The play/pause key, finally aimed at what's playing
macOS routes the media key to whatever it last remembers, so YouTube keeps playing and Apple Music opens. SmartPause finds the app actually outputting audio and pauses that. Two apps playing? One press switches, double press plays/pauses. Free, open source, menu bar only.
Hi PH. I made SmartPause because play/pause on my Mac kept opening Apple Music instead of pausing YouTube. It catches the key, asks Core Audio which app is outputting sound right now and sends the command there. Free, MIT, no analytics, one permission (Accessibility). Happy to answer anything about how it works.
About SmartPause on Product Hunt
“The play/pause key, finally aimed at what's playing”
SmartPause launched on Product Hunt on September 20th, 2026 and earned 77 upvotes and 5 comments, placing #13 on the daily leaderboard. macOS routes the media key to whatever it last remembers, so YouTube keeps playing and Apple Music opens. SmartPause finds the app actually outputting audio and pauses that. Two apps playing? One press switches, double press plays/pauses. Free, open source, menu bar only.
On the analytics side, SmartPause competes within Mac, Open Source, GitHub and Lifestyle — topics that collectively have 215.7k followers on Product Hunt. The dashboard above tracks how SmartPause performed against the three products that launched closest to it on the same day.
Who hunted SmartPause?
SmartPause was hunted by Yasin Özmen. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
Yasin Özmen