Bug 425655

Summary: Always show in panel when there are any input devices, and clicking on it should just open the normal Audio Volume widget
Product: [Plasma] plasmashell Reporter: medin <med.medin.2014>
Component: Microphone Indicator widgetAssignee: Kai Uwe Broulik <kde>
Status: CONFIRMED ---    
Severity: wishlist CC: daniel-other+kdebug, nate, nicolas.fella, pallaswept, pavol, plasma-bugs-null, postix, voidpointertonull+bugskdeorg
Priority: NOR Keywords: usability
Version First Reported In: 5.19.4   
Target Milestone: 1.0   
Platform: Other   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments: microphone icon

Description medin 2020-08-21 21:34:12 UTC 
When microphone is used, the microphone icon appears is System Tray, so normally/simply if I want to change microphone level I should left click by mouse on microphone icon then be able to change its level, but what we have is that the microphone icon serves only as indicator that says the microphone is currently used and we can also mute it by right click menu.

So in order to change microphone level I should go to speaker icon and click on it then change the microphone level, thankfully mouse scroll works on the microphone icon.

What I think should be the normal behavior to have the left click by mouse on microphone icon opens the same widget that appear when we left click by mouse on speaker icon, so like this the icon role become logical and intuitive to users.
Comment 1 medin 2020-08-27 17:30:41 UTC 
Created attachment 131222 [details]
microphone icon
Comment 2 medin 2020-08-27 17:31:03 UTC 
The best way to approach this case by putting together both speaker and microphone icons under one block like what attached image shows.
In case where microphone is not used only speaker icon is shown.
Comment 3 Nate Graham 2021-02-04 18:56:29 UTC 
That could work, but we don't currently have the ability to use non-square system tray items. We would need to do add that first.
Comment 4 pallaswept 2025-10-25 08:49:56 UTC 
> what we have is that the microphone icon serves only as indicator that says the microphone is currently used and we can also mute it by right click menu.

This is incorrect, a single click mutes the mic. It's very handy.

This sounds like deleting the easy 1-click mute from the panel when the mic is active, so that we can more easily access a level that should rarely if ever be changed, and is only one more click away. Perhaps I've misunderstood, but that seems a bad idea.