If you're on a Mac, use Shush [0] to give yourself global mute control with a single keypress. You can set it on push-to-talk mode or push-to-silence mode, both are extremely useful. I have mine set to the Fn key and leave in PTT mode most of the time.
At least semi relevant is Shush, a mac app that makes toggling OS-wide mute easy, along with push-to-talk (or the inverse, push to mute). I've been a happy user for years.
I only wish the menu bar icon were more prominent somehow, or had the option to overlay a floating semi-transparent window that displayed mute status. I'm always paranoid about whether I'm actually muted and wish I could make it glaringly obvious to myself.
I use the hardware button to mute. My headphone has a mute button right on the cord. It's fast and easy and always within reach. If that's not available, I use the operating system to mute. My Linux systems have a mic icon on the top bar. I believe it's easy to do in Windows also. I don't know about mac.
A global keyboard shortcut to mute your mic would probably be best, but otherwise system mute is not easily accessible in MacOS. The Command+Shift+M shortcut for mute in WebEx/Team/Zoom requires focus, which you most likely won't have if you're typing something.
Jitsi[0] has that and it works really well. I have my microphone muted, when I want to speak, I maintain the "Space" key pushed and speak. It mutes back when I release it. If I want permanent unmute/mute, I press "m" like on YouTube.
You can control the mute in software using the Arduino USB keyboard library, then just send the appropriate key combination when the button is pressed:
For MS Teams, you send Ctrl+Shift+M (Cmd+Shift+M for Mac)
For Google Meet you send Ctrl+D (Cmd+D for Mac)
For Zoom, you send Alt+A (Cmd+Shift+A for Mac)
Note that unlike Telephony devices, which can return the status of the mute on the computer, there is no way to tell if the software itself is muted.
Since you are a Push To Talk user, I'm honestly curious: how is it different from temporarily un-muting yourself? Like, how does it work better for you, or cause fewer problems, or something.
It's so popular in so many places that I assume I'm missing something obvious. I've always just hit a key to toggle mute though.
You do not have a hardware mute button. There is an output mute, but not an input mute. I wrote one in about 10 lines of AppleScript and associated it with a hot key. It ~mostly~ works.
If you are talking about the application-specific software mute, I had such a terrible time finding it amongst all my open tabs and latency every time I wanted to type or speak that I wrote the above hardware-ish button.
I wish there was something similar on Macs available for free. I have seen a few that do this but they all had subscription fees attached. I just need something to muffle my keyboard when I'm taking notes on calls, and muting/unmuting gets very tedious.
It's the space bar, and not global (of course), but I stay muted 100% of the time, and press and hold the space bar while I'm talking, then let got when I'm done.
0: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shush-microphone-manager/id496...
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