With remote work becoming more common, along with online gaming and voice chatting, there’s always a good chance you’re using your microphone to talk to someone at any given time. And with that comes the risk of accidentally leaving the mic unmuted when you didn’t mean to.

Micmute is a native, open-source app that helps you control your microphone across all applications and makes sure you always know whether it’s muted or not. It’s great for privacy and avoiding awkward situations.

Once the app is running, you’ll find it in the menu bar. The icon indicates whether the microphone is muted at all times, and toggling it is as simple as clicking the icon.

Alternatively, you can use a hotkey instead. It’s ⌃⌥⌘M by default, but you can change it to whatever else you like. This is especially useful if you often have full-screen apps active and can’t see the menu bar.

One of the biggest issues with muting and unmuting your microphone, especially when done via hotkey, is that you can easily lose track of when it’s on or off. Micmute makes that easier by displaying a graphic on your desktop whenever you toggle it.

The notification can be customized. You can make it larger or smaller, change its position on the desktop, or make it only text or icon-based. Its animation can be turned off, and the notification itself can be disabled entirely.

That’s about it in terms of features, and that’s really all you need. This app makes it dead simple to control your microphone, no matter what software you’re using it with. It also has a minimal footprint as a native app, no unnecessary bloat, and it’s completely free.