Push-to-Talk
Hold a key to talk, release to mute — and it works while you're in a game or another app, not just while Speakeasy has focus.
How it works
Speakeasy listens for your push-to-talk key with a system-level input hook running in its own helper process — not a browser-style shortcut that only fires when the window is focused. That is why it keeps working mid-game, and why it recovers automatically if the helper process ever crashes.
Setup
- Open Speakeasy's audio settings and choose push-to-talk as your microphone mode.
- Set your push-to-talk key: click the key binding control and press the key (or mouse button) you want.
- Join a voice room and test: your mic indicator should open only while the key is held.
- Now focus a different window (a game, a browser) and test again — it should behave identically.
Linux notes
On Linux, push-to-talk reads kernel input events directly (evdev), which makes it work on both X11 and Wayland — compositor-level shortcut restrictions don't affect it. This requires permission to read input devices: if the key does nothing, add your user to the input group and log out/in:
sudo usermod -aG input $USERTroubleshooting
- Works focused, not unfocused: this should never happen by design — if it does, please file a bug with logs; it means the helper process is not receiving events.
- Key does nothing at all (Linux): input-device permissions above.
- Anti-cheat concerns: the hook is a read-only input listener in a separate process; it does not inject input into other applications.