How to Control Per-App Volume on Mac

You're on a video call. Slack keeps dinging. Music is playing in the background. You reach for the volume key and everything gets quieter: the call, the music, the notifications. macOS has one volume slider, and it controls everything at once.

Windows has had a per-app volume mixer for years. macOS still doesn't. If you want to turn down Spotify without affecting your Zoom call, there's no built-in answer.

This guide explains what per-app volume control is, what macOS offers instead, and how to get it.

What per-app volume means

Per-app volume means every app on your Mac gets its own independent volume slider. You can set Spotify to 30%, keep Zoom at 100%, mute Slack and leave Safari at 50%, all at the same time. Changing one app's level has no effect on the others.

That's different from the system volume, a single master slider that scales everything together. With the system volume at 50% and Spotify too loud, the only way to turn down just Spotify is inside Spotify, if it offers that.

Why macOS doesn't include this

Apple has never exposed per-app volume in macOS. One slider is simple when you do one thing at a time. It stops being simple once several sources compete for your attention, which is how most people use a Mac: a call, some music, notifications, a video.

The built-in workarounds

1. In-app volume controls

Some apps have their own volume slider: music players like Spotify, video players like VLC and QuickTime Player, many games. Many apps don't, including most chat apps and system sounds.

The catch: even when an app has a slider, you have to switch to the app, find it, adjust it, then switch back.

2. Notification settings

In System Settings > Notifications you can turn off sounds for individual apps.

The catch: this only affects notification sounds. It's an on/off switch, not a volume level, and it doesn't touch media or call audio.

3. Audio MIDI Setup

macOS includes Audio MIDI Setup in the Utilities folder. It configures audio devices and can combine several into one, but it has no per-app volume controls. It's a device tool, not a mixer.

4. Separate devices

Headphones for one thing and speakers for another might seem like a fix, but it needs extra hardware and setup, and still doesn't give you a simple level per app.

How a per-app volume mixer works

A per-app mixer lives in the menu bar and lists your running apps. Each app gets its own slider. Drag it, and only that app's volume changes. The system volume stays where it is.

What to look for:

• Automatic app detection. When you open an app, it should appear without manual setup.
• Per-app mute. One click to silence a single app.
• Volume boost. Some apps are too quiet even at their maximum. A good mixer lets you go past 100% for that app only.
• Menu bar access. Glance up, adjust, get back to work, with no app switching.

Who needs this

Anyone who does more than one audio thing at a time, especially:

• Remote workers: calls, music and notifications at once
• Students: a lecture recording plus a reference video
• Gamers: game audio, voice chat and music competing
• Anyone with notification fatigue: mute Slack, keep everything else

If you only want two sources at different levels, see listening to two things at once on Mac.

SoundDial

SoundDial is a menu-bar app that gives each running app its own volume slider. Set any app from 0% to 200%: turn one down, or boost a quiet one above 100% (there's no limiter, so raise a boost in small steps). Mute any app with one click while the others keep playing. It works per app, not per browser tab, so all tabs of a browser share one slider.

For the call-plus-music situation above, SoundDial can also lower other apps during calls automatically (auto-ducking, on by default, can be turned off), and you can save a set of levels as a profile and apply it to your running apps with one click.

More detail on the use case: per-app volume control on Mac.

SoundDial, a per-app volume mixer for Mac needs macOS 14.2 or later and costs €14.99 one-time purchase on the Mac App Store, no subscription.

Get SoundDial on the Mac App Store.