Anchr
No Permissions · Menu Bar Only
Your sound stays
where you put it.
Plug in a monitor and macOS quietly moves your audio to its speakers. Connect AirPods and it hands them your microphone too — which drops the headset into hands-free mode and wrecks the sound in both directions. Anchr keeps an ordered preference for each role and puts your choice back, per role, independently.
v1.1.0 · macOS 13+, including 27 Golden Gate · Apple Silicon & Intel · Signed & notarized by Apple · No account
How it works
Install. Press one button. Forget it.
Drag it into Applications
Open the DMG, drag Anchr across, launch it. It lives in the menu bar — no Dock icon, and you can hide the icon too without losing the guard.
Grant nothing at all
There is no permission prompt, because there is nothing to permit. Reading the device list and setting the system default are unprivileged. Anchr chooses which microphone your apps record from — it never records anything itself.
Press “Anchor These”
Whatever you're listening on and recording from right now becomes your first choice. That's the whole setup. Nobody wants to build a priority list before they know what an app does.
Flip the two switches
“Never use a display's speakers” and “never use a Bluetooth headset as the microphone”. Both are rules about the kind of connection, so they keep working on hardware you buy later.
The one macOS can't do
Listen on AirPods. Keep your real mic.
macOS ties your microphone to your headphones. The moment an app records from the default input, the headset drops out of high-quality listening mode and into hands-free — and suddenly your music sounds like a phone call from 2004. There is no setting for it.
Output follows you
Connect the headset and your audio moves to it, exactly as you'd expect. Anchr has no argument with that — it's what you reached for the headphones to do.
Unchanged
Input stays put
Your microphone stays on the interface, the USB mic, or the Mac's own — so nothing ever opens an input stream on the headset, and it never drops to hands-free.
The trick
Which is why it sounds better
Not a placebo and not an EQ curve. The headset simply never leaves the codec it was already using, because nothing asked it to be a microphone.
Per-role
Honest scope: this covers apps that record from your default microphone, which is nearly all of them — Zoom, FaceTime, Meet, Teams. An app that goes out of its way to select the headset by name will still do so.
The part that matters
It never argues with you.
Here is the hard problem, and every app in this category has it: macOS tells you the default device changed. It never tells you who changed it. A person picking AirPods in Control Centre and an app grabbing them behind your back produce byte-identical events.
Something takes your device
Anchr puts it back — usually within a quarter of a second — and says so, naming what took over.
Choose it a second time
If you actually meant it, pick the same device again and Anchr keeps it for the session. Two clicks, no settings, no exception list. There's a button in the menu that does it in one.
A program can't fake that
The second choice has to arrive at human speed — no sooner than you could have read the message, and inside the window where the question still means anything.
And if it's losing, it says so
When something keeps grabbing a device faster than a person could, Anchr stops rather than loop against it — and tells you it has. A guard that quietly gave up is worse than no guard.
Features
An ordered list, and two switches.
A device that isn't on your list is one Anchr normally has no opinion about — it won't route to it, and won't route away from it either. An unconfigured Anchr does nothing at all, which is why it can ship switched on. There is one deliberate exception: if the device you're on is one you marked never use and nothing on your list is available, Anchr moves you to the best device that is — listed or not. A never-use switch that gave up whenever your list was empty would be decoration.
First one that's connected wins
Interface, then the Mac's speakers. Unplug the interface and it falls through; plug it back in and it comes back. Separate lists for output, microphone and system sounds.
Per role
Never use a display's speakers
HDMI and DisplayPort, including the monitor you buy next year. It's a rule about the connection, not a blocklist of devices you have to keep feeding.
One switch
Never use Bluetooth as the mic
Covers every headset you own and every one you'll own. The single most common complaint about macOS audio, as a checkbox.
One switch
Waits for the dust to settle
A dock brings three devices in half a second and a wake republishes everything. Anchr waits for the burst to end and routes once, instead of clicking your speakers on and off.
One change, not five
Reorder from the keyboard
Select a device and press ⌘↑ or ⌘↓. The ordering is the whole product, so it is never drag-only — drag is invisible to VoiceOver and impossible without a mouse.
WCAG 2.1 AA
Tells you what it did
The menu shows where every role is pointing and why — “1st choice”, “kept for now”, “never used”. Every change Anchr makes is logged and announced to VoiceOver — and so is every change it couldn't make: a write the audio system refused, a change macOS accepted and then undid, or Anchr giving up after something kept dragging a device away. A problem you can only see as a glyph in the menu bar isn't reported at all to someone who can't look at it.
Failures too
Lands quietly when it falls back
Headphones run out of battery and Anchr moves the sound to the next device on your list. If that's the Mac's own speakers, still set to whatever you last used them at, the room finds out what you were listening to. Anchr can mute them on the way in — only the built-in speakers, never something with its own volume knob.
Optional
Checks the change actually stuck
There's a macOS bug where setting the output device reports success and then quietly undoes itself — most often on AirPods that have been to your iPhone and back. Anchr reads the device back after every change and says so when it didn't take, rather than looking like the broken thing.
Says so once
Pause, and mean it
One click and Anchr stops holding anything until you resume. Deliberately not saved between launches — a pause you forget about is just an icon that does nothing.
Session only
Take your setup with you
Your priority lists, your blocked devices and Anchr's own switches export to one file — for a second Mac, or for putting things back after a reinstall. Three things stay behind because they aren't Anchr's to carry: opening at login and the app's language are held by macOS, and automatic updates belong to the install. The file says so rather than quietly leaving them out. Importing one replaces everything, so it counts what you'd lose and asks first.
Import / export
Asks for no permissions
No microphone access, no Accessibility, no prompt of any kind. No network connections except checking for its own updates — and, only if you enter a business license key, re-checking that key. There is no account and no telemetry.
Nothing to grant
Thirteen languages, and you choose
English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Turkish and Simplified Chinese — picked in Anchr's own Settings rather than inherited from your Mac, and taking effect on the next redraw. Nearly everything Anchr says is assembled while it runs, out of a device name and a role, so this is the whole menu and the whole activity log — not just the labels in Settings. Light and dark, and WCAG 2.1 AA in both.
13 languages
Hide the icon, and still find it
Anchr has no Dock icon and no window of its own, so hiding the menu-bar icon takes away the only way to reach it — and the setting survives a restart. Opening Anchr again from Applications or Spotlight brings the icon back, and the switch tells you so before it disappears.
Not a one-way door
A look inside
A welcome that takes ten seconds.
There's nothing to grant and nothing to wait for, which makes a long wizard actively insulting. Two steps: what it does, and one button that configures the app from the devices you're already using.
Pricing
Free for you. Fair for work.
Personal use is free forever — every role, every rule, no key, no account, no nag screens. If Anchr earns its keep at your job, a one-time business license keeps it supported.
Personal
Free forever
For individuals and personal projects
- Ordered preferences for output, microphone and system sounds
- Never use a display's speakers · never use Bluetooth as the mic
- Pick-it-again to overrule, with no exception lists to maintain
- Settings import and export
- 100% on-device — no account, no telemetry
- Free updates forever
Business
$5 / device
One-time payment — no subscription
- Everything in Personal
- Use commercially at work
- One-time payment — no subscription
- Free updates forever
- Supports solo indie development
Download & install
Get set up in seconds.
Download it, drag it into Applications, and press one button. There is no permission step — which is the shortest install story of anything in this category.
Version 1.1.0 · macOS 13+ · Free updates forever
macOS 13 Ventura or later, including macOS 27 Golden Gate · Apple Silicon or Intel
Everything Anchr needs is in the app — native SwiftUI, nothing else to install. One universal build runs natively on both architectures.
Opens with a double-click
Anchr is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens cleanly the first time — no
Open Anyway trip through System Settings. Open the DMG, drag Anchr into Applications, and launch it.No permissions. None at all.
Reading the audio device list and setting the system default are unprivileged calls, so there is no prompt and nothing to grant. In particular there is no microphone access — Anchr picks which microphone your apps record from, and has no code that could record one. The build refuses to ship if a microphone usage string ever appears in the bundle.
Updates itself
Anchr checks for its own updates and installs them in place, signed with the same key every time. With no license key entered, that is the only network connection it makes — there is no account and no analytics.
Check the file you downloaded
Anchr is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, and macOS checks that every time you open it — that is the check that catches a file altered on its way to you. To confirm it yourself, compare the SHA-256 of your copy with the one published for the
Anchr.dmg this page serves.SHA-256 checksum
Published checksum
Run this on your download and compare
shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Anchr.dmg
Or have your Mac compare them for you: save Anchr.dmg.sha256 beside the download and run shasum -a 256 -c Anchr.dmg.sha256.
FAQ
Common questions.
Is Anchr really free?
Personal use is free forever — every role, every rule, no key, no account, no trial timer, no nag screens. If you use Anchr at work, a one-time $5 business license per device keeps it supported.
Does this actually make my AirPods sound better?
Indirectly, and not by processing anything. macOS ties your microphone to your headphones; the moment an app records from the default input, the headset switches out of its high-quality listening codec into hands-free mode. Keeping the default microphone somewhere else means nothing asks the headset to be a microphone, so it never switches. Anchr does not touch the audio itself — there is no EQ and no processing.
Will it fight me when I change a device on purpose?
No, and this is the part most of the design went into. CoreAudio reports a person changing a device and a program stealing one identically, so Anchr resolves it by asking you in the only currency you already have — a second click. It puts the device back and says so; choose that device again and it keeps it for the session. There's a one-click button in the menu for exactly that. A program can't fake the answer, because the second choice has to arrive at human speed.
What if I've configured nothing?
Then Anchr does nothing at all. A device that isn't on one of your lists is one it normally has no opinion about — it won't route to it, and won't route away from it either. That's why it can ship switched on without being presumptuous. The one exception is the never use switch: if you're sitting on a device you banned and nothing on your list is available, Anchr moves you to the best device that is, whether or not you listed it. Built-in speakers first, then anything physical over anything a program created — landing in a loopback driver is silence, and silence reads as a broken app.
Does it need microphone access?
No — and it never will. Enumerating audio devices and setting the system default are unprivileged; capturing audio is the thing that needs permission, and Anchr contains no capture code. It chooses which microphone your apps use and never opens one itself. The build script fails outright if a microphone usage description ever appears in the bundle, so this can't drift.
What happens when I dock or undock?
Hardware arrives in bursts — a dock brings speakers, a microphone and a headphone jack in the same half-second, and a wake republishes the whole device list. Anchr waits for the burst to end and then routes once, rather than three times, so you don't hear your speakers click on and off. If the hardware never settles it still routes eventually, rather than waiting forever.
What if two apps keep fighting over a device?
Anchr counts. When something changes the same role faster than a person could, several times in a few seconds, it stops rather than loop against it — and tells you, in the menu and in a notification. It will not sit there burning a core arguing with another program, and it will not quietly pretend it's still guarding something.
Can I use it with a loopback or aggregate device?
Yes. Virtual and aggregate devices show up like anything else and can go on your lists. They're labelled “created by software”, and Anchr avoids routing to one automatically when it's escaping a device you banned — landing in a loopback driver is silence, and silence reads as a broken app.
Does it replace the Sound settings pane?
It replaces the need to keep going there, not the ability to. There's a “Sound Settings…” item right in Anchr's menu. An audio utility that makes the system settings harder to find has picked a fight with the OS on your behalf.
Is it accessible?
WCAG 2.1 AA, and the parts that can be asserted are asserted in the test suite rather than eyeballed. The ordering is the whole product, so it's never drag-only — select a row and press ⌘↑ or ⌘↓, and the buttons name the device rather than saying “Move Up”. No state is signalled by colour alone, every accent colour's contrast ratio is generated to clear its target in light, dark and Increase Contrast, and changes Anchr makes on its own are announced to VoiceOver — including the ones that failed, which used to be visible only as a warning glyph in the menu bar. ⌘W and Esc close both of Anchr's windows, which for a menu-bar app with no File menu is not free.
Will macOS warn me about an unidentified developer?
No. Anchr is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens with a normal double-click the first time — no Open Anyway trip through System Settings, no Terminal.
What languages does Anchr speak?
Thirteen: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Turkish and Simplified Chinese. You pick one in Settings › General — Auto — match macOS is the default — so you can run Anchr in Polish on an English Mac, and it takes effect on the next redraw rather than the next launch. Almost every sentence Anchr says is assembled while it runs, out of a device name and a role, so this covers the whole menu, the whole activity log and every VoiceOver announcement — not just the labels in Settings.
Can I hide the menu-bar icon?
Yes, and you can get it back. Anchr has no Dock icon and no window of its own, so hiding the menu-bar icon used to leave the app running, still holding your devices, and completely unreachable — across restarts. Opening Anchr again from Applications or Spotlight now brings the icon straight back, and the switch asks first and tells you that before it disappears.
Does anything leave my Mac?
Only the update check — and, if you have entered a business license key, a re-check of that key about once a day. There is no account, no analytics, no telemetry and no crash reporting. Anchr never sees audio — it moves a system setting, which is a number identifying a device.