How to Set Up Volume Profiles for Different Situations on Mac

At 9 AM you're on a Zoom call: Zoom at 100%, Spotify muted, Slack muted. At 10 AM the call ends: Spotify at 40%, Slack at 15%. At noon you're gaming: game at 60%, Discord at 100%, everything else muted. In the evening you're watching YouTube: browser at 80%, everything else quiet.

Every situation has a different ideal mix, and every time the situation changes you'd adjust five or six apps by hand. Or you save each mix once and switch with one click.

What are volume profiles?

A volume profile is a saved snapshot of your apps' volume and mute settings. You set your apps the way you want them, say Spotify at 30%, Zoom at 100% and Slack muted, and save that under a name like "Meeting". Later you apply the profile and those apps jump back to their saved levels.

macOS doesn't have volume profiles

macOS has Focus modes (Do Not Disturb, Work, Personal and so on) that decide which notifications get through. They don't set volume levels. A Focus can keep notifications from arriving, but it can't put Spotify at 30% or Zoom at 100%. And since macOS has only one volume for everything, there are no per-app levels to save in the first place.

Setting up profiles with SoundDial

SoundDial gives every running app its own slider and mute button in the menu bar, and it can save those settings as profiles. Profiles sit as small chips in SoundDial's panel.

Creating a profile

1. Click SoundDial in the menu bar.
2. Set each app's slider (0% to 200%) and mute button the way you want them for one situation.
3. Click the + next to the profile chips.
4. Pick one of the 10 emoji icons, type a name such as "Meeting", and click Save.

The Save button in the panel footer is the quick version: it saves the current mix straight away as "Quick Save", which you can rename later.

Switching profiles

Click a profile chip. Every app that is saved in that profile and is running right now jumps to its saved volume and mute state. One click instead of five or six slider moves.

Two details worth knowing:

• Only running apps are changed. If Spotify isn't open when you click the chip, it isn't touched. Open it and click the chip again.
• Apps that aren't in the profile are left alone. A profile holds the apps that were running when you saved it.

The built-in Work, Focus and Chill chips

SoundDial comes with three chips called Work, Focus and Chill. They start empty: clicking them does nothing until you fill them. Set your apps, right-click the chip and choose Update. From then on, that chip applies your mix.

Updating, renaming and deleting

Right-click any chip for Rename, Change Icon, Update and Delete. Update replaces the saved mix with your current sliders, which is the easy way to fine-tune a profile over time.

What a profile stores

Per-app volume and mute, nothing else. The Mac's main volume, the output device and the auto-duck setting are not part of a profile.

Example profiles to build

These are starting points. SoundDial doesn't ship them; set the sliders, then save or update a chip.

Meeting

• Zoom or Teams: 100%
• Spotify: muted
• Slack: muted
• Browser: muted

Focus work

• Spotify: 35%
• Slack: 10%
• Mail: muted
• Browser: 50%

Gaming

• Game: 60%
• Discord: 100%
• Spotify: 20%
• Other apps: muted

Chill

• Spotify: 70%
• Browser: 60%
• Messages: 20%

If one app is too quiet even at 100%, you can save it above 100% (up to 200%). Boosting can make loud sources clip, so raise it in small steps.

Profiles plus auto-ducking

SoundDial also lowers other apps automatically while a supported call app (Zoom, Teams, FaceTime, Discord, Slack, Webex, Skype, Google Meet in Chrome, or a browser using the microphone) has the mic in use. It's on by default and drops the other apps to 30% of their level; the amount is adjustable from 10% to 80%. It doesn't detect WhatsApp or Telegram calls.

The two work together: apply your "Focus work" profile in the morning, a call lowers the music while it runs, and when the call ends every app returns to its slider level, which is your profile's level. Details: automatic audio ducking on Mac.

For a work and evening split, see Mac volume profiles for work and home. More on profiles: volume profiles 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.