CapslockMute
The fastest way to mute yourself on video calls
142 followers
The fastest way to mute yourself on video calls
142 followers
A Mac utility to remap Caps Lock to the mute shortcut for Zoom, Teams, and Tandem. Because CapsLock is a large key and at your finger tips, it's much faster than clicking a button or pressing a combination of keys. It truly makes muting/unmuting muscle memory.
Product Hunt
I had this idea when I was building @Tandem (a virtual office for remote teams) and saw how awkward it can be when someone can't mute themselves. We built the ability to mute a teammate, but I thought it would be even better if mute/unmute could become muscle memory...so I remapped caps lock to mute via @Karabiner .
It quickly became one of my favorite hacks - I think it's because Caps Lock is a large key, so it's much quicker to press than a combination of keys. Yay Fitts' Law!
When I got a new laptop and my Karabiner setup broke, I missed it so much I built a dedicated app - now others can use it!
I added a meeting app selector so you can change the keyboard shortcut to work with other meeting software.
I find myself using it all the time!
- About to sneeze? -> Hit caps lock to mute.
- Want to dictate a note via @Aqua Voice while on a call? -> Hit caps lock to mute
- Child throwing a tantrum? -> Hit caps lock to mute
- Loud car horns near your house? -> Hit caps lock to mute
Remapping mute to caps lock is more satisfying than:
- backing into a parking space
- changing your keyboard layout to Dvorak
- customizing launcher shortcuts in @Raycast
It's absolutely crazy that laptops are still shipped with a Caps Lock key and not a mute toggle, given how much time most of us spend on video calls. If anybody knows a way to remap the LED to your mute state, that would be even better, but as far as I can tell, it's not possible on MacOS.
@rajiv_ayyangar That's a cool app, Rajiv! I'll give it a shot in my next Google Meet.
Right now, though, my setup uses a mic with a physical button that mutes me silently without any on-screen indicator. I just press to mute and unmute when I need to speak.
I recall Gabe (or someone else on Product Hunt) was building a Mac app to do exactly that; hide the mute status. Was that you, @gabe?
Product Hunt
@gabe @rohanrecommends what do you mean by "hide the mute status"? I think it's actually important that other people see you're muted. It signals something useful in a collaborative meeting.
A physical button definitely seems like the way to go, but since most people can't be bothered to buy and set up a physical button, my hope is that Caps Lock provides a lot of the same benefits!
@gabe @rajiv_ayyangar The Caps Lock one-click mute feature is amazing!
I got a physical mute button because it was tough to quickly find the Google Meet tab, especially while screen-sharing with too many tabs open, and then mute/unmute myself.
In some meetings, when I muted myself, others thought I was passively listening or checking out. The visual indicator that I'm still engaged, without actually speaking, was perfect! It's great for scenarios like podcasts too: I stay muted until it's my turn to speak.
Living in Mumbai means constant traffic noise outside (unless I travel to my studio for every call), you never know when a honk will blast. This setup suppresses background noise without signaling that I'm muted, so people know I'm 100% present.
I recently discovered @Krisp as an excellent background remover for those who prefer not to mute constantly when not speaking. I only unmute when I'm actually talking.
There
@rajiv_ayyangar It reminded me of when I built it for Noor: https://x.com/morajabi/status/1739291208512340363?s=20
And it is possible to light up the LED, if you need it I can find the code and send it over on Twitter DMs.
Product Hunt
@morajabi LOVE that you built this - would love the code for the LED 🙏
It would be amazing if the LED could show mute status because my habit is muscle memory but a small visual cue would make me feel extra confident on calls.
Product Hunt
@ill_robyn agree. What do you do now?
Product Hunt
@ill_robyn It works now. Try the new version and let me know how it feels. If the LED status gets de-synched from the mute status, just double-tap Capslock to fix it.
Product Hunt
LOVE THIS! Congrats on the launch :)
I actually built something similar a while back but never launched it (I was trying to get too fancy with it). I love your approach of making it software specific vs trying to tackle it all at once.
@rajiv_ayyangar can you share a bit more on what you mean about remapping the LED to your mute state? Do you mean the caps lock LED light?
Product Hunt
@gabe Super interesting. I didn't want to do mute at the system level because then it's not reflected in the video chat app, and other people can't see if you're muted or not. It can lead to some awkward situations, but there are certainly advantages to doing it at the system level.
As for menu bar vs keyboard shortcuts, menu bar always felt way too slow for me. Although it is a lot faster than hunting for a button. If you think about it, since you can "slam" your mouse into the top of the screen, the effective menu bar size is a lot larger than the pixels would suggest... Still, if you calculate out Fitt's Law, I think the Capslock key is significantly faster and easier.
What I mean by the LED is it would be awesome if green meant your mic is hot and no light meant you're on mute, but it's really difficult to map the LED to anything but the Caps Lock state. MacOS makes this, as far as I can tell, impossible.
Product Hunt
@rajiv_ayyangar Yeah, I totally feel the Keyboard shortcut. (the one I built has that too) but I reeallly dig the BIG button approach.
Like the caps lock is right there and not often utilized.
How often are you typing when muted/during calls? I wonder if you could tie the caps lock state with the mute state for a bandaid solution on the LED status.
Product Hunt
@gabe Try the new version. The LED now toggles on and off with the mute state. If it gets desynced, just double-tap Caps Lock!
@rajiv_ayyangar Remapping Caps Lock to app-level mute is such a clean Fitts’ Law win; at scale the hard part is reliability across Zoom/Teams/Meet updates + making sure the mute state never desyncs.
Best-practice: read mic/app mute state (where APIs allow), add a tiny “you’re muted” HUD + optional haptic/earcon, and ship shortcut profiles w/ auto-detection per app.
Curious: are you planning a Meet shortcut profile + a failsafe that re-syncs if the meeting app loses focus or the shortcut changes?
Product Hunt
@ryan_thill "the hard part is reliability across Zoom/Teams/Meet updates + making sure the mute state never desyncs." - yeah this is something I might hack on. It's really tricky - you can detect foregrounded app and use some logic to denoise the timeseries, but there will be state drift from reality and I'll have to handle it gracefully and clearly.
I think a sound (mute/unmute) is super key - Tandem has it (because we spent time on sound design, inspired by Discord) but meet and zoom don't. I could implement sounds in the capslockmute app, but it needs to be synced with the actual mute state - not trivial.
"are you planning a Meet shortcut profile" - what do you mean by a shortcut profile? Since meet doesn't support a global shortcut easily, I was thinking a better approach would be to have a chrome extension to make a global shortcut work.
Makers Page
Finally a real job for Caps Lock. I always miss the Zoom mute combo when the dog barks. Big key = easy. Going to try this. If you ever hack the LED to match mute state, that’d be perfect.
@alexcloudstar Same here. Keyboard shortcuts sound nice, but in real calls I always forget them. One key is much easier to trust
Product Hunt
@alexcloudstar yeah I'm going to get some help from Mo who also commented on this thread!
Product Hunt
@alexcloudstar The LED state works now! Thanks to Mo. If it gets desynced, simply double tap Capslock to fix it. Let me know what you think.
Clicking a tiny button on the screen during a meeting is always a struggle, so making it 'muscle memory' sounds like a lifesaver. I wonder if there’s a small visual indicator on the screen to show whether I’m actually muted or not, since the Caps Lock light itself might not be enough.
minimalist phone: creating folders
The real struggle happens when you forget that you muted yourself and talk for one minute muted :D 😅
Product Hunt
@busmark_w_nika That's such a real thing. In Tandem, we popped up a notification telling you you're muted, but users don't always see that. Also, sometimes the person is intentionally muted and talking to somebody off camera, and the notification is unnecessary or even annoying. It's a hard UX problem, certainly!