Even higher, the software program features a Hotkey Switch perform that may alternate between two shortcuts. Press it as soon as, it sends one command, press it once more and it sends the opposite, alternating between them. This could be a helpful approach to construct complicated toggles, like working one script once you begin working and one other once you’re finished.

2. Activate Mac Shortcuts

Apple’s personal scripting software, Shortcuts, can also be highly effective, and it is constructed proper into MacOS. That could be a large profit by itself, however an unofficial plug-in helps you to activate Shortcuts proper from a button in your Stream Deck. 

This integration is made by GitHub person Sentinelelite and isn’t related to Apple, which is price protecting in thoughts. However, you possibly can find the code here. In my testing, it labored fairly properly, launching the couple of present Shortcuts I had with no need a keyboard shortcut that is not already in use or taking over area in my standing bar.

3. Connect to IFTTT

IFTTT is one other highly effective automation software that may function the glue between a number of providers. You can use it to send your Instagram posts to Twitter with out the ugly hyperlinks, add your sleep tracking to Google Calendar, or put videos you like on YouTube into a Spotify playlist. And because of its Webhooks integration, you possibly can activate any variety of applets (because the service calls them) simply by visiting a hyperlink.

This makes it easy to integrate with your Stream Deck. Under the System subheading within the app, you will discover an motion known as Website. Here, you possibly can enter any URL. When you press the button that you simply assigned this motion to, that website will launch. In this case, it would set off an IFTTT applet. For instance, you can use this to manage your smart-home lights, swap your telephone to Do Not Disturb, or anything that IFTTT can do.

4. Control Your Zoom Calls

The last item you need whereas on a Zoom name is to fumble for the mute button. This unofficial plug-in can assist remedy that drawback by providing you with devoted buttons to mute your microphone or video, begin or cease a recording, and even go away the assembly. 

If you are working the assembly, there are additionally choices to mute everybody within the Zoom name directly, or ask everybody to unmute themselves. These shortcuts work even when the Zoom window itself is not in focus, so you possibly can maintain your spreadsheets open or maintain getting distracted by Twitter with out shedding the power to shortly unmute your self when the boss calls on you.

5. Chat More Easily in Discord

One of the add-ons constructed by Elgato particularly, this Discord plugin offers you the power to shortly management a number of core options of the chat utility. You can mute your microphone or deafen your headphones. There are additionally choices to shortly bounce to a preset voice or textual content channel. In the case of the previous, urgent the button will mechanically join your headphones and microphone to the voice chat.

Perhaps probably the most handy choices on this plug-in, although, are the Push to Talk and Push to Mute buttons. These let you briefly communicate or mute your self whereas holding down one of many Stream Deck buttons. Having a bodily button available to succeed in for—it doesn’t matter what window is open—so I can communicate up in a chat the place I’m muted once I have to is the form of factor that is made me admire having the additional {hardware} on my desk.

6. Manage Your Music

Most keyboards today have some form of multimedia buttons to play, pause, or skip tracks in your music apps, however they’re often fairly primary. Some of the Stream Deck’s integrations might be far more expansive. For instance, the unofficial Spotify plug-in covers the fundamentals but additionally helps you to take away songs out of your playlists, change playback units, add a prefer to a music, swap to shuffle mode, and extra.

Elgato itself additionally presents plug-ins for Spotify and Apple Music, although curiously solely on Macs. These each have extra primary performance, however they a minimum of let you toggle shuffle mode and, on Apple Music, hit Love on songs you want. 

7. Track Your Working Hours

If you are a freelancer, have strict work-life boundaries, or are simply inquisitive about how a lot time you actually spend observing spreadsheets, a very good time tracker is a great tool. One free software for doing this, Toggl, has an unofficial Stream Deck plug-in that makes it straightforward to start out and cease your tracker.

To get it arrange, you will have to enter your API key, which you may get from Toggl’s preferences web page. Once it is arrange, you possibly can press the button to start out monitoring your time. You may even create a number of buttons to trace completely different duties and ship them to completely different Toggl workspaces. At the time of writing, you will nonetheless want to make use of the Toggle cellular or net app to cease the timer (urgent the button once more will simply begin a brand new timed entry), but it surely’s nonetheless a useful approach to shortly begin the clock with out getting distracted from what you are doing.