Set Mac Alert Volume Separate From Media Volume

Your music is at a nice level. Then a macOS alert fires and it's painfully loud next to your music. Or the opposite: your alerts are inaudible because the system volume is low for quiet background music.

What you want is two controls: one for media (music, calls, video) and one for alerts and notifications. macOS partly supports this. Here's what the built-in setting covers, what it misses, and how to close the gap.

The built-in alert volume

macOS has a separate alert volume. Open System Settings > Sound and look for the Alert volume slider. It controls macOS system alert sounds independently from the main volume.

In the same place you can pick which alert sound plays and choose the output device for sound effects with the Play sound effects through option.

What the alert volume controls

• macOS system alert sounds (the beep you hear for an error, for example)
• System sound effects, such as emptying the Trash
• Some sounds from built-in apps

What it doesn't control

• Slack, Discord and Teams notification sounds
• Zoom sounds
• Browser notification sounds
• Most other third-party app sounds

Third-party apps usually play their notification sounds as regular app audio, not as system alerts, so the alert slider has no effect on them. The apps whose pings bother people most are often exactly the ones it can't reach.

Turn notification sounds down or off per app

For notification sounds, macOS gives you an on/off switch per app. Go to System Settings > Notifications, select the app, and turn off Play sound for notification.

Many apps also have their own sound options. In Slack, Discord or Teams, look in the app's settings under notifications or sounds; some let you pick a quieter sound or turn sounds off.

The catch: these are mostly on or off. You can silence an app's pings, but not make them quieter than your music while still hearing them. And sounds that aren't notifications (a huddle, a video in a chat) keep playing at full level.

The real fix: a volume per app

To truly separate notification volume from media volume, you need a volume level per app: Slack quiet, Spotify comfortable, Zoom at full volume.

SoundDial, a per-app volume mixer for Mac, gives each running app its own slider in the menu bar, from 0% to 200%, plus a one-click mute. Set notification-heavy apps to a level that's noticeable but not jarring, and keep media apps where you like them. More on this: per-app volume control on Mac.

Example setup

Media apps:

• Spotify: 50%
• Safari or Chrome: 60%
• QuickTime or VLC: 70%

Notification apps:

• Slack: 15%
• Discord: 20%
• Mail: 10%

Communication apps:

• Zoom or Teams: 100%
• FaceTime: 100%

You set these by hand with each app's slider. Keep the macOS Alert volume slider for system sounds, and use per-app sliders for everything else. SoundDial works per app, not per browser tab, so all tabs of a browser share one slider.

For more on notification sounds specifically, see controlling notification sounds on Mac.

SoundDial needs macOS 14.2 or later and is €14.99 one-time purchase on the Mac App Store, no subscription.

Get SoundDial on the Mac App Store.