Fix 4: Per-Touch Position

For multi-touch (pinch, etc.):

using UnityEngine.InputSystem.EnhancedTouch;

foreach (var touch in Touch.activeTouches)
{
    if (touch.began) DoSomething(touch.startScreenPosition);
}

EnhancedTouch.Touch.activeTouches gives you per-finger data, similar to legacy Input.touches. Cleaner than action bindings for multi-finger gestures.

Diagnosing

Open Window → Analysis → Input Debugger on the device or via remote debugger. Tap the screen — if Touchscreen events appear but your action doesn’t fire, the binding doesn’t include touch. Fix per above.

Verifying

Tap the screen on a real device. Your Tap callback should fire. Check the Input Debugger’s Listeners tab — the action should show Touchscreen as a valid source.

“Mouse and Touchscreen are different devices. Use Pointer to cover both, or bind both explicitly.”

Default to <Pointer> bindings in any project that may ship to multiple platforms — saves rewiring later.