Set App Volume Like Windows Does on Your Mac

If you've used Windows, you know the volume mixer: open it from the speaker icon in the taskbar and drag a separate slider for Chrome, Spotify, Discord and anything else making noise. On a Mac, you look for the same thing and it isn't there.

Why macOS can't do this out of the box

Apple's volume control is global: one system volume for everything. The volume keys and the slider in the menu bar move every app together. There is no built-in place to say "music at 40%, meeting at 100%". That gap is why third-party mixers exist. More background: why doesn't Mac have a volume mixer?

What you can do natively

• Use each app's own volume. Spotify, Music, YouTube players, VLC and many call apps have their own volume control. Turning one down works, but you have to go into each app, and many apps have no control at all.
• Turn down alerts separately. In System Settings > Sound, the alert volume slider only affects system alert sounds.
• Silence notification sounds. In System Settings > Notifications, turn off Play sound for notification for an app, or use Do Not Disturb.

These help, but none of them gives you one panel with a slider per app.

The closest match: a menu-bar mixer

The nearest thing to the Windows mixer is a menu-bar app that lists every running app and gives each one a slider. SoundDial does this. Click its icon and you get:

• A volume slider for every app you have open: drag Spotify down without touching your call
• Per-app mute: silence one noisy app, leave the rest playing
• Boost up to 200%: push a too-quiet app above 100% when its own maximum is still too soft

It works per app, not per browser tab, so all tabs of one browser share a slider.

How to use it

1. Install SoundDial from the Mac App Store and open it.
2. Click the SoundDial icon in your menu bar. Every running app shows up with its own slider.
3. Drag an app's slider to set its level, or click its speaker icon to mute it.
4. If an app is too quiet, drag its slider above 100%.

That's the whole workflow, much like the Windows mixer you already know. See per-app volume control on Mac for more.

Other options

There are other ways to get per-app volume on a Mac:

• Background Music: a free, open-source app.
• FineTune: a per-app audio project many people find through GitHub.
• SoundSource by Rogue Amoeba: $49, sold directly rather than on the Mac App Store.

Check each project's or vendor's website for current features, requirements and price.

Which one should you get?

If you want your Mac to work like the Windows volume mixer, with a slider and mute button per app and a boost for quiet apps, bought once on the Mac App Store, SoundDial, a per-app volume mixer for Mac is built for exactly that. It is €14.99 one-time purchase, no subscription, and needs macOS 14.2 or later. If you need more than per-app volume and mute, look at the other tools above.

Get SoundDial on the Mac App Store.