What macOS actually does
Your global mute key is delivered through a system event tap. If that tap ever responds slowly, macOS quietly switches it off to protect the machine. Your key is now inert.
Where Shush drops the ball
macOS sends a "your tap was disabled" event when it happens. Shush never turns the tap back on. So the key silently dies mid-session and nothing tells you.
What Silence Me does instead
It watches for that exact shut-off event and re-arms the tap the instant it fires. Same idea Shush used to read your key, without the part that leaves you unmuted.
// the event macOS sends when it kills your key
match event {
TapDisabledByTimeout |
TapDisabledByUserInput => {
// Shush: nothing happens here. key is dead.
// Silence Me:
tap.enable(true); // re-arm, instantly
}
KeyPressed(fn) => toggle_mute(),
}
A real mute is a system-level mute of your input device, so every app, Zoom, Meet, FaceTime, Discord, sees the mic go quiet. Not a per-app trick.