How To Assign An Audio Device To An App In Windows 10
You can connect multiple audio devices to a Windows PC. They can be wired devices like a set of speakers, or they can be wireless devices like a pair of Bluetooth headphones. By default, you can switch to any one of the connected audio devices on the fly from the system tray. You can also set a specific volume level for individual apps, but what you can’t do natively is route app audio to a specific device — meaning you can’t assign a particular audio output to a single app without third-party help.
If you want to make it so that a particular app like VLC player always plays audio through your built-in speakers, and another app like Groove always plays audio through your headphones, you’re going to need an app called Audio Router.
We’ve featured Audio Router before. The app lets you send output from one app to multiple audio devices. It’s a lightweight, open-source tool that gives you granular control over which audio output each application uses — something Windows 10 doesn’t offer out of the box for most users.
Choose the Right Audio Routing Method
Before diving in, it helps to identify exactly what you’re trying to do. “Route app audio” can mean three different things, and each calls for a different tool:
- Send one app to a different speaker or headphone output. For example, you want Spotify playing through your headphones while system sounds stay on your speakers. This is the most common case, and modern Windows handles it natively — no third-party software needed. Use Settings > System > Sound > Volume mixer in Windows 11, or App volume and device preferences in current Windows 10 builds.
- Duplicate one app’s audio to multiple outputs simultaneously. For example, you want your music playing through both your speakers and your headphones at the same time. Windows doesn’t support this natively, so a legacy tool like Audio Router is the right workaround for this specific scenario.
- Send one app’s audio into another app. For example, you want to capture browser audio in OBS for streaming, route a music player into Zoom so others can hear it, or record app output in Audacity or Ableton. This requires a virtual audio device or loopback driver — such as VB-Audio VoiceMeeter, VB-Audio CABLE, or the loopback feature built into supported audio interfaces like those from Focusrite or Universal Audio.
Once you know which scenario applies to you, the sections below walk through each approach.
How to Route App Audio to Any Device
Before you can route app audio to a specific output, you need to connect the different audio devices you have and make sure Windows sees them as separate devices. To check if Windows sees them as separate devices, click the sound icon in the system tray. Each device should appear separately — for example, your speakers should be a different device and your Bluetooth headphones should be a separate device.
If your audio device isn’t showing up, right-click the speaker icon in the system tray and select Sound. In the window that opens, make sure all audio devices that you want to use have been enabled. This step is important because both the built-in Windows method and Audio Router can only work with devices that Windows has already recognized and activated.
Using the Built-In Windows Method (Recommended)
If you’re running Windows 11 or a current Windows 10 build, you don’t need any third-party software to send a specific app to a specific output device. Here’s how to do it on each:
On Windows 11:
- Open Settings > System > Sound.
- Scroll down and click Volume mixer.
- Launch the app you want to reassign and make sure it is actively playing audio — it will not appear in the list until it is producing sound.
- Under the app’s name, open the Output device dropdown and select the audio device you want it to use.
On Windows 10 (current builds):
- Open Settings > System > Sound.
- Scroll down and click App volume and device preferences.
- Launch your target app and make sure it is actively playing audio.
- Find the app in the list and use the Output dropdown to select the device you want it to use.
These per-app output assignments persist across sessions for most apps, so you typically only need to configure them once. This is now the recommended method for straightforward output switching on any up-to-date Windows PC.
Using Audio Router (Legacy Systems and Duplication Use Cases)
If you’re on an older Windows build, need to duplicate audio to multiple outputs simultaneously, or require finer per-process control that the built-in settings don’t offer, Audio Router is a practical fallback. Download and run Audio Router. Open the apps that you want to assign to an audio device and make sure they’re playing sound, then switch to Audio Router. The app will list all currently active audio processes, making it easy to identify which app you want to configure.
Under the app you want to assign an audio device to, click the little arrow button and select Route from the menu.
This will open another smaller window that will let you select which device the app should play audio through. It’s a good idea to select the ‘Soft routing’ option in this window to avoid any complications. That’s all you need to do to route app audio for a single application. Repeat for every app that you want to assign an audio device to.
Limitations When You Route App Audio
Audio routing — whether through Windows natively or via a third-party tool — comes with real-world constraints worth knowing before you run into them. Here’s what to expect and how to work around the most common problems.
The app must be actively producing sound. Both the Windows Volume mixer and Audio Router only display an app in the routing list while it is currently playing audio. If you open the settings before hitting play, the app won’t appear. Start playback first, then open your routing controls.
Audio Router and UWP/Store apps don’t mix well. Audio Router does not work reliably with Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps — the kind you install from the Microsoft Store. We tested this with Groove and the TV & Movies app and got errors with both. The built-in Windows per-app settings handle some Store apps better, but even those can behave inconsistently depending on how the app manages its audio stream.
Audio Router may require administrator rights. For some apps — particularly those running with elevated privileges — Audio Router needs to be launched as an administrator to detect and route the process. Apps that require administrator rights cannot be automatically routed even then, which is a known limitation of the tool.
ASIO and exclusive mode apps bypass standard routing entirely. Applications that use ASIO drivers or claim exclusive control of an audio device — common in DAWs like Ableton Live and in some games — communicate with the hardware directly and skip the Windows audio stack. Neither the built-in Volume mixer nor Audio Router can intercept or redirect these streams. You’ll need to manage output selection within the app itself.
Audio Router did add saved routing support, but auto-routing is unreliable. Contrary to what earlier versions of this article stated, Audio Router did introduce the ability to save routing preferences — this was added in v0.10. However, automatic routing (where the app would apply saved routes the moment a process launched) was later found to cause problems and was disabled in v0.10.2. In practice, this means saved routings exist but behave more like manual presets than a true set-and-forget system. Do not rely on auto-routing working consistently across sessions.
Duplicating audio to multiple outputs can fail with mismatched channel layouts. If you’re trying to send one app’s audio to both a stereo headset and a 5.1 surround sound system at the same time, the duplication can fail or produce distorted output because the two devices use different channel configurations. A dedicated virtual audio mixer like VB-Audio VoiceMeeter handles channel mapping more gracefully in these situations.
Virtual and app-to-app routing can introduce latency, dropouts, or feedback. When routing audio between applications using virtual devices or loopback drivers, you may encounter added latency (noticeable in live monitoring scenarios), occasional audio dropouts under CPU load, or accidental feedback loops if both the source and destination app are monitoring the same stream. If you’re using a supported audio interface, its hardware loopback feature is generally a safer and lower-latency alternative to software-only solutions.
For desktop apps without any of the above constraints, Audio Router works without significant problems — you just need to keep it open and running in the background while it’s in use.
