The TL;DR version is I’m returning it after 3 days.
My wife was insisting that I get something for myself for Christmas, and since I’ve been curious about a Stream Deck and “everybody needs/loves one” I ordered the 15 button Mark 2 model on Christmas Eve from Amazon and got it like three hours later. I opened it up and thus started the past three days of misery.
Actually the problems started before delivery.
There isn’t a downloadable user manual and what instructions online are sparse and frankly incomplete.
A search on YouTube for videos on configuring it for other than streaming had people just saying how great it was and how it improved productivity but were totally devoid of solid examples.
Likewise a Google search came up blank.
When it arrived I realized that to go beyond program launching and keyboard shortcuts I needed to download stuff from their website. Although all I was looking for was free, I had to log in to their Store to download anything. However logins were not working, and didn’t work until today. They are still flakey and apparently have been so for months.
For “support” they basically offer a Discord (not Discourse) server or recommend Reddit. This is poor and frankly unsatisfactory compared with what I’ve seen for other products I use. Once I finally got the plugins going (so I could trigger Shortcuts and Alfred workflows) I came to my final conclusion:
I can trigger shortcuts and workflows more easily without the Stream Deck.
The plugins generally are poor, more frustrating than helpful.
I was planning to use bound to apps as a command palate. This worked fine (but I couldn’t find good icons!) however I realized that I could make small documents for each app listing the keyboard commands I use (and always forget!) and just put them in a small Preview window on the display. Cost $0 and easier to set up as well.
So I’m packing it back up and returning it. At least Amazon makes it easy.
Yeah, I’ve spent a lot of time with mine developing various shortcuts for many apps. I was pulled in the same way based on the vocal support from many. My typical cycle was…
Gee, I wonder if I can automate this step and assign it to a SD button?
Cool, I figured that out. This will be useful and timesaving.
For a few days the button is used.
After a couple of weeks I realize I’m not using the button anymore.
After a couple of “oh, I should be using my SD more” events over the last couple of years, repeating steps 1-4 above, it has now earned a spot in my drawer full of discarded electronic gizmos. I don’t miss it.
After listening to others praise the Stream Deck, I’ve come close to ordering one several times. However, I’ve always stopped when I asked myself, “Do I really need/want this? Is this something that’s going to make me more productive?”
My conclusion has been that it would be an unnecessary addition to my desktop that would just take up space and add clutter. I have shortcuts and Keyboard Maestro macros to automate what I do repeatedly. It takes only a second or two to enable those via menus. I don’t have such a busy/involved workload that it would save me enough time to use a set of preprogrammed buttons instead.
I can see where some would find it way cool to make things happen by punching buttons, but that’s not me. So I’m sticking with my manual activation of shortcuts and Keyboard Maestro macros for now.
I think you made the right choice. When I worked from home for 3 months during lockdown I found it pretty handy for slides when on Zoom with Keynote. Being able to control both programs with it was cool.
I’ve not used it since I went back to the office because I no longer do presentations online, and I find keyboard shortcuts more convenient for most other use cases.
Good post @tomalmy. I’m sorry you had a bad experience, but I’m glad you shared it.
I hate that feeling that I’m doing the right thing in the wrong way. It’s best to get out quickly.
I continue to like and use mine, but it’s far from essential. It’s most valuable contribution to my day is reminding me of certain shortcuts and automations that might not otherwise come to mind (e.g., “Set up my apps and windows just so for reviewing”) or that might be frustratingly out of reach depending on context (e.g., “Mute zoom even though I’m fullscreen in Powerpoint”).
The other thing I like to use it for on the regular is controlling the lighting in my office. Two Stream Deck boops is far less friction than yelling at Siri or going into Home/Control Center.
But all of this misses the real question of this thread: @tomalmy what did you get for yourself instead?!
When I was on more daily Zoom calls, I found myself absolutely loving the fact I could mute my mic without having Zoom being the forward most app. Now that I’m not, it’s lost some of its luster. However, recently I setup Keyboard Maestro commands to open commonly used folders in Finder and I’ve come to enjoy it much more.
Good luck on the next gadget. Hopefully it brings more utility and joy!
Interesting hearing your experiences. I was thinking about my own setup experience. I knew the documentation would be piecemeal and community-provided, which prevented disappointment. The hardest part was figuring out that mapping buttons to KM macros was the way to go over trying to find the right plugin. Without such a good complementary tool, setup would’ve been harder.
As far as my experience using it, I suppose moving slowly and listening to my UX instincts gave me an edge. Three days in, I only had programmed a couple buttons but was confident in the trajectory. I’m the same way adding regular keyboard shortcuts. Be the man who has practiced one kick a thousand times, and all that.
I initially bought the 15-button model about two years ago but quickly upgraded to the 32-button model, and I use it dozens of times a day. I have separate profiles for the apps I use regularly, and often it is just so much quicker to push a button than it is to remember a keyboard shortcut or bring up a KM palette.
My use case is for Stream Deck to be a visual shortcut for Keyboard Maestro shortcuts. Sure, I could do a palette but having physical buttons made it easy for me for window management.
The second use case, which is my Slack profile, is for each button pressed to DM specific person in Slack. That way, I don’t have to hunt for their names in my long list in Slack.
I’ve recently just deleted their app and switched it be controlled by BetterTouchTool and I’m finding it’s more responsive now.
I go through periods of using it and not. However, its main use at the minute is media keys, as my keyboard doesn’t have them, so I use them on the deck instead! I’ve also now added Home Assistant webhooks to it and that’s improved my use of it.
Would I get another when this one dies? Probably not, but it is handy at the minute.
I have an available a free application for MacOS that offers some of the functionality of a Stream Deck. I use this in place of the Stream Deck hardware. It basically allows you to create a palette that sits on your screen (and can minimize to the Dock) that allows you to launch Keyboard Maestro scripts.
I bought a Stream Deck a year ago to “try it out”. It remains unopened. My desk has become cluttered enough that I ultimately did not want to add another “thing”. Maybe someday.
I hope to provide an instructional video someday. There is a manual available. The software is called ASK_Palette.
In the construction of a palette (you can have many) you link buttons on the palette to Keyboard Maestro scripts. Click on the button and the script runs. Attach little pictures to the buttons to remind you of its function.
I’ve set up a screen on my phone that is just shortcuts to lighting options I regularly use (I call it my house remote control).
I rarely use it when not at my desk (I’m fine with the control center), but when I’m at my desk I find it convenient to have that page visible on my phone for quick access.
You can use Apple Shortcuts for that too I’ve done it for a couple of colleagues/channels I use all the time so I can message without manually navigating.
(Although I will be co-ordinating Slack training for my employer in January and am a strong advocate of “sort your channels and messages into categories that make sense to you, and fold stuff you don’t need to see!”)
I think one of the keys for the StreamDeck, just as with any other tool, is actually figuring out what it might be good for in your personal workflow.
I think is is fairly common when someone first gets this device to spend a good deal of time making all sorts of different buttons and layouts, and often finding that many of them do not work out to be as useful as expected. I certainly went that route.
It took a bit of time to figure out what was actually useful to me, and as that has evolved, I have found that for some uses I use the StreamDeck constantly, while for other areas of my work it isn’t helpful at all.
I tend to have a lot of overlap. I run the StreamDeck (32 button version) through Better Touch Tool, and the majority of my buttons either launch an AppleScript or a Keyboard Maestro action, although I did move all of my window movement from KM to BTT and hook those actions into SD buttons, a pop-up palette controlled by BTT, and keyboard shortcuts - which is very helpful as I use whichever approach is quickest in a given situation. Without the SD I would just launch the KM actions via palettes or keyboard shortcuts, but when I am at my desk, the SD is generally faster.
Everone’s mileage will, of course vary. If the cost of the SD is not prohibitive, you (OP) might find your use for it will evolve over time.
Guys, I was reading this thread flabbergasted that a bunch of Mac Power Users were buying and struggling with Steam Decks and, for some reason trying to control presentations with them…
32 is the way. It’s not about using that many buttons; it’s about it being easier to put the buttons where your hand naturally falls on it–sort of a spray pattern across the top, plus lower right for the thumb (lefty.)
Plus the bigger ones are impossible to accidentally bump out of position.
Sure, just like many of my buttons in my Stream Decks are just Keyboard Maestro shortcuts, the point of having SD, to me, is the visual presentation and that I don’t have to remember which keyboard shortcut was assigned.
Same here. The context switching, the exposure to deep-buried menu choices or custom scripts on KBM or BTT make using the Stream Deck a pleasure for me.
Not so much that I usually carry it to the office (KBM palettes fill the gap). But that makes it all the more pleasurable when I return to the home office.
With the recent revamp of their plugin marketplace it’s pretty easy to see Elgato is on some Dom Toretto ridiculousness and trying to shake us down and rob us with some monetization bank heist and don’t care how they get there as long as it’s fast and furious and lucrative. You can’t even login to their site or apps most of the time since they redid their entire software aspect. It’s a disaster and utterly hilarious self-fail – It’s like watching the 6 H.R. reps surprising everyone at the Christmas party with a choreographed Barbie dance to close out the year.
I think 2024 is gonna be the year where standalone apps with plugins are going to be changing the game and it’s gonna get ugly early before the dust settles and the clear app marketplaces are revealed.
Prediction - it won’t be Elgato, it will be something like Raycast or, my hope, individual developers ala that Mathew Cassinel guy who makes those shortcuts.
We’re gonna see the worst of the worst ala Adobe try and charge based on per use like what they are doing with Firefly but I m confident there’s enough innovative little people/teams that it’s gonna be a fight.
TLDR, Elgato makes hardware with some buttons and that’s it and now they’re trying to pivot to charging to use those buttons and it’s not gonna work.
Also it’s 9:45am and I’m already 4 colt 45’s deep into peacing out 2023 so I’m glad I said it here because I’m an afternoon Jagerbomb away from bringing this threads entire beef into Elgatos discord , taking off my shirt and asking each room WHO WANTS SOME then serving digital violence.
I’ve done it for a couple of colleagues/channels I use all the time so I can message without manually navigating.