Mute the MacBook Microphone with the Dictation Key

Why would you do this?…

I just got my new 14” MacBook and was disappointed to find out that what I had stupidly thought was a microphone mute button in the new function keys was actually a dictation key.

The one thing I really liked about the touch bar was being able to have a dedicated key for muting and unmuting my microphone independent of whatever video chat app I might be using.

Here’s a guide for how to turn the dictation key on your MacBook into a handy microphone muting feature. Disclaimer 1: There may exist a simpler way to do this — I don’t know what it is. Disclaimer 2: This is gonna cost you $5.

Instructions

Install Mutify

Mutify is a simple Mac application that either creates a little button on your touch bar for muting your mic, or let’s you set a keyboard shortcut. We’ll be doing the latter and then using a separate app to map the dictation key to that keyboard shortcut.

1 Install Mutify. I’d recommend you wait to pay and just use the trial until you’ve finished this whole setup and are sure it works for you. You’ll need to give it various permissions. It will walk you through this.

2 Run it and make sure that the designated keyboard shortcut is Command - Shift - 0 (zero). If it is not, click the shortcut text in Mutify and set the shortcut to this. Try it out to make sure that Mutify mutes / unmutes.

Install Karabiner

Karabiner is free software that allows you to remap keyboard presses. We’ll be using it to remap the dictation key (F5) to the keyboard shortcut for Mutify.

1 Install Karabiner. You’ll need to give it various permissions. It will walk you through this.

2 Run Karabiner-Elements

3 Install the custom mapping. Click this link which will send the mapping to Karabiner.

4 Click Import

5 Click Enable

Conclusion

Your dictation key should now mute your microphone while these two applications are running. Probably a good idea to make sure they’re both set to launch at startup.

If everything is working, when you press the dictation key you should now see the Mutify menu bar icon toggle red.