12mo ago

System-wide/background push-to-talk (PTT) voice chat without registration or having to run my own server (to replace Discord)?

Jitsi Meet and Matrix are missing system-wide/background push-to-talk (PTT) (to replace Discord).

Tell Jitsi -> github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet-electron/issues/210
Tell Matrix -> github.com/element-hq/element-web/issues/15284
Tell Element Call -> call.element.io (Settings > Feedback)
Tell SimpleX -> github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat/issues/2398

Alternatives (obviously must be cross-platform end-to-end encrypted libre software)?

37 comments

Instead of system wide PTT per-app you may consider some software that mutes your mic for all apps as PTT, then just leave the mic "active" per-app.
I don't know if a tool that will do this but on my mouse I have configured a mic mute toggle. So I push to start and stop. However technically I don't think there is any restriction to setting up PTT via this mechanism.
- I found https://github.com/cyrinux/push2talk implements this idea for proper PTT on all apps.
- This is what I do, works wonderfully, and most DEs have a readily configurable mute mic keyboard shortcut you can just put on whatever convenient macro key you want. Plus it doesn't even show you as muted in Zoom since it's done externally and it just knows it's getting silence.
- Many games ban always open mic, so this would create double push-to-talk, forcing me to hold two keys together to talk in-game.
  If I do, how do others on Windows and macOS copy me? I want to spread my way and get them off Discord.
  
  Yeah, the nice thing about per-app is that you can configure it for each app separately. But I'll be honest that isn't something that I regularly do. If I am voice chatting with friends that will usually be a superset of what I want to send to a game's voice chat.
  
  so this would create double push-to-talk, forcing me to hold two keys together to talk in-game.
  Why not use the same key for the game and the local mic control? I used to have a single key to mute myself in mumble and talk in Overwatch, and it worked well. Does your OS prevent it?
Since you're collecting feature requests in various projects, here's one for Mumble/Murmur:
https://github.com/mumble-voip/mumble/issues/1813
- Fixing the Mumble's onboarding and then this is far more work than adding push-to-talk to Jitsi, Matrix or SimpleX.
Updated post to add:
Tell Jitsi -> github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet-electron/issues/210
Tell Matrix -> github.com/element-hq/element-web/issues/15284
Tell SimpleX -> github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat/issues/2398
I feel like this violates the Unix philosophy. I think a dedicated program that handles unmuting the mic would be a better solution that solves this issue more generally.
- Jitsi, Matrix and SimpleX are cross-platform.
You can't have e2e encrypted anything without identifying information about unique users. Nothing reasonably secure anyway.
- SimpleX does it but is missing push-to-talk, no email, no phone number, no username or password, no sign up needed.
  
  Email the devs, they're really responsive
  
  You can’t have e2e encrypted anything without identifying information about unique users.
  SimpleX does it
  No, it doesn't. It has IDs for unique users, but tries to mitigate the risks by keeping a separate set of IDs to use with each contact. (This is like having a separate Matrix/Jabber/Signal/whatever account for each contact.)
  
  SimpleX still has devices as users, you just don't see it. If you're just talking about some random PTT voice chat or something, I haven't seen anything.
You don't need e2ee when you run your own server. Mumble is super easy to set up.
- No one's going to setup a Mumble server of their own, even if they download Mumble just for me. After we're done talking they'll go straight back to Discord for everyone else.
  
  Mumble isn't call based. It works like Discord and has push to talk.
What does system-wide push-to-talk mean?
- The web browser needs to be in focus for Jitsi keyboard shortcuts, push-to-talk. I want it in the background, with my computer game in focus, overriding the game's shortcuts. Push-to-talk opens the mic when a key is held: so they don't hear background shit when my mouth is shut.
  
  Ah, I see. I think I would describe that as background push-to-talk. "System-wide" implies something different to me.
  I don't know of one off the top of my head, but I imagine desktop Matrix clients will start implementing this once native group voip (aka Element Call) is out of beta.

37 comments