Use push-to-talk!

The one and only desktop gadget I’ve ever stuck with long-term is MuteMe. It’s a little button for muting/unmuting yourself on Zoom, Meet, Teams, etc.

The killer feature for me push to talk (and it also supports push to mute!). My mic is live only while I have my finger on the button (which turns it green). When I take my finger off, the button turns red and I’m muted. In a house full of noisy kids, this is the way.

Before MuteMe, I used Shush for like seven years. That’s an app does the same thing but with a key on the keyboard (I used the fn key). And before that, I toggled mute manually like a caveman! 😭