Background noise and noisy environments can overload your buddies' speakers when utilizing one of the most popular VoIP apps in gaming. Enable push-to-talk in Discord to automatically silence your mic until you are ready to speak.
Please keep in mind that the "Push to Talk" feature is severely limited in the Web version. It will only work if the Discord browser tab is active. If you prefer a more streamlined Discord experience, I recommend going with the desktop version.
How to Enable Push to Talk in Discord
Start by opening the Discord application. Then, in the bottom left corner of the Discord screen, select the gear symbol to access the "Settings" option.
Select the "Voice & Video" listing on the left side of the window within the "App Settings" section. Check the box next to "Push to Talk" under "Input Mode."
By clicking in the "Shortcut" box, tapping your selected key, and selecting "Stop Recording," you can assign a hotkey to activate your microphone. We recommend using the tilde (~) key as your push-to-talk button because it is easily accessible and rarely interferes with the game.
You can also adjust the delay between when you release the button and when your microphone deactivates using the slider on the left.
Select the "Keybinds" tab on the left side of the Settings menu to set multiple push-to-talk keys. Select "Push to Talk (Normal)" or "Push to Talk (Priority)" from the drop-down box under "Action." While pressing the push-to-talk button, the volume of other speakers will be reduced (unless they have also enabled this setting).
When you are completed, dismiss the Settings window and continue gaming without having to deal with that awful background noise that always activates your mic. You may always return to the "Voice & Video" menu to fine-tune additional audio options, such as echo cancellation, noise cancellation, and automatic gain control, to better your voice (all of which are enabled by default).
Wrapping up
There's no reason you shouldn't want to keep your background noises to a minimum if you spend a lot of time online gaming.Push to Talk is required with all microphones, internal speaker/mic combinations, and any other sort of headset that lacks adequate noise cancellation. Sure, it will take some practice to discipline yourself to keep the Push to Talk key pressed while speaking, but do it for the sake of the team.
As a piece of advice, I recommend going with a keybind near the movement keys (WASD). This will have no effect on your gameplay. If you use Discord and have a more efficient setup.