Never talk to yourself again.
I was mid-sentence in a Discord call when my friend interrupted: "Uh... you're muted."
Turns out I'd been delivering an Oscar-worthy monologue to absolutely no one for the past 30 seconds, but had muted my microphone on the actual headset.
After this happened for the hundredth time, I decided to fix it.
HotMic monitors your push-to-talk key and microphone. When you press PTT but no audio comes through, it alerts you immediately with:
- Visual popup - Works even in fullscreen games
- Sound alert - Choose from Windows sounds or your own WAV file
- Toast notification - Windows notification center alert
You can enable any combination of these in the settings.
- Instant Detection - Alerts within 1 second of pressing PTT with no audio
- Multiple Alert Types - Popup overlay, sound, and/or toast notifications
- Lightweight - Minimal CPU and memory usage
- Works with Any App - Discord, TeamSpeak, Zoom, games - anything using PTT
- System Tray - Runs quietly in the background
- Built-in Settings UI - Configure everything via right-click menu
- Any Key Support - Works with ALL keys including Pause/Break, F13-F24, and mouse buttons
- No Installation - Single .exe file, just run it
- Download
hotmic.exefrom Releases - Run it - appears in your system tray
- Done - works immediately with Caps Lock as default PTT
Right-click the tray icon → Settings → Click "Change Hotkey" → Press any key
Supports keyboard keys, mouse buttons (Mouse 4/5), and special keys like Pause/Break and F13-F24.
In Settings, go to the Notifications tab to:
- Enable/disable the popup overlay
- Enable/disable sound alerts
- Choose a Windows system sound or pick your own WAV file
When you first run hotmic.exe, Windows may show a "Windows protected your PC" warning.
To run the app:
- Click "More info"
- Click "Run anyway"
Alternatively you can build from source if you prefer.
You press PTT → HotMic listens to your mic → No audio? → Alert!
HotMic uses Windows audio APIs to sample your microphone only when PTT is pressed - meaning zero overhead when you're not talking.
- Windows 10 or 11
- A microphone
- Push-to-talk configured in your voice app
Does it work with Discord's built-in PTT? Yes! Just configure HotMic to use the same key as Discord.
Will it slow down my games? No. HotMic only activates when you press PTT.
Does it work with hardware mute buttons? Yes - that's exactly what it's designed to detect.
Can I use mouse buttons? Yes! Mouse 4 and Mouse 5 (side buttons) are fully supported.
Do alerts work in fullscreen games? The popup overlay is designed to work in fullscreen. Toast notifications may not appear depending on your Windows settings.
HotMic:
- Does NOT record audio
- Does NOT send data anywhere
- Only measures volume levels locally
- Stores settings in
%APPDATA%\HotMic\config.json
git clone https://github.com/jodavan/HotMic.git
cd hotmic
cargo build --releaseRequires Rust toolchain. Output: target/release/hotmic.exe
See CLAUDE.md for architecture and development details.
MIT
Made by someone who got tired of asking "Can you guys hear me?"