Feature request: automatically reduce volume of other audio when Handy is active?

[ariane-emory]

I normally have audio playing constantly: YouTube videos, podcasts, Discord calls, whatever... I go mad in silence, so I always have something playing.

This makes using Handy less ergonomic: every time, before I hit my Handy key, I have to spend a few seconds remembering which program is producing the audio, where it's window is, and then spend a few more seconds muting its audio before finally hitting my Handy key. Afterwards I have to perform the opposite procedure, wasting another several seconds. Doing these things might take me a little longer than it takes other folks - both tasks require hands on the keyboard/mouse and I have a disability that makes me a bit slower than most people.

It would be fantastic if audio coming from other programs could be automatically reduced in volume (or muted) when Handy is receiving audio input.

[cjpais]

This is actually implemented already, just it is hidden to get an idea of how many people want it or are using it. You can open the debug menu (cmd/ctrl+shift+d) and in the debug options there is an option "Mute While Recording" which should get close to what you want :)

[ariane-emory]

Wow, fantastic! I'm gonna start using that straight away, thanks!

If I can dream, it would be amazing if, just to make the UX pleasant and smooth, this eventually grew up into a smoothly falling and rising volume decrease/increase (maybe by a configurable percentage?), as if turning a physical volume knob, but for practical purposes muting does definitely get the job done.

Thanks very much!

[cjpais]

I agree that would be a bit better, maybe will consider it in future versions. I think mute was chosen iirc because of slightly better cross-platform compatibility, but I think @Maicon-Moreira might remember exactly. I think they worked on this feature iirc

[Maicon-Moreira]

yeah it would definitely be more polished, mute was chosen simply because it is a lot simpler

[Maicon-Moreira]

i’ve been really short on time lately, but when I get a chance I could look into improving this. one idea would be to fade out the “mute while recording” toggle if the system doesn’t support muting. the tricky part is reliably detecting whether muting is actually supported.

if I can sort that out, it would be a good opportunity to also work on this smooth fade-in/fade-out volume idea.

[ariane-emory]

Huh, perhaps I spoke too soon... this feature does not, in fact, seem to be working. I enabled the debug panel and enabled the Mute While Recording option, and saw no change in behaviour. I'm running MacOS Sequoia 15.6.1

[Maicon-Moreira]

that is weird

could you try running these commands in your terminal? they're the same ones Handy uses internally on macOS:

osascript -e "set volume output muted true"

osascript -e "set volume output muted false"