LockMic

System-wide microphone mute for macOS — menu bar icon, global hotkeys, and an on-screen HUD. Works in Zoom, Teams, Meet, FaceTime, browsers, and every other app by muting input devices via Core Audio.

Owner: WIXEE.AI · License: MIT · Version: 1.2.0

Homebrew-first distribution (App Store planned later). See ARCHITECTURE.md for design details.

Features

• System-level mute via Core Audio (not app-specific mute buttons)
• Mute all input devices by default (optional: default input only)
• Virtual devices (transportType == Virtual) are listed but ignored for mute control
• Menu bar icon — click to toggle, right-click for menu
• Global hotkeys (customizable):
  • Toggle: ⌘⇧M (and optional ⌘F5)
  • Mute only / Unmute only (off by default)
  • Push to flip: hold to invert mute, release to restore (off by default; default ⌥Space)
  • Push to talk: hold to unmute, release to restore (off by default; default ⇧Space)
  • Push to mute: hold to mute, release to restore (off by default; default ⇧⌥Space)
  • Conflict warnings when two enabled shortcuts share the same keys
• On-screen HUD on mute/unmute (optional toast)
• Floating HUD (optional): always visible on each display
  • Drag to reposition (per display, remembered)
  • Click to toggle mute
  • Right-click to hide/show on a display (also in menu bar)
• Sound feedback on mute/unmute (optional)
• Launch at login (optional)
• Preferences: General, Devices, Keyboard, About
• Re-applies mute when devices or the default input change

Requirements

• macOS 14 Sonoma or later
• Xcode 15+ (to build)
• XcodeGen: brew install xcodegen

Languages

UI follows the macOS system language. Bundled localizations:

23 languages — English (default) plus Czech, Danish, German, Greek, Spanish, Finnish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian (Bokmål), Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Latinica), Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Chinese (Simplified).

One file per language under Resources/Localization/ (xx.lproj/Localizable.strings). See that folder’s README for the full table.

Code looks up keys via L10n (Sources/LockMic/Util/L10n.swift). To test: Xcode scheme → Options → App Language, or System Settings → Language & Region.

Website

Marketing site lives in website/public/ and deploys to Firebase Hosting via Cloud Build (cloudbuild.yaml, firebase.json).

# Local preview
cd website/public && python3 -m http.server 8080

See website/README.md for Firebase setup and CI deploy.

Build & run

Start or restart (kills any running instance; builds if the app is missing):

./Scripts/start.sh

Rebuild then restart:

./Scripts/start.sh --build

Build only:

./Scripts/build_homebrew.sh
open build/LockMic.app

Package a release zip/DMG:

./Scripts/package_dmg.sh
# → build/dist/LockMic-1.2.0.zip (+ .dmg, sha256)

Install via Homebrew

LockMic is not in the official Homebrew core cask list yet. Install from this repo’s tap:

brew tap oochernyshev/lockmic https://github.com/oochernyshev/lockmic
brew install --cask lockmic
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/LockMic.app
open /Applications/LockMic.app

From a local clone (no tap):

brew install --cask ./Casks/lockmic.rb
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/LockMic.app

Cask: Casks/lockmic.rb (must stay under root Casks/ for the tap to work).

xattr clears Gatekeeper quarantine until the app is Developer ID–notarized.

Local build without a public release

./Scripts/build_homebrew.sh
open build/LockMic.app

Usage

Action	How
Toggle mute	Click menu bar icon, ⌘⇧M, ⌘F5, or click the floating HUD
Push to talk	Hold PTT shortcut (Preferences → Keyboard; off by default)
Push to mute	Hold PTM shortcut (Preferences → Keyboard; off by default)
Push to flip	Hold to invert mute, release restores (off by default)
Menu / Preferences	Right-click (or Control-click) the menu bar icon
Floating HUD move	Drag the indicator (each display is independent)
Floating HUD hide/show	Right-click the indicator, or menu bar → Floating HUD
Quit	Menu → Quit LockMic

Preferences

Section	Options
General	Status, HUD toast, floating HUD, sound, launch at login
Devices	Mute-all vs default-only, live input list (virtual = ignored)
Keyboard	Toggle / mute / unmute / flip / PTT / PTM; optional ⌘F5; conflicts; reset
About	Logo, version, WIXEE.AI, website, MIT license

Development in VS Code

1. Install Xcode + xcodegen
2. Optional: SweetPad
3. Generate & build: ./Scripts/build_homebrew.sh or ./Scripts/start.sh --build
4. Edit sources under Sources/LockMic/

Project layout

Sources/LockMic/     Swift app (App, Core, UI)
Resources/           Info.plist, entitlements, Assets (AppIcon, AppLogo)
Scripts/             start, build, package
homebrew/Casks/      Cask formula template
LICENSE              MIT
ARCHITECTURE.md      System design
logo.png             Source artwork (generates icon sizes)

Privacy

LockMic mutes devices through Core Audio only. It does not record audio and does not require microphone permission.

License

MIT — Copyright © 2026 WIXEE.AI

Open-core: this free app is MIT-licensed. Future Pro features may be offered separately by WIXEE.AI under different terms.