Pragmatism in the real world

Enabling a focus mode when an app is running on Mac

When I’m on a Zoom or FaceTime call, I want stop all notifications on my Mac so that I’m not distracted by them and would like this automated.

It’s not easy to tell when a call is happening, so I simplified the problem to stopping all notifications if the Zoom or FaceTime is running as I only run these apps if I’m on call.

To do this, I created two Shortcuts to turn the Do Not Disturb focus mode on and off:

Shortcut dnd on.

Shortcut dnd off.

I then created two Keyboard Maestro macros:

Video conferencing on:
Video conferencing on.

Video conferencing off:
Video conferencing off.

These look for the launching and quitting of the relevant apps and executes the shortcut. There’s a minor issue that if I close one app if both apps are running, then DND is turned off, but I don’t leave these apps open, so I’m not worried about it. If I was, I’d add additional logic or separate macros.

Goal achieved! Whenever one of these apps are running (which is only when I’m on a call), the focus mode is enabled for me and is turned off again when I quit the app.

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