The mic kill switch

mixr gives you a one-press way to mute your microphone — with a global hotkey that works no matter what app you’re in, and an honest indicator of whether your mic is actually silenced.

Muting your mic

Press the mic-mute hotkey (⌥⌘M by default) and mixr mutes your microphone at the device level. Press it again to unmute. The hotkey works even when mixr isn’t the focused app, so you can kill your mic mid-sentence without hunting for a window.

You can change the hotkey in mixr’s settings.

Knowing your mic is really muted

This is where mixr is careful. It shows you a clear mic state:

• Muted — your mic is genuinely silenced.
• Live — your mic is on.
• No mute — mixr can’t software-mute this device, so it won’t pretend to.

That last one matters. Some devices — many professional audio interfaces — don’t let macOS mute them in software. Rather than showing a “muted” state that isn’t real (and leaving you talking while you’re still live), mixr tells you plainly that it can’t, and points you to the device’s own control. See: Why can’t mixr mute my audio interface?

Safety by default

mixr launches with your mic live, and restores your mic when you quit — so quitting mixr never leaves your mic muted without you knowing. The mute is something you turn on deliberately, not a state you can get stuck in by accident.

The menu bar tells the truth

mixr’s menu-bar icon reflects your mic state — but only for devices it can genuinely control. It will never show you a reassuring “muted” for a device it can’t actually mute, because a glance at the menu bar is exactly when you’d trust it and get caught out.

A universal software mute — one that works even for interfaces macOS can’t mute — is planned for a future version. For now, mixr is honest about which devices it can and can’t silence.