Sunday, December 15, 2024

End of Line: SleepMute for macOS is no longer for sale

With sadness & some relief, SleepMute for macOS has been removed from sale on the App Store. Since this is a eulogy, might as well lay out some final stats: 
  • The only AppKit app as Tangerine Element I ever released
    • When the site was rebuilt with Wordpress, I never put SleepMute on it
  • Last version: 1.1.1 released March 27, 2012. 
  • Unreleased version: 2.0 created February 18, 2016 on the App Store.
  • Final Rating: 3.8 ★★★★☆ on 16 Ratings
  • Since April 1, 2015 (which is "Lifetime" App Store Analytics):
    • Sales: 208 units
    • Price: $0.99
    • Revenue: $28
    • I definitely had more sales than that before 2015.
  • Final App Store listing screenshot:
SleepMute on the App Store

Why remove the app now?

I've been thinking about removing the app from sale for a long time. There were many reasons:
  • Very little time to work on the app since 1.1.1 was released, 🫢, over 12 years ago.
  • App was written in Objective-C using AppKit and even older C APIs. 
    • Not an easy codebase to jump into when working with Swift, SwiftUI, & UIKit during the day
  • Apple Sherlocked most of the functionality!
    • The only feature left was pausing/unpausing iTunes Apple Music when sound was muted/unmuted
    • macOS stopped leaking sound while asleep a while ago
    • Apple first removed the startup sound from Macs, then brought it back, and finally put a switch in System Settings → Sound
macOS 15 Sound System Settings


I probably would've kept holding out hope that I'd find time (I had features planned!) indefinitely, but Apple forced my hand. On October 25, 2024 I received an email from App Store Connect's App Review team that said I had a new message: 
App Store Connect email about SleepMute

I'd expected something like this since Apple posted Clarifying criteria & new timing extension for App Store Improvements process on April 29, 2022. I'd also had a tab open for years to Benoit Pasquier's post When to remove your iOS app from the App Store which I'd found very thoughtful.

Still, I opened the message on App Store Connect a tad hopeful I had more time, but that flame was quickly put out when I saw the title App Store Improvement Notice. Time was truly up.

App Store Connect App Store Improvement Notice for SleepMute

What features were planned for SleepMute 2.0?

Mic Mute Hot Key

Ever use video conferencing software and while in a meeting, you mute yourself? Then you switch to another window and it's at that exact moment you get asked a question that you should answer quickly Everyone struggles to get back to the window and unmute that app, which wastes everyone's time. All the video conferencing apps do it slightly different too.

Wouldn't it be great if macOS had a way mute or unmute the active microphone while in any app?

I thought so too and was going to add this so SleepMute. With each macOS release, I expected Apple would add this feature to the menu bar Microphone icon with Standard or Voice Isolation. They haven't yet and thankfully there are some apps in the App Store that do.

Jason Snell @ Six Colors wrote that Mic Drop mutes your microphone everwhere. 

I tried it just today and it's nicely done. You have to trust an app like this because muting a video conference can't fail. I really like the ON AIR icon you can put in the menu bar.

Turns out there a lot of these since the last time I searched so take a look.


Sound Mixer

I can't believe macOS 15 still doesn't have a sound mixer. I wanted to do something simple to control the relative volume games to FaceTime or Discord which is a never ending challenge. Struggled with this so much when playing Baldur's Gate 3. 

Rogue Amoeba has been a leader in macOS sound related apps for as long as I've been using Mac apps. They've got a great app called SoundSource that does a comprehensive job. It's perhaps a tad more complicated than what I had in mind, but there's no denying they have the skills and the business to build a great app. I can't compete with that!

App Rename

If I added these features, surely SleepMute would have to be renamed. I was leaning toward Mutetation.

Did I accomplish what I wanted with SleepMute?

I made SleepMute to stop my Mac from waking up my infant son 14 years ago with random noise when our home iMac shared a room with him. It worked great and did what I needed it to do for a number of years. As he got older and we switched living arrangements, the iMac wasn't in his room. 

My need for the feature diminished and so did my desire to work on it. Ultimately, that's what I learned. Side projects are usually born from a personal need. Once no longer a concern for you, it's hard to keep driving yourself forward.

These days, I'd much rather explore Final Cut Pro to make videos for Travel by Marisa or explore visionOS apps so really that tells me retiring SleepMute is the right decision.
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