How to send different apps to different speakers on a Mac

You might want music on the living-room speaker, a video call in your headphones and notifications on the Mac. macOS can't do that by itself: everything plays through the one output chosen in System Settings › Sound. Here are the ways round it, from built-in to per-app.

The short answer

To route audio per app on a Mac you need an app that captures each app's sound and plays it to another device. Splay (£5) and SoundSource ($49) both do this. Splay can also route single browser tabs. The built-in options below only help in particular cases.

Option 1: the app's own output setting

Some apps let you pick their speaker directly. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Slack calls and most music production apps have an output menu in their audio settings. Set your headphones there, and leave the Mac's main output on your speakers.

This only works for apps that offer the setting. Spotify, Apple Music, Safari, Chrome and most others always follow the system output.

Option 2: a Multi-Output Device

Audio MIDI Setup, in Applications › Utilities, can combine outputs into a Multi-Output Device. Choose it as your output and the Mac plays the same sound on every device at once.

That suits playing music in two rooms. It does not split audio: every app still goes to every speaker. Volume keys also stop working on a Multi-Output Device.

Option 3: a per-app router like Splay

Splay gives each output a lane in the menu bar and lets you drag apps between them.

1. Download Splay, move it to Applications and open it.
2. Allow audio capture when macOS asks. Splay uses the capture built into macOS 26, so there is no driver to install.
3. Click the Splay icon in the menu bar. You'll see a lane for each speaker, pair of headphones and AirPlay device.
4. Drag an app, for example Spotify, into the lane for the output you want. It moves straight away; every other app stays where it was.
5. To split a browser, install Splay's Chrome extension when prompted. Each playing tab then appears on its own, so one tab can go to your headphones and another to the speakers.
6. Pin an app to keep it on that output every time it plays.

What about BlackHole and Loopback?

BlackHole and Rogue Amoeba's Loopback create virtual audio devices. They are built for recording and streaming, for example sending a game's sound into OBS. They can be combined into routing set-ups, but they don't give you a simple "this app to that speaker" control, and they install an audio driver. For listening, a per-app router is far simpler.

Common set-ups

• Music on an AirPlay speaker, calls in headphones: drag Spotify or Music into the AirPlay lane and leave Zoom or Teams on your AirPods.
• A lecture in headphones, music on speakers: route the lecture's browser tab to your headphones and the music tab to the speakers.
• Game sound on speakers, voice chat in a headset: drag Discord to the headset and leave the game on the speakers.
• Streaming or DJing: preview on headphones while the main mix plays on the speakers.

Questions