Customizing notification sounds on a Mac

August 4, 2020 9:11 AM

Is there a way to customize notification sounds on a Mac such that App X makes a different sound from App Y when each is trying to get my attention? And if this is not possible natively in MacOS, are there any third-party apps that allow you to do this? Thank you!
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Depending on OS version and the application in question, it may be possible to edit the package contents of an application, to replace alert sounds with other AIFF files.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:06 AM on August 4, 2020 [1 favorite]

There are some apps that let you customize their alert sounds--off the top of my head, Mail, Calendar, Slack, and Messages. But there's no system-wide facility for customizing sound notifications on a per-app basis (other than to turn sound alerts on/off in the Notifications prefpane). Which seems like an oversight.
posted by adamrice at 11:46 AM on August 4, 2020