Name: SmartPause
Rating: 4.0 (1 reviews)

macOS routes the media key to whatever it last remembers, so YouTube keeps playing and Apple Music opens. SmartPause finds the app actually outputting audio and pauses that. Two apps playing? One press switches, double press plays/pauses. Free, open source, menu bar only.

I have a Spotify tab and a YouTube video open at the same time and the media key always used to hit whichever app macOS decided to remember, not the one actually making noise. SmartPause fixed that immediately, it just pauses whatever is actually playing audio right now. Menu bar only, no extra window, no account, exactly what a utility like this should be.

Would like a way to set per-app priority for the rare case where two apps are both outputting audio at once, right now it just switches on the second press but I'd want to pin one as primary sometimes.

BetterTouchTool can technically be scripted to do something like this but it's a lot of setup for one specific problem. SmartPause just does the one thing out of the box with zero config.

Thanks Gal,

I take note of your opinion, I will definitely bring this feature with an update in the future.

SmartPause

The play/pause key, finally aimed at what's playing

The play/pause key, finally aimed at what's playing

SmartPause Reviews

The community submitted 1 review to tell us what they like about SmartPause, what SmartPause can do better, and more.

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