VolumeGlass - Beautiful volume control for macOS
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VolumeGlass replaces the default macOS volume popup that giant grey square that blocks your screen with a slim frosted glass overlay that lives on the edge of your screen and fades away when you're done.
What you can do:
Drag the bar to set volume precisely
Double-tap to mute instantly
Long press to switch audio output devices
Choose from 5 screen positions
Resize and reposition from settings
One-time purchase, $7.99. No subscription ever.
Replies
That grey square has been annoying me for years and I never thought anyone would actually fix it. The long press to switch audio output is the feature I didn't know I needed — I swap between headphones and speakers constantly and the current way to do that is embarrassingly buried. One-time purchase at $7.99 is the right call too, nobody wants a subscription for a volume widget.
@zerodarkhub This is exactly the kind of comment that makes the 6 months worth it. The audio switching was actually one of the last features I added but ended up being the one people mention the most — turns out everyone swaps outputs constantly and just tolerates how painful it is. Glad the pricing landed right too, a subscription for something this focused would have felt wrong.
Looks super elegant!! Love it
@abhinavramesh Thanks
Told
The original macOS volume overlay is one of those UI patterns that nobody notices until it breaks their flow — the fact that it doesn't respect your wallpaper has always been jarring. Curious whether VolumeGlass handles the edge case where the glass effect readability breaks against very light backgrounds, because that's usually where ambient UI elements start to feel like noise. Does it adjust dynamically based on the content behind it, or is it a fixed style choice? The system integration angle is the right differentiator — this is exactly the kind of thing that should feel native rather than like a third-party overlay.
@jscanzi Really good question. The blur effect uses NSVisualEffectView which adapts to whatever is behind it natively, so it handles light backgrounds better than a fixed style would. That said, there are edge cases with extremely white backgrounds where contrast can get tricky. There's a setting to adjust the opacity which helps a lot in those situations. It's something I'm actively refining — dynamic tint adaptation based on background luminance is on the roadmap. Glad the native integration angle comes through, that was the core design goal from day one.
Told
@aarush_prakash thanks for your answer!
@jscanzi Your Welcome