Mute Slack on Mac Without Muting Everything Else

You're deep in focus work with a playlist running. Then Slack pings. And again. Three channels, two DMs and a thread reply in thirty seconds. You want to silence Slack but keep your music. The mute key says: everything or nothing.

Slack's sounds are designed to get your attention, which is exactly the problem when you need to concentrate. Here's how to quiet Slack, starting with Slack's own settings.

Option 1: Slack's own notification settings

Slack has the most precise controls for its own sounds. Open Slack's settings and go to Notifications:

• Change or turn off the notification sound. Look for the sound options in the Notifications settings and pick a softer sound, or no sound at all, while still getting banners and badges.
• Notify only for what matters. Set notifications to direct messages and mentions only, so busy channels stop pinging.
• Mute noisy channels. In recent versions you can right-click a channel (or open its settings) and choose to mute it.
• Pause notifications. Click your avatar (your picture in the corner of Slack) and look for Pause notifications, then choose how long.

The catch: pausing is all or nothing, and if you forget to resume, you can miss messages after your focus session. None of these settings make Slack quieter, only silent or not.

Option 2: Turn off Slack sounds in macOS

Go to System Settings > Notifications, select Slack and turn off Play sound for notification.

The catch: this stays off until you turn it back on, and it only covers notifications. Huddles and other in-app sounds aren't affected.

Option 3: Use a Focus mode

In System Settings > Focus, set up a Focus (for example Work) that silences Slack's notifications. Turn the Focus on when you need quiet.

The catch: Focus is about notifications, not volume. Slack is either allowed or silenced; you can't keep it at a low level. For more on this, see control notification sounds on Mac.

Option 4: Give Slack its own volume

Often what you actually want is in between: Slack pings quiet enough not to break your flow, but still audible if you're listening for them. Music and calls stay at their normal level.

SoundDial gives Slack its own volume slider in your menu bar, next to every other running app. Set Slack to 10% or 15%, or mute just Slack with one click while Spotify and your call keep playing. Click again to unmute when you're ready to pay attention.

A simple routine

• Focus time: Slack at 10% or muted, music at a comfortable level.
• Available time: Slack at 40%, so pings are noticeable without being startling.
• Meetings: Slack muted, your call app at full volume.

You can switch these by hand from the menu bar, or save each one as a SoundDial profile (Save in the panel footer) and click its chip to apply it. Apart from auto-ducking during calls, which lowers other apps while a call app such as a Slack huddle uses the microphone and can be turned off in Settings > Auto-Duck, SoundDial doesn't change levels on its own. It works per app, so if you use Slack in a browser tab, it shares one slider with that browser. Using the Slack desktop app gives Slack a slider of its own. If huddles are the problem, see Slack huddle volume issues 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.