Microphone should be muted on join

[AaronFeickert]

Check for existing issues

• Completed

Describe the feature

When joining a channel or call, the microphone should be muted by default.

This was the original behavior when the mute_on_join setting was introduced in #2754, but it was changed without explanation in #3093. This was also brought up in #12761, but was closed as the submitter appeared to be satisfied with the availability of the option.

Opinions are likely to be split on what the best default is, but I think having the microphone on by default is unexpected behavior that the user may not be aware is occurring. The safer approach to me is to err on the side of caution.

Environment

Zed: v0.165.4 (Zed)
OS: macOS 15.1.1
Memory: 18 GiB
Architecture: aarch64

If applicable, add mockups / screenshots to help present your vision of the feature

No response

[JosephTLyons]

I think mute by default makes more sense, I think @notpeter was also had that same feeling.

[AaronFeickert]

I was certainly surprised by this behavior the first time I joined a channel, and wasn't even initially aware that the microphone was live.

[AaronFeickert]

@JosephTLyons: the PR for this (#21886) should be good to go!

[mikayla-maki]

We originally undid this change because it made the default use case for collaboration, synchronous calls where you're pairing on code, higher friction. The current behavior also has precedent in existing synchronous call apps. Both Slack and Discord enable the mic by default when you join a huddle or voice channel. Personally, I think this is an issue with the UI/UX design of the feature not clearly showing what a channel is, and so would vote to close this issue as "Won't fix".

[marcospb19]

I agree with @mikayla-maki.

Also, Discord and Google Meets make it predictable by showing the user the Microphone icon before the user joins a call, so you can mute it.

The same in Zed would erase the need for a default setting, as you can always check before joining a channel.

A mic icon also hints at what the channel panel is, which helps with the UI/UX confusion.

(+ Discord doesn't reset it to a default setting, it keeps the state from your last session, Google Meets always resets to unmuted)

[AaronFeickert]

Definitely agree that better UI/UX around the nature of joining a channel would be helpful. Perhaps add a microphone status icon when hovering over a channel prior to joining (adjacent to those for launching the chat and notes)? Or perhaps making the microphone control more obvious when live via color choice?

[mikayla-maki]

I've discussed this some more internally, and I think I'm partial to treating this a bit more like discord does, with always-present microphone and deafen buttons that you can toggle outside of the context of a call.

That way, there's at least a way of letting people know what the state will be soon.

[AaronFeickert]

How would it be conveyed to the user that these are future states? That is, suppose that this interface showed a live microphone; how would the user know that the microphone wasn't currently live, but would be if a join occurred?

[mikayla-maki]

Discord simply doesn't, and I think it works for them because they have a strong separation between voice and non-voice spaces, e.g. by the speaker icon in the channel list, and the expectations of a chat room.

[storopoli]

We originally undid this change because it made the default use case for collaboration, synchronous calls where you're pairing on code, higher friction.

At least make the mic status way more intelligible? I gave up figuring it out in Zed if my mic is open and I always look for the OS (in my case macOS) mic status that is way more easy to grok.

[AaronFeickert]

Closing given the conclusion of #22000, which I disagree with.