Airfoil for Mac gets a new look and Bluetooth audio streaming

News
By Joseph Keller
published

Rogue Amoeba has released Airfoil 5 for Mac, adding a lot of new features and a brand new interface. Airfoil, which already allows you to send audio to AirPlay devices like the Apple TV, now also supports sending audio to Bluetooth devices like speakers and headphones.

Airfoil 5 also supports Airfoil Satallite, which allows another Mac or your iPhone to act as a receiver for audio sent by Airfoil. It also brings along the following new features:

  • Speaker Groups – A group is a collection of multiple speakers which appears as one in Airfoil's main window. Use a Group to send audio to multiple outputs with a single click. Create one group for all the speakers in your house, or divide your speakers into zones. Now you can send audio exactly where you want even faster.
  • Silence Monitor – Great for workplace or shared home setups, the new silence monitor allows Airfoil to automatically disconnect itself when it's streaming silence. The output device is then freed up for others to use.
  • Custom Equalizer Presets – Adjust the equalizer to your liking, then save it in the Preset menu. Now you'll be able to access those exact settings any time you like.
  • Hide Speakers – If you regularly connect to a shared network which contains devices you don't control, you may wish to hide them entirely from Airfoil. Now you can do so, from the "Advanced Speaker Options" window.
  • Adjust Sync – Airfoil automatically keeps all outputs completely in sync. However, there may be rare situations where you wish to adjust this, such as when an output is connected to a receiver which adds its own latency. The new Sync sliders in the "Advanced Speaker Options" window make this possible.
  • Improved Instant On – Capture audio from already-running apps, as well as all System Audio. If you haven't looked at Airfoil for a while, you'll be thrilled to see that installation and updates to Instant On no longer require a restart.
  • Awesome Accessibility – We know many visually impaired users love Airfoil, and we've worked hard to make the new version fully accessible with Apple's VoiceOver.

You can try Airfoil for free, with audio quality degrading after 10 minutes. If you decide to buy, you'll need to pay $29 for a license, or $15 if you're upgrading from an older version.

Joseph Keller
Joseph Keller

Joseph Keller is the former Editor in Chief of iMore. An Apple user for almost 20 years, he spends his time learning the ins and outs of iOS and macOS, always finding ways of getting the most out of his iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac.