Over time, I’ve become something of an audio agnostic when it comes to my Mac. Sometimes I use my AirPods Pro, but when I want to listen to music or take Zoom meetings, I switch to Sony XM5s, mostly because of the comfort and better audio quality. When I’m writing, I like to play background music using my JBL Flip 6 over Spotify. This means I end up spending a considerable amount of time connecting Bluetooth devices, switching sound output, and disconnecting them when macOS inevitably experiences connectivity issues.
This dance of first connecting the device using the Bluetooth menu and then switching to the Sound output from Control Center takes up a considerable amount of time. I went looking for a trusty macOS indie utility that would surely fix my issue—and I found one in ToothFairy .
How to use ToothFairy to connect to devices in one click
ToothFairy is a one-click Bluetooth utility that adds a dedicated button for each Bluetooth device right to your menu bar. Click once, and the device will be connected (as long as it’s powered on, and around you). Click again, to disconnect. It couldn’t be simpler. No need to hunt down menus.
And this isn’t limited to just audio devices—it also works with Bluetooth keyboards, mice, and and other accessories.
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
To get started, open the ToothFairy app and click Plus to add a new device. Choose a device that you’ve already connected once using the Bluetooth menu. Then, customize the menu bar icon. If, like me, you’ll be using this app for three different devices, make sure that you’re using different icons for them too. Next, you can also choose to see the battery status for a device (only if the device supports this feature). At any time, you can right-click the device icon to view the battery status anyway.
Click Record Shortcut to record a shortcut that will quickly connect or disconnect from the device.
Lastly, ToothFairy supports automations in the form of Bash scripts, which you can execute when you connect or disconnect your device. You can use the following command to open any app as soon as the device is connected. I use this feature to open Spotify when I connect my JBL Flip 6 (but not any other device).
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
Click the Advanced button and enable the Run shell script after connecting feature. Then enter the following code in the text box, replacing the “App Name” part with the exact name of the app you want to open.
open -a “App Name
Then, click OK. The ext time you connect the device, the app of your choice will open automatically.
Once a device is added, it will show up in the menu bar automatically. Each device shows up in the menu bar, so if you feel like your menu bar is cluttered, try using a menu bar management app like Ice or Barbee .
ToothFairy is available from the App Store for a one-time fee of $6.99; it’s also part of the SetApp subscription .
