---
title: Hold-tap behavior
sidebar_label: Hold-Tap
---

## 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](../assets/hold-tap/case1_2.png)

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](../assets/hold-tap/case1_2.png)

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'.

![Hold-tap comparison](../assets/hold-tap/comparison.png)

### Configuration
A code example which configures a mod-tap setting that works with 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 = <175>;
			flavor = "balanced";
			bindings = <&kp>, <&kp>;
		};
	};
		
	keymap {
		compatible = "zmk,keymap";

		default_layer {
			bindings = <
	            &hm LCTL A &hm LGUI S &hm LALT D &hm LSFT F
			>;
		};
	};
};

```

If this config does not work for you, try the flavor "tap-preferred" and a short tapping_term_ms such as 120ms.

If you want to use a tap-hold with a keycode from a different code page, you have to define another behavior with another "bindings" parameter.For example, if you want to use SHIFT and volume up, define the bindings like `bindings = <&kp>, <&cp>;`. Only single-argument behaviors are supported at the moment.

#### Note
Astute readers may notice similarities between the possible behaviors in ZMK and other firmware, such as QMK. The hold-preferred flavor works similar to the `HOLD_ON_OTHER_KEY_PRESS` setting. The 'balanced' flavor is similar to the `PERMISSIVE_HOLD` setting, and the `tap-preferred` flavor is similar to `IGNORE_MOD_TAP_INTERRUPT`.
