I built another Mac appldmanrahulAboutSubscribeI built another Mac appSeptember 14, 2026It’s called Hush. A mac app that makes it easier to focus.Over my entire career, I’ve entertained various ways to “get in the zone” as I sit down to work. In the early 2010s it was classical music, which worked pretty well because it had no words. From around 2014 to 2019 it was podcasts, mostly Joe Rogan, and I still don’t know how I got anything done with two guys talking in my ear for three hours. What finally stuck for me was generated noise.Two kinds in particular. Brown noise, which has a deep rumble with a wider spectrum of sound… it kinda sounds like you’re sitting next to a giant waterfall (as a meditating monk would). And “speech blocker,” which is noise shaped to sit on top of the frequencies of a human voice, this works great in public spaces and when my daughter’s blasting Ms Rachel at home.I found the challenge was never finding these sounds. There are a myriad of websites that will quickly generate noise for you. It was that they lived in a browser tab. Every time I wanted to get in the zone, I had to find the tab, or open the app, or switch from one sound to the other, and by then I’d already got distracted by Twitter or some YouTube tab I left open.What Hush doesHush lives in your Mac menu bar. Right-click the icon and the noise starts. Right-click again and it stops. Left-click for the controls: pick brown noise or the speech blocker, set the volume, and adjust the low-pass cutoff on brown noise if you want it deeper or lighter.It’s fully offline. There are no audio files; both sounds are generated in real time. It’s fast, CPU-friendly, and Apple notarized (so it just opens without the dance of allowing unsigned software on your laptop).Download Hush. Pay what you want, and $0 is fine. The source is on GitHub under MIT if you’d rather build it yourself.Who’s using itA few friends have been running it since the first build in May as beta testers, and a lot of what’s in the app today came from their feedback. (e.g. I eliminated white and pink noise as options because no one used it… and white noise is particularly ear piercing if you’re wearing headphones). Since it went public last weekend, strangers have started downloading it too, which is exciting.Try itIf you’ve been keeping a noise tab open for years like I was, run Hush for a week and tell me whether it helped you focus.Thanks for reading!

The author developed Hush, a macOS application designed to aid concentration by providing focused ambient noise. The motivation stems from the author's exploration of various methods for achieving a focused state, which included classical music, podcasts, and ultimately, generated noise. The author found that previous methods for acquiring this focused sound were inefficient because they required switching context, often involving browser tabs, which led to further distraction. The core challenge identified was the difficulty in accessing and managing these generated sounds without introducing new points of distraction.

Hush addresses this by integrating itself into the Mac menu bar, allowing real-time control over the auditory environment. The application offers two primary types of noise generation: brown noise, characterized by a deep rumble with a wide spectrum, and speech blocker, which is noise specifically shaped to mask the frequencies of human voices, making it effective in public or home environments. The functionality of Hush is entirely offline, as both sounds are generated dynamically rather than relying on stored audio files, ensuring it is fast and CPU-friendly. Furthermore, the application is Apple notarized, facilitating a smooth installation process on macOS.

The user interface provides straightforward controls for customization. Users can select between brown noise or the speech blocker, adjust the volume, and fine-tune parameters such as the low-pass cutoff for brown noise to achieve deeper or lighter sonic textures. Development of Hush incorporated feedback from early testers, which led the author to eliminate options like white and pink noise, as these were deemed unused, and white noise was specifically avoided due to its potential ear-piercing nature when using headphones. The source code for the application is available on GitHub under the MIT license, offering opportunities for others to build upon the work. The author encourages potential users to test Hush to determine its efficacy in improving focus.