How to route an app to AirPods while the system stays on speakers

The direct answer: macOS moves your entire system output to your AirPods the moment they connect, so there's no native switch to keep just one app in your AirPods while everything else keeps playing on your speakers. What you want is per-app output routing — pin that one app to the AirPods and leave the system default on the speakers. You can do it for free if the app has its own output picker, or set it as a single rule in a routing app and forget it. Either way, turn off AirPods auto-switching first so they stop grabbing the whole Mac.

The setup is common and specific: a call or a private video in your AirPods so no one else hears it, while music, alerts, and everything else stays out loud on the desk speakers. Or the reverse — a podcast on the speakers for the room while one app stays in your ears. macOS treats all of that as one stream to one device, and AirPods add their own twist: they don't just offer to be that device, they take the job the instant they connect.

The AirPods twist: they grab the whole output

On a Mac there's one active output device at a time. Normally that's an annoyance you set once — pick speakers or headphones and everything follows. AirPods make it worse because of automatic switching: when you're signed in with the same Apple Account across devices, your AirPods hop to whatever you're using and, on the Mac, they yank the entire system output over to themselves. You sit down, they connect, and suddenly your speakers go silent and everything is in your ears — the opposite of what you wanted.

So step one isn't a routing app at all, it's calming the auto-switch. Open System Settings → Bluetooth, click Options next to your AirPods, and set Connect to This Mac to When Last Connected to This Mac. Now they only take over when you deliberately connect them, not every time you glance at your iPhone. That alone fixes half the frustration. It still doesn't split one app onto the AirPods, though — for that you need per-app routing, which macOS doesn't expose. This is the output-routing cousin of the volume problem in controlling individual app volume on a Mac.

The free path: the app's own output, or BlackHole

Start with the cheapest thing that might already work. A handful of apps carry their own audio-output setting — VLC, some DAWs and media tools, and games with an audio-device option in preferences. If yours does, point it straight at your AirPods and set the system output to your speakers. Nothing to install, and it's an honest, complete fix for that one app.

Most apps — Spotify, Chrome, Slack, Zoom, most games, anything Electron — have no output picker at all. For those, the free route is BlackHole, a free, open-source virtual audio device, paired with Audio MIDI Setup. You install BlackHole (a one-line Homebrew install or a signed installer), then build an aggregate or multi-output device and steer the app through it. It works, and audio tinkerers lean on it every day.

The honest catch is doubled for AirPods. BlackHole is built to pass audio between apps and duplicate a stream across outputs, not to hand you a clean "this app to AirPods, everything else to speakers" switch — so getting exactly one app onto them usually still needs the app's own picker or a chain of aggregate devices to maintain. And AirPods are Bluetooth: they add real latency, and every time they drop out of an aggregate device and reconnect you can end up rebuilding or re-selecting the setup. Capable, but fiddly for this specific goal.

The gotcha worth knowing: Background Music is volume, not output

Background Music comes up constantly as the free per-app answer, and it's genuinely good — but it does volume, not per-app output. As of 2026 it keeps every app on the same system output device; assigning one app to a different output is a long-standing open feature request, not a shipping capability. So for "send this app to my AirPods but keep music on the speakers," Background Music can set the levels but can't do the actual routing. Worth knowing before you install it for the wrong job.

The set-it-once path: a per-app routing app

A routing app does at the OS level what these apps won't do themselves: it assigns each app an output device independent of the system default. You set the default output to your speakers, add one rule — this app → AirPods — and everything else keeps flowing to the speakers automatically. Because it holds a route per app, it reapplies the AirPods assignment whenever they reconnect, without you touching the Sound menu.

SoundSource from Rogue Amoeba is the deep option: it sends individual apps to different outputs, adds effects and EQ, and version 6 (December 2025) expanded output support including routing an app to AirPlay and Bluetooth devices. It's a one-time $49. Fader does the same per-app output routing in a clean list — pick a device per app and it sticks — for a one-time $19.99, and it also rides per-app volume from your keyboard in the same app. Here's how the options stack up for this exact AirPods-versus-speakers split.

The exact setup: one app on AirPods, the rest on speakers

With auto-switching tamed and a per-app routing app installed, the recipe is short:

1. In System Settings → Bluetooth, set your AirPods' Connect to This Mac to When Last Connected, so they stop hijacking the output. 2. Set the default system output to your speakers — that's where everything plays unless told otherwise. 3. Add one app route: pick the app (the call, the private video) and choose your AirPods as its output. 4. Leave it. Every other app inherits the speakers; the one app you routed lands in your AirPods and returns there whenever they reconnect.

In Fader that's the Routing tab: the default output sits at the top, and each app route is a row — App → Device — from a dropdown. Because the same app also gives every running app a fader on your keyboard, you can nudge that AirPods app's level with letter keys at the same time, without hunting through the Sound menu. One note on AirPods specifically: Bluetooth carries a little latency, so for tight lip-sync or gaming a wired output is still the better ear — AirPods shine for calls, music, and casual watching. If you want the broader picture of per-app output on a Mac, the companion guide on sending one app to headphones while everything else plays on speakers covers the same split for wired gear.

Bottom line

macOS points every app at one output, and AirPods make it sharper by grabbing that output the moment they connect — so a clean AirPods-versus-speakers split isn't something the Sound menu can do. Tame the auto-switch in Bluetooth settings first. Then, if your app has its own output picker, use it — free and done. If you like tinkering, BlackHole plus Audio MIDI Setup is capable but fiddly for this, and Background Music won't do output routing at all. If you'd rather set one rule and move on — this app to AirPods, everything else to the speakers — a per-app routing app is the straight path. SoundSource is the deep, $49 option; Fader does the routing plus keyboard-fast per-app volume for $19.99 one-time.