How to add sound on Slack

Why your Slack notifications might be silent

Several layers control whether you hear a sound when a Slack message arrives. If you’re exploring Slack notification sounds for the first time, this troubleshooting guide covers the most common reasons for silence on macOS.

Step 1: Check Slack’s sound settings

1. Open Slack and click your profile photo.
2. Go to Preferences → Sound & appearance.
3. Make sure a notification sound is selected (not “None”).
4. Confirm that Mute all sounds from Slack is toggled off.

Step 2: Check macOS notification permissions

1. Open System Settings → Notifications.
2. Scroll to Slack in the app list and click it.
3. Ensure Allow notifications is on.
4. Make sure the alert style is set to Banners or Alerts (not None).
5. Check that Play sound for notifications is enabled.

Step 3: Check Focus mode

macOS Focus modes (Do Not Disturb, Work, Sleep, etc.) can suppress notification sounds. Click the Control Center icon in the menu bar and check whether a Focus is active. If so, either turn it off or add Slack to the Focus’s allowed-apps list in System Settings → Focus.

Step 4: Check your Mac’s volume

It sounds obvious, but the system volume or alert volume may be turned down. Open System Settings → Sound and confirm the Alert volume slider is audible.

Sounds work but all sound the same?

If you hear notifications but can’t tell #random apart from a critical DM, that’s by design—Slack uses one sound per notification type. Chirpy lets you break out of that limit with per-channel, per-person, and per-keyword sound rules. Try Chirpy free.