Working Push2Talk AutoKey Snippet

# This AutoKey script was made to allow a push-to-talk feature in applications that don't offer it natively such as Zoom.
# Do not forget to define your custom parameters, including the expected mute/unmute action, and to match the hotkey variable with the trigger hotkey defined for this script on AutoKey itself.
# P.S. I kept my debugging code commented out just for reference.

# Enter script code
import os

import evdev

# Defining some custom parameters
lockfile = '.p2t.lockfile'          # => You may choose whatever filename you like here. More details below.
device_path = '/dev/input/event6'   # => Be sure to check what input device corresponds to your keyboard with `python -m evdev.evtest`.
hotkey = 'KEY_F1'                   # => This hotkey should be the same one that triggers your script.
hold_action = 2
expected_action = '<alt>+A'         # => This is the expected key combination to trigger mute/unmute on the target app.

# Also, you can setup AutoKey to only trigger this script when your target app is open, based on the window title. In my case, I set it up with regex /*Reunião Zoom/.
#P.S. all lines that are entirely commented out were used for debugging and can be removed if you like.

try:
  open(lockfile)                                 # => If the lockfile exists, script does nothing. This is important because keeping a key pressed in fact sends several hits like you were typing it very quickly.
except FileNotFoundError:
  with open(lockfile, 'w'):                      # => Else, the script creates the lockfile and starts its magic.
    #print('Starting operation')
    #counter = 0

    device = evdev.InputDevice(device_path)      # => EvDev is used to access our keyboard.
    keyboard.send_keys(expected_action)          # => Here we send our "unmute" command to the target app.

    for event in device.read_loop():             # => And here we start monitoring the keyboard for keypress events.
      if event.type == evdev.ecodes.EV_KEY:      # => EvDev sends different types of events and this part ensures we'll check only for keypress events.
        category = evdev.categorize(event)       # => This is used to view the necessary event details.
        #print(category.keycode, type(category.keycode), category.keystate)

        if category.keycode != hotkey or category.keystate != hold_action: # => `keycode` is the pressed key itself and keystate represents one of the three possible actions: down, up or hold.
          break                                  # => If we detect that we are no longer holding the hotkey, break the loop.

        #counter += 1
        #print('Loop ', counter)
        #print(category.keycode, type(category.keycode), category.keystate)

  keyboard.send_keys(expected_action)            # => Here we issue the "mute" command to the target app.
  os.remove(lockfile)                            # => And remove the lockfile so as we can use the Push2Talk script again.
  #print('Ending operation')