The F4 key is a weird one. What should it do?

[MasterHowl]

First it was the Dashboard (rip) key. Then it was the Launch Pad (soon to be gone?) key. And now it's the Spotlight key, which seems pointless given the ⌘ + space shortcut is so convenient. I never press it, ever.

Do people like it the way it is, or is there a better-suited function? Personally, I'd like to see backlights across the entire keyboard line up — including all models of wireless keyboards — and then have F5 and F6 as brightness toggle. That would mean getting rid of the Do Not Disturb key, but it's another one I simply never use.

 

[Nermal]

And now it's the Spotlight key

Hmm? It's still Launchpad on my machine with the latest OS (14.4.1). I can't even find an option to configure it (apart from making it a "pure" F4 key).

 

[f54da]

Probably referring to keyboard on m1 macs. Whose bright idea was it to remove keyboard backlight control and replace it with useless a useless DND, spotlight, and dictation keys.

 

[bogdanw]

AppleScript that can be saved as an app for setting F5 & F6 to keyboard brightness

set UserKeyMapping to do shell script "hidutil property -g UserKeyMapping"
set question to display dialog (UserKeyMapping as text) & return & "Would you like to" buttons {"Disable KeyMapping", "Enable KeyMapping", "Cancel"} default button 2
set answer to button returned of question
if answer is equal to "Disable KeyMapping" then
    do shell script "hidutil property --set '{\"UserKeyMapping\":[]}'"
end if
if answer is equal to "Enable KeyMapping" then
    do shell script "hidutil property --set '{\"UserKeyMapping\":[{\"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc\":0xC000000CF,\"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst\":0xFF00000009},{\"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc\":0x10000009B,\"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst\":0xFF00000008}]}'"
end if
if answer is equal to "Cancel" then
    return
end if

Alternative
Remap spotlight (F4) and diction (F5) keys to decrease and increase keyboard brightness
https://gist.github.com/ehamiter/628aa6decdd33401609e2b48f6cf17f6
How to remapping keys on macOS without thirdparty applications
https://gist.github.com/bennlee/0f5bc8dc15a53b2cc1c81cd92363bf18