SoundInbox
Turn important emails into unmistakable sounds
The Problem
Email notifications are broken for people who manage high volumes of mail. Every major email app treats sound as an afterthought — one global tone, or at best one tone per account. There is no way today to say: "When PayPal sends a payment confirmation, play the cash register. When a specific client emails with URGENT in the subject, play the alarm. For everything else, stay completely silent." The signal never reaches you at the right moment.
The Solution
SoundInbox is a notification layer that lives silently in the macOS menu bar and fires the exact sound you defined for the exact event you care about. It does not replace your email client — it complements Gmail, Outlook, or any provider with intelligent, differentiated audio alerts.
Download
Grab the latest release — a single zip, no installer, no dependencies. Unzip, drag to Applications, done.
Download v1.0.0888 KB zip — native binary, no Electron bloat
Or build from source ↓Project Stats
10 Pre-Built Formulas
Each formula is a curated set of conditions that detect a specific category of email. One tap to activate. Nothing else required.
| Formula | Detects | Sound | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💰 | Payment Received | PayPal, Stripe, Wise, bank transfers | Cash Register |
| 🛒 | New Sale | Shopify, WooCommerce, Gumroad, Etsy | Victory Chime |
| ✅ | Approved / Confirmed | approved, accepted, confirmed | Soft Success |
| 🚨 | Urgent Client Email | URGENT, ASAP, critical | Alarm Pulse |
| 📦 | Order Shipped | shipped, tracking, on its way | Notification Ping |
| 📩 | VIP Sender | User-defined whitelist | Distinct Chime |
| 🧾 | Invoice Received | invoice, factura, bill | Paper Slide |
| 🔑 | Login / Security | login, password, 2FA | Security Alert |
| 📅 | Meeting / Calendar | invitation, meeting, scheduled | Calendar Ping |
| 🤫 | Everything Else | Catch-all — silent by default | Silent |
Features
Formula Gallery
10 pre-built detection formulas — payments, sales, urgent, shipping, security, and more. Toggle them on and start hearing alerts immediately. Zero configuration.
Custom Rule Engine
Build your own rules with AND/OR logic, regex matching, domain filtering, and per-field conditions across sender, subject, body, and recipient.
Sound Library
15 curated alert sounds — from a cash register cha-ching to a zen water drop. Upload your own audio or record directly in-app.
Match History
A scrollable timeline of every alert fired, with stats on most active formulas and busiest hours of the day.
Silent by Default
Unmatched emails produce no sound. You opt in to noise, not out of it. The catch-all rule is silent — only what you define as important makes a sound.
True Menu Bar App
No dock icon. No main window. Lives invisibly in the status bar until a rule fires — then briefly animates and plays the assigned sound.
15 Curated Sounds
Every sound is under 3 seconds, distinct, and non-intrusive — covering a wide range from subtle and informational to urgent and celebratory.
| Sound | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| 💰 | Cash Register | Classic mechanical register — money sound |
| 🏆 | Victory Chime | Short ascending melody — celebratory |
| ✅ | Soft Success | Gentle two-tone confirmation — calm |
| 🚨 | Alarm Pulse | Repeating electronic pulse — urgent |
| 📦 | Notification Ping | Clean single ping — neutral |
| 🔔 | Distinct Chime | Bell-like — attention-grabbing |
| 🧾 | Paper Slide | Paper-shuffle — subtle |
| 🔑 | Security Alert | Low two-tone — serious |
| 📅 | Calendar Ping | Light marimba — friendly |
| 💬 | Message Pop | Soft pop — messaging style |
| 📣 | Trumpet Fanfare | Micro fanfare — major wins |
| 🌊 | Ocean Drop | Water drop — zen |
| ⚡ | Electric Spark | Electric zap — energetic |
| 🎵 | Marimba Up | Ascending marimba — cheerful |
| 🔇 | Silent | No sound — suppresses audio |
Documentation
Comprehensive guides covering architecture, formulas, sounds, and contribution guidelines.
Quick Start
Clone the repo, generate the Xcode project, and you're running in under a minute.
Run the app, right-click the menu bar icon → Fire Demo Alert
Built With
Fully native. No Electron, no web wrappers, no cross-platform frameworks.
- Swift 6.3 with strict concurrency enabled
- SwiftUI + AppKit — NSStatusItem, NSPopover, native menus
- AVAudioPlayer — system audio with fallback to macOS system sounds
- UserNotifications — native macOS notification center integration
- @Observable — modern Swift observation framework for reactive UI
- Swift Testing — 137 tests across 11 suites, all passing
I build tools I wish existed, then give them away.
If one of them saved you time, a coffee keeps the next one coming.
Hear what matters.
SoundInbox is open source and free. Star it on GitHub, try it out, and let us know what formulas you'd like to see next.