The Redundant Speaker Icon
The macOS menu bar is a convenient place to monitor your system’s status. By default, Apple includes a small speaker icon on the right side of the bar. Clicking this icon reveals a vertical slider, allowing you to manually drag the volume up or down using your mouse or trackpad.
However, nearly every Mac user adjusts their system volume using the dedicated physical media keys on their keyboard (typically F11 to decrease and F12 to increase). Because the physical keys are vastly faster and more precise than clicking a tiny icon on the screen, the volume icon in the menu bar is essentially redundant for most workflows. Furthermore, since the introduction of macOS Big Sur, a volume slider is permanently housed within the unified Control Center, making a standalone icon even more unnecessary. If you want to declutter your screen, you should remove it.
How to Hide the Volume Icon
You can remove the dedicated speaker icon via the Control Center settings.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of your screen and select System Settings… (or System Preferences).
- In the left-hand sidebar, click on Control Center.
- In the right-hand pane, look at the very top section labelled “Control Center Modules.”
- Locate the Sound module.
- Next to the Sound icon, click the dropdown menu that currently says “Show in Menu Bar” (or “Show when active”).
- Select Don’t Show in Menu Bar.
The speaker icon will instantly disappear from the top of your screen. You can continue to adjust your volume using your keyboard keys, or by clicking the main Control Center icon whenever you need to select a different audio output device.