The Mac's media keys go to the music you're actually listening to, not to Apple Music.
And your iPhone becomes the remote: in StandBy, on the Lock Screen, without an app.
PlayPrio is a small menu-bar app for macOS. Play/Pause, Next and Previous go down a priority list you set (YouTube Music in Chrome first, by default), and whatever macOS considers "Now Playing" (QuickTime, Apple Music, a video you paused an hour ago) stops getting them.
Its panel looks like macOS's own Now Playing: the music the keys go to, large, and everything else making sound below it, each with a pause button. The line at the bottom says where the keys go right now; click it and the settings open:
- Priority: the sources in order, each on or off. Add puts more apps on the list.
- Options: add apps to the list as they make sound, open YouTube Music on Play, quit Apple Music when macOS opens it by itself, pause when headphones disconnect, open at login.
- iPhone remote: on and off, and the code to pair your iPhone.
Switch on the iPhone remote and PlayPrio serves a web page on your network. Open it once in Safari and the iPhone shows what the Mac plays in its own Now Playing views: StandBy, the Lock Screen, Control Center. Their buttons control the Mac, whatever plays there. There's no app to install and no server anywhere; the page talks to your Mac directly.
The page itself is a small YouTube Music: your home shelves and playlists, search, albums and artists, in YouTube Music's language. Tap something and it plays on the Mac. It also has the Mac's volume, and seeking, shuffle and repeat for YouTube Music.
- Install
- Setting up the iPhone remote
- What the keys do
- How the iPhone remote works
- Limits
- Development
- License
- Disclaimer
Download PlayPrio.zip from the latest release, unzip it and move PlayPrio to Applications. It runs on macOS 14 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.
PlayPrio isn't notarized by Apple (that needs a paid developer account), so macOS won't open it the first time. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway next to PlayPrio. Or, in Terminal:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/PlayPrio.appThen:
- System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility: allow PlayPrio. That's what lets it catch the media keys. After an update, if the keys stop working, remove PlayPrio there with "−" and add it again.
- Chrome → View → Developer → Allow JavaScript from Apple Events, for YouTube Music and YouTube. Without it, PlayPrio can't see or control what plays in Chrome.
- On the first key press, macOS asks whether PlayPrio may control Chrome: Allow.
To hide macOS's own Now Playing icon (PlayPrio's looks the same): System Settings → Menu Bar (or Control Center) → Now Playing. ⌘-drag PlayPrio's icon to where you want it.
You need the Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install); Xcode itself isn't needed.
scripts/create-signing-identity.sh./build.sh installThe first one is optional and needed only once. It creates a local signing certificate, so
macOS keeps the Accessibility permission across rebuilds; it asks for your login password
once. The second builds PlayPrio, copies it to ~/Applications and starts it.
./build.sh release builds it for Apple silicon and Intel and zips it into
build/PlayPrio.zip, the file a release carries.
- In PlayPrio's panel, open the settings (the line at the bottom), switch on iPhone remote and click Pair iPhone….
- Scan the code with the iPhone's camera and open the page in Safari (not in a private tab).
- Tap Start, then lock the iPhone or put it on a charger sideways (StandBy). Leave the tab open; you can switch to other apps.
That's all on a normal home network. A few things make it nicer:
- On the Home Screen. On the page you opened from the QR code, tap Share in Safari (on iOS 26 under ⋯), then Add to Home Screen and leave Open as Web App on. It opens full screen with PlayPrio's icon; tap Start as usual. Add it from that page: the web app keeps its own copy of the key, and it comes from the address the QR code opened.
- AirPods. The page plays silence while the Mac plays, which is what puts it in iOS's Now Playing. AirPods may take that as a reason to switch to the iPhone. To stop that: Settings → Bluetooth → ⓘ next to your AirPods → Connect to This iPhone → When Last Connected to This iPhone.
- Opens by itself on the charger. Shortcuts → Automation → New → Charger, "Is Connected". Add Get Network Details (Wi-Fi, Network Name), then If it's your network, Open URLs with the page's address (it's next to the QR code; the page remembers the key). Set it to run immediately. You still tap Start: iOS lets a page play sound only after a tap.
- A fixed address. The QR code holds the Mac's IP address. Give the Mac a fixed one in your router (a DHCP reservation), or you'll have to pair again when it changes.
- Separate networks (a guest Wi-Fi, an office where phones and computers are kept apart): the iPhone has to be able to reach the Mac. Allow exactly that in the router's firewall: your iPhone → your Mac, TCP port 47269. Don't forward the port; that would open the Mac to the internet.
Play/Pause
- If something on the list plays, pause it. If other sound plays that PlayPrio can pause (an app, a browser tab), pause that instead of playing over it. Sound PlayPrio can't control itself (Quick Look, Safari, Firefox) goes to macOS, which pauses whatever played last. Apps that just keep their audio open (games, OBS, music software) and call apps are left alone.
- Otherwise resume what PlayPrio paused last, or else the first paused source on the list.
- If nothing is open: open YouTube Music (the Chrome app), if that option is on.
Next / Previous go to the source that's playing, else the first one open.
Shortcuts: ⇧ + media key goes to macOS as usual. ⌃⌥ + Play turns PlayPrio on or off.
Sources
- Built in: YouTube Music and YouTube in Chrome.
- Audio and video tabs in Chrome, Brave, Edge and Vivaldi (each needs "Allow JavaScript from Apple Events"; without it, keys for that browser go to macOS).
- Through AppleScript: Spotify, Apple Music, Apple TV, VLC, QuickTime Player.
- Any other app through its Play/Pause/Next menu items (experimental).
- Video players and menu-item apps are pause only: the key pauses them, but Play resumes them only if PlayPrio paused them. That way QuickTime doesn't jump ahead of YouTube Music.
Options (off unless noted)
- Auto-add apps that make sound. Controllable apps join the end of the list as they play.
- Play opens YouTube Music when closed (on).
- Quit Apple Music when it opens by itself. With no Now Playing app around, macOS starts Apple Music on Play (from AirPods, Control Center, or a key passed on to macOS). PlayPrio quits that Music right away. Music you open yourself (Dock, Spotlight, Finder) stays open. PlayPrio tells them apart by who launched it.
- Pause when headphones disconnect. When the sound moves from headphones (Bluetooth, USB, the jack) to the speakers or anything else, PlayPrio pauses what it controls, so the music doesn't carry on out loud.
PlayPrio runs a small web server on port 47269. The page plays silence while the Mac plays and hands title, artist, cover and position to iOS through the browser's Media Session API; iOS's buttons come back to the Mac and work like the media keys. The page hears about a new song right away (a long poll).
The QR code carries a random key after the #, a part of the address browsers never send.
Every request is signed with it (HMAC-SHA256) and accepted once, within a minute. Others on
the network can't control anything. The connection isn't encrypted, so someone watching the
network could see which song is playing. New Key in the settings locks out every iPhone
paired so far.
- The buttons on AirPods and other headphones don't go through the keyboard; PlayPrio doesn't reroute them.
- "Pause when headphones disconnect" watches the default output. With an app that routes all sound through a virtual device (Background Music, Loopback), it can't see what's behind it.
- "Quit Apple Music when it opens by itself": Music started by a script (
openin Terminal, AppleScript) has no launching app either, so it's quit too. - When YouTube Music changes its page, the selectors in
Targets.swiftandCompanionLibrary.swiftmay need an update. - Liquid Glass and the macOS 26 switches need the macOS 26 SDK (Command Line Tools 26); with an older SDK, PlayPrio builds with the older look.
- "Allow JavaScript from Apple Events" applies to the whole browser, for every app you allow to control it.
Testing without pressing keys:
build/PlayPrio.app/Contents/MacOS/PlayPrio --probe| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
--probe |
the state of every source, and other apps making sound |
--do playPause (or next, previous) |
route one key press like the app would |
--pass-key playPause |
send a key to macOS, past PlayPrio |
--headphones-gone |
pause like when headphones disconnect |
--snapshot panel.png [--expanded] |
render the panel with live data (light only) |
--panel-test [--expanded] |
open the real panel briefly and print where it went |
The iPhone API, signed like the page:
scripts/companion-request.sh GET /api/statescripts/companion-request.sh POST /api/command '{"action":"playPause"}'Logs: /usr/bin/log stream --predicate 'subsystem == "local.PlayPrio"'.
| File | What's in it |
|---|---|
main.swift |
starts the app, or one of the test commands |
MediaKeyTap.swift |
catches the media keys (a CGEventTap on its own thread) |
Router.swift |
the priority logic |
Targets.swift |
sources: Chrome pages and browser tabs through JavaScript, known players through AppleScript, else menus |
OtherAudio.swift |
sound outside the list (apps, browser tabs, Quick Look) and how to pause it |
AudioProcesses.swift, AudioProperty.swift |
which processes are making sound (Core Audio) |
HeadphoneWatcher.swift |
notices when the sound leaves the headphones |
SystemVolume.swift |
the Mac's output volume |
MenuControl.swift, Accessibility.swift |
Play/Pause menu items and window titles through Accessibility |
AppleScript.swift |
AppleScript and Chromium scripting (with a 3 s timeout) |
Settings.swift |
the stored settings |
Store.swift |
the panel's state; all scripting runs on one queue |
PanelView.swift |
the panel (SwiftUI) |
PanelController.swift, StatusPanel.swift |
the window below the menu bar and its animation |
AppDelegate.swift |
menu-bar icon, Accessibility permission, the Apple Music guard |
Companion.swift |
iPhone remote: the state for the iPhone, commands, signatures, covers |
CompanionServer.swift |
the small HTTP server (Network.framework) |
CompanionPage.swift |
the iPhone page (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) and the silence it plays |
CompanionLibrary.swift |
YouTube Music for the iPhone: shelves, search, albums, artists, playing |
CompanionSettings.swift |
the remote's switch and QR code in the panel |
DevCommands.swift |
the test commands above |
build.sh |
builds with just the Command Line Tools; release zips it for Apple silicon and Intel |
scripts/make-icon.swift |
draws the app icon and the iPhone page's icon |
MIT, see LICENSE.
- Made with AI. PlayPrio was coded with Claude, Anthropic's AI model, and tested by hand on a Mac and an iPhone.
- Unofficial. It isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Apple, Google or YouTube. Their names are their trademarks, used here only to say what PlayPrio works with.
- YouTube Music's internal API. The iPhone remote reads YouTube Music through the API its own web page uses, from your signed-in tab, as you. It isn't a public API: it can change or stop working at any time, and whether you use it this way is between you and YouTube's terms.
- Your data. There's no server and no analytics. PlayPrio talks to the apps and browser tabs on your Mac, to your iPhone if you pair one, and loads the covers the players point to. Its settings and the pairing key stay on your Mac.
- Permissions. It needs Accessibility to catch the media keys, and permission to control your browser. Like any app with that access, it can do a lot; the code is here to read.
- No warranty. It's provided as is, as the license says.