Elgato Stream Deck review: A Mac accessory you didn't realize you need

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in General Discussion
With the launch of its updated software and new online store, Elgato's Stream Deck becomes ever more a must-have accessory for all desktop Mac users.

The good thing is that once you've tried it, you want one. The bad thing is that you soon want the bigger, 32-button version
The good thing is that once you've tried it, you want one. The bad thing is that you soon want the bigger, 32-button version


You spend all day at your Mac, which has a keyboard that's already got at least 78 keys on it. No wonder it's hard to see why you'd want to buy a separate device to give you 6, 15, or 32 more buttons.

It used to be easier to see why you would want to use a keyboard like the Optimus Maximus, where every single key was not only programmable but also a screen. At your choice, for instance, you could have a different layout of keys that highlighted typical video editing keys such as J, K, and L, when you were in Final Cut Pro.

Only, Optimus Maximus was heavy and very expensive when it was available. And now it's close to impossible to find one.

Plus, as appealing as the idea of changing every key to display, say, Cyrillic letters one minute, QWERTY the next, and France's AZERTY in the afternoons, the odds were that you didn't. You had 100 or more customizable keys, but half or more stayed uncustomized.

The same company did make a six-button extra Optimus keyboard, although it too appears to have long since ceased to exist.

What there is, instead, is the Elgato Stream Deck. You may never have knowingly streamed anything, and it doesn't matter -- this accessory is that rare thing, a boon for all Mac users.

Or at least desktop Mac users. It's less useful if you're traveling with a MacBook Pro because, while small, it's an awkward second device to be balancing on your train table.

There is a Stream Deck mini, which is smaller and offers just six buttons, but it's still better suited to being on a desk.

What the Elgato Stream Deck gives you

The 6, 15, or 32 button versions of the Stream Deck all do the same thing. Any one of its buttons can be programmed to do a variety of tasks. So you could press one button to launch Microsoft Excel, if you wanted and if you have that app.

Or you could press one button to launch Zoom, plus a specific Keynote presentation and a particular outline in OmniOutliner -- and then change all the other buttons into video-conferencing controls.

Next time you go to leave a Zoom meeting after having used a Stream Deck, see how awkward you and everyone looks as you try to click the Leave button, then confirm you want to end the meeting for everybody.

With a Stream Deck, you can say adios to them as you press one single physical button, and it ends that video conference neatly. No searching for your mouse to cursor over the Zoom app's control. Just stab your finger at a button you don't even need to look at.

While you're on a video conference, incidentally, you could as easily have Stream Deck buttons that mute and unmute the audio, turn the camera on or off, and so on.

The middle-sized Store Deck comes with 15 buttons, but they can all.changed and reconfigured endlessly
The middle-sized Store Deck comes with 15 buttons, but they can all.changed and reconfigured endlessly

Elgato Stream Deck hardware design -- buttons

There are differences between the three sizes of Stream Deck, but broadly they feel the same and are built the same. The feel is of a slightly squishy button -- it's oddly reminiscent of how certain vision mixing controls are on a TV studio desk.

Each button is also a tiny screen, which means that you can display icons in them, and you can change those icons too. Press one button that you've labeled as, say, Work, and have every other button change to show each of the applications you use in your job.

Press that same Work button again, and now if you choose, every other button can change to your favorite music sources and playlists instead.

The look of each button rather depends on the icon within it. If you decide to have it so that a particular button launches, say, Mail, then Stream Deck will pull in the Mail icon during setup.

Alternatively, you can design your own icons or use an online Elgato tool to prepare some.

It's a skill to get an icon that's memorable for all the things you want a button to do, and to look good on the unit as well. It's a bit easier to end up with brightly lit buttons that look a bit naff.

However, you are likely to find that creating button icons also becomes an obsession, and you'll soon end up making your own in Photoshop or Pixelmator Pro.

Elgato Stream Deck hardware design -- overall

Any one individual button feels solid and sturdy. There's never any question that you've pressed one, for instance, and it's a satisfying press too.

The Stream Deck as a whole can wobble slightly depending on which version you've got, and which stand setting you're using, though.

The 15-key Stream Deck can be placed on your desk with nothing else, and it presents a low slope of buttons. The angle of the slope may well not suit your desk layout, and the Stream Deck may be too slippy on its surface too.

So the 15-key version comes with a plastic stand that can be adjusted to five slightly different angles. The Stream Deck is also less prone to slipping when it's in this stand too.

The 32-key version has a stronger magnetic stand, plus a detachable - and therefore extensible and replaceable -- USB-C to USB-A cable. Both the 6- and 15-key versions have a permanently affixed cable in the unit.

Elgato recommends that the USB-A end, of whichever version of the Stream Deck, be plugged directly into the Mac rather than through a hub. It can work via a powered hub, but it can stop functioning after a restart, unless it is attached directly.

That may come down to what powered hub you're using, though, as it doesn't affect all users.

Elgato Stream Deck Software

It's in the Stream Deck app that you decide which of your unit's buttons do what. When launched, the app displays an image of your Stream Deck's current layout, and you click on a button onscreen to set up the corresponding physical button.

Setting up can be just a question of selecting a button and choosing from a long list of Stream Deck actions. It comes with many standard options, like a button setting that opens any one website you choose.

But then buttons can be doubled up to act as a toggle, for instance, the same single button muting and unmuting audio in Zoom. Or one button can be set to perform a whole series of steps for you.

As well as the provided standard sets of controls, you've long been able to add to them from Elgato's More Actions link. This has now been revamped as part of the new Stream Deck 5.0 software to become one-button access to a whole store of options from Elgato and others.

The software is one place where Elgato betrays its Windows origins. While it is a Mac app, it's not the best-behaved one. It has no menus, it doesn't appear automatically in the Dock while running, and there isn't a menubar icon.

You also can't hide it once you're done. It neither has a Hide Stream Deck option nor does it respond to Hide Others when you're a different app.

Configure buttons to do whatever you want, then change their icons and colors as you need
Configure buttons to do whatever you want, then change their icons and colors as you need


You can drag the Stream Deck application to the Dock and launch it from there. But if you then drag the app out of the Dock while running, it just goes. It doesn't snap back to the Dock like a regular running Mac app.

In practice, you end up launching or going back to Stream Deck's software chiefly through Spotlight or a launcher such as Alfred. That said, these are not slow ways to launch it -- and you don't generally spend a lot of time in the Stream Deck app.

You go into it only to create or edit the different sets of buttons, and thereafter you actually forget that there's software at all.

The new Stream Deck 5.0 software

There's little immediately obvious difference between the previous Stream Deck app and the latest version 5.0. The new version sheds the old More Actions button, which was reasonably buried, though, and instead gains a more prominent Store icon.

This icon takes you through to the new Stream Deck Store, but rather than a place to buy things, it's currently more a repository of useful extras. Presumably, it will gain paid-for items, but at the time of writing, nothing appears to incur an extra fee.

What's there so far starts with what Elgato calls Plugins. These are sets of actions that can be assigned to buttons. So there's a set for controlling Elgato's own range of lights, or there are one-off functions such as putting an analog clock face into a button.

Alongside those, some items are more suited to Stream Deck's original audience. If you are someone who streams live video sessions to the world, the Stream Deck Store includes royalty-free music and sound effects that you might want to use.

Perhaps the most helpful element of the Store for brand new users, though, is the Discover tab. Displayed as the first thing you see when you open the Store, it's a collection of tutorials and guides to using Stream Deck.

Elgato Stream Deck -- uses for Mac owners

For a non-streamer and perhaps non-gamer, the Stream Deck pretty instantly becomes your preferred way of getting down to work at your Mac -- once you've set it up.

Out of the box and connected to your Mac, the sole thing it does is present one Welcome button. Pressing that launches your Mac's web browser and takes you to Elgato's Stream Deck home page, where there are tutorial videos.

Adding a website to a button is straightforward, not least since you can edit the default Welcome one. Or you can copy it and set up multiple different buttons to take you to various sites.

There is much more you can do per button, however. It's true that the more you pack into one button, the more complex it is to set up, but you can, for instance, have a single button to start your working day.

Without using anything other than Stream Deck's own software, that could mean opening up the five apps you work on every day. Or if you're a Keyboard Maestro user, that one button could go on to do just about anything your Mac can.

Launch five different apps, for instance, but also ten documents, plus three website pages, quit all other apps, begin a playlist in Apple Music, and so on.

It would be good if there were better ways to connect toHomeKit than you can at present, but that's more on Apple than it is Elgato. And there are options, albeit a little rickety.

For instance, you can buy the separate third-party HomeControl app, which controls HomeKit while also offering a URL scheme. Use the app to find out what URL could turn on your office lights, then program a Keyboard Maestro macro to call that URL.

And then assign that Keyboard Maestro macro to a button on the Stream Deck. On the one hand, it would be infinitely better if Apple allowed Stream Deck access to HomeKit to just turn the lights on or off.

On the other hand, though, this is an example of just how deep you can get into Stream Deck -- and how deeply engrossed you can become.

Initially, you may even wonder how you're going to fill the 6-button or 15-button version. That doesn't last, though, as you very quickly realize that you want the 32-button version.

Or possibly two. You can connect two Stream Decks to the same Mac, and the software copes with both.

The new Stream Deck Store surfaces a lot of helpful tutorials
The new Stream Deck Store surfaces a lot of helpful tutorials

Should Mac users buy an Elgato Stream Deck?

Unless you're mostly traveling with a MacBook Pro, yes. For desktop Mac setups, this is an unqualified yes because it is so well made -- although the Mac app software could be more convenient -- and it is so addictive.

We don't feel like the 6-button device is worth the price, however. That seems to exist chiefly to make a cheaper price point and attempt to draw people into using Stream Deck. Once you have used it, the 6-button one will feel too limited.

Unfortunately, the 15-button one will as well. While that 15-button version is arguably the sweet spot in terms of both price and desk space, you'll soon wish you had bought the 32-button edition.

There is one more option, which is Elgato Stream Deck Mobile for iPhone. It's an iOS app that mimics the functions of a Stream Deck and could give you some idea of what it's like to use these devices.

However, using the iOS app means you're giving up the physical buttons, and you're keeping your iPhone screen on all the time. Plus, the iOS app has a monthly fee -- Stream Deck Mobile for iPhone is a subscription app.

It costs $2.99 per month or $24.99 per year, so it is substantially cheaper than a physical Stream Deck for a few years. But otherwise, it has no advantages.

Pros

  • Addictively useful for all desktop Mac users
  • Any one button can open a single app, or launch a whole series of Mac actions
  • It's especially useful in Zoom where standard controls are a press away
  • Comes with dozens of possible controls, and myriad more are available free

Cons

  • Less useful on the go alongside MacBook Pro
  • Stream Deck software isn't the best Mac citizen
  • 15-key version can be a bit wobbly on its stand
  • Can become complex to use to its fullest

Rating 5 out of 5

Where to buy

The Elgato Stream Deck comes in three versions. The 6-button edition Stream Deck Mini costs around $80 on Amazon, while the 15-button Stream Deck is $150.

Stream Deck XL is the 32-button edition and costs around $250.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    MplsPMplsP Posts: 4,038member
    For $80-250, how hard is it to simply type “Command-space, excel, enter?” Actually, you need to type the first couple of letters of a program’s name and it usually pops up. (Besides, MS Office apps take so long to load on my 2016 MBP that saving a second is pretty much pointless.) For other applications, anyone who is reasonably facile on the keyboard can do it just as quickly as taking their hand off, looking down and finding the key on the keypad to press.
    randominternetpersonBeats
  • Reply 2 of 18
    This is what the Touch Bar should have been. I loved the concept of the Touch Bar but it is massively underused in programs. I hope they add functionality and user customization instead of getting rid of it. 
    d_2roundaboutnowrusswwilliamlondonaderutterrandominternetpersondewmewatto_cobraseanj
  • Reply 3 of 18
    charles1charles1 Posts: 92member
    I just want a huge MUTE button I can smash when some obnoxious commercial appears. There is a general problem with custom keyboards like this, you become dependent on them and when you have to work on some other machine without the key gadget, you have trouble. Better to learn the keycodes natively. Otherwise you're like a dvorak keyboard user in a QWERTY world.
  • Reply 4 of 18
    polymniapolymnia Posts: 1,080member
    MplsP said:
    For $80-250, how hard is it to simply type “Command-space, excel, enter?” Actually, you need to type the first couple of letters of a program’s name and it usually pops up. (Besides, MS Office apps take so long to load on my 2016 MBP that saving a second is pretty much pointless.) For other applications, anyone who is reasonably facile on the keyboard can do it just as quickly as taking their hand off, looking down and finding the key on the keypad to press.
    Not worth it at all for the task you mention. 

    But I think about the repetitive, deep menu excursions I do in my photo retouching work. Specific filters used over & over. Selection/masking manipulations. Layer management conventions that I do manually. 

    While I could make actions & setup custom keyboard shortcuts, I have never been able to remember more than a few custom shortcuts.  Actions, while amazing, are just another deep multiple-click ui maneuver that slows me down. 

    My guess is the more esoteric your Application usage is, the better the Streamdeck will payoff. 

    It’s not for opening apps, though if you’ve got leftover buttons after programming the really nerdy stuff, why not?
    d_2bageljoeyrandominternetpersonfastasleepwatto_cobrabeowulfschmidt
  • Reply 5 of 18
    cjcoopscjcoops Posts: 112member
    This is what the Touch Bar should have been. I loved the concept of the Touch Bar but it is massively underused in programs. I hope they add functionality and user customization instead of getting rid of it. 
    It is what the Touch Bar is already - you just need to install Better Touch Tool.

    https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/07/20/bettertouchtool-is-the-app-the-macbook-pro-with-touch-bar-needs

    There's already some preset optons for it to show its power and give you an idea of its uses
    https://community.folivora.ai/t/goldenchaos-btt-the-complete-touch-bar-ui-replacement/1281

    And of course it makes the excellent Touch pad even more powerful, plus keyboard shortcuts and a clipboard manager and more...


    roundaboutnowwilliamlondonaderutterrandominternetpersonemoellerfastasleepwatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 18
    boboliciousbobolicious Posts: 1,174member
    speaking of touch bar for desktop, www.duetdisplay.com may be an option for some...
    Beats
  • Reply 7 of 18
    ClarusClarus Posts: 49member
    I have other ElGato gear like the CamLink and the Key Lights, and they’re mostly good products. But I could not justify a Stream Deck. I don’t think the value is really there. I mean come on, all that money for just 12 buttons? With a USB-A cable that doesn’t plug directly into most current Macs? That the article says needs to be plugged directly into a Mac, when many Macs only have as few as 2 USB-C ports? (I run everything through the USB ports on my hub so I only have to plug 1 cable into my Mac) With no HomeKit integration whatsoever, a big complaint of mine with their wireless Key Lights?

    For those who have an iPad or iPhone, there are many better solutions that cost much less. I use Touch Portal, an iOS app offering a fully configurable programmable grid of buttons to control everything from OBS to Photoshop. You can set up many more buttons, they don’t have to be square, and can be much bigger than on a Stream Deck. As an iPad app, it works wirelessly, not using up any USB ports. The article says the StreamDeck doesn’t travel well, but Touch Portal is not a bulky box, it travels as thin as the iPad it is on. Sure there is a Stream Deck app, but Touch Portal is a cheap no subscription price. The iPad is already on my desk, the StreamDeck would compete for the space on my desk. The ONLY thing Touch Portal gives up to Stream Deck is the tactile feel of the real buttons. In all other respects, if you have an iOS  device, an app like Touch Portal is a much better deal.
    edited June 2021 rundhvidwatto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 18
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    MplsP said:
    For $80-250, how hard is it to simply type “Command-space, excel, enter?” Actually, you need to type the first couple of letters of a program’s name and it usually pops up. (Besides, MS Office apps take so long to load on my 2016 MBP that saving a second is pretty much pointless.) For other applications, anyone who is reasonably facile on the keyboard can do it just as quickly as taking their hand off, looking down and finding the key on the keypad to press.
    Using it as an application launcher is a waste of $80. It can do much more than that.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 18
    focherfocher Posts: 688member
    Is this a joke? While a few might find such a device moderately useful, the idea of putting a clunky wired box of buttons next to my iMac is appalling.
  • Reply 10 of 18
    BernShBernSh Posts: 3member
    The appeal of extending the keyboard with a small programmable keyboard depends on where on a kinesthetic scale you are coupled with how comfortable with touch typing and learning keyboard combinations you are and how much visual esthetics impact you, and how committed/interested you find tweaking your workflow (insert chart or venn diagram). 

    As someone who finds the pressure/sensation of typing uncomfortable on my fingertips, a power user with far far too many keyboard combos to mess with beyond the dozen or so ‘standards’, being visually very sensitive, and highly interested in the how works gets done, the idea of having yet another keyboard to clutter my visual space and hunt for ever changing commands has little appeal. 
     
    For me, putting up onscreen Keyboard Maestro palettes right where I need them like a delete symbol right over the spam mailbox in mail that selects all then deletes them and returns me to the inbox is far more elegant and match for me then looking down and finding a key on the desk then having to look back to reorient my vision on the screen again.

    For me, reducing the number of actions, even very very simple fast ones, is a major goal especially when I don’t need to change the visual field.

    When first getting into making on screen palettes, I too when way down the rabbit hole of making icons and arranging them and the app windows. It was way fun and instructive regarding how I work and think. Also very rewarding when I achieved a good outcome.

    What I came to realized is that mostly it’s about (for me) putting onscreen, menu or context menu commands for one click execution or when possible, having two to maybe four commands fire in sequence. Beyond four commands gets progressively much more difficult to program and keep stable especially if you UI script rather then use a language to script like AppleScript. 

    This is where I am in the matrix of the above variables. Given my experience, I suspect I’m an outlier and very few will share these preferences. 
    rundhvidwatto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 18
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,746member
    This UI model is very nostalgic for me because it works exactly the same as nearly identical controls used in a wide range of operator consoles designed for military applications. This UI model dates back at least the 1960s, which means it was probably conceived in the 1950s. Btw, they used film chips to change the on-key presentation and later versions have photoeye based finger sensors.

    I've also seen and applied this UI model for point-of-sale terminals and kiosks. These devices are especially useful user interaction model when you have a generic operator console that needs to take on a modality to match a specific function or user/operator persona. I can definitely see where someone who spends a lot of time in a complex application would find this especially useful because of the visual clues it provides.

    Could some or all of the functionality of this device be done through keyboard shortcuts or the Touch Bar? Sure, but someone has to deliver the functionality. Keyboard shortcuts have to be memorized to be efficient. Personally, I'd like to see the numeric key region of 101/102 keyboards transformed into the functionality that this device provides. I rarely have a need for the numeric keys so if I have to tolerate the big-slab-i-ness of a huge keyboard on my desk I'd prefer that the extra real estate it consumes provide a lot more benefit than simply a numeric keypad. My accountant partner would disagree, but both of our needs could be met if the extra part of the keyboard did what these devices do.
    polymniawatto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 18
    iadlibiadlib Posts: 117member
    Apple could have done something similar with the Touch Bar had they only moved it above the physical function keys. Not replaced them. The new layout with a physical escape key and separate power button is better. But still. Or just use the damn patents for a capacitive multitouch keyboard built on a screen and jump us into the future!
    Beatswatto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 18
    polymniapolymnia Posts: 1,080member
    dewme said:
    ...Personally, I'd like to see the numeric key region of 101/102 keyboards transformed into the functionality that this device provides. I rarely have a need for the numeric keys so if I have to tolerate the big-slab-i-ness of a huge keyboard on my desk I'd prefer that the extra real estate it consumes provide a lot more benefit than simply a numeric keypad. My accountant partner would disagree, but both of our needs could be met if the extra part of the keyboard did what these devices do.
    I love this idea. Though, being a right-handed artist using a Wacom tablet, I'd love it MORE if the Streamdeck/Number Pad could be tacked on to the LEFT side of the keyboard so I could use my left hand to operate Streamdeck controls while drawing with my right hand.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 18
    BeatsBeats Posts: 3,073member
    Customize buttons and end a Zoom call with a single button. Isn’t this what the Touch Bar should be?
  • Reply 15 of 18
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    Beats said:
    Customize buttons and end a Zoom call with a single button. Isn’t this what the Touch Bar should be?
    Even if it was, that's not much use for Mac mini, iMac or Mac Pro users, or people who use notebooks closed lid with a dock.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 16 of 18
    HapHap Posts: 19member
    I have 5 StreamDecks. 2 x 15 button, 3 x 32 button. 2 are on my MacPro, 3 are on my Windows gaming system (for flight simulator controls).

    I use the heck out of the one on my Mac. Why? Mostly because I use MailTags in mail and probably have 70-80 keywords. Instead of having to use a menu or memorize hundreds of key commands, I have an entire StreamDeck profile for Mail with multiple levels. So I have a button for each mail tag. Since you can have a profile per app (and have it auto switch to that profile when that app is the foreground, and you can have layers of folders in profiles. There really is no practical limit to the number of buttons you can have. I have a key for switching to a raw message source of an email, copying it and pasting it into another app (retain receipts). 

    I have integrated my stream decks with my Home Automation software (Indigo) so I can open a garage door while sitting at my Mac by pushing a single button. No need to open an app, no need to argue with Siri what I meant.

    Note it is actually a single display under the buttons. The buttons are just clear plastic. 
    dewmemangakattenwatto_cobra
  • Reply 17 of 18
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,746member
    polymnia said:
    dewme said:
    ...Personally, I'd like to see the numeric key region of 101/102 keyboards transformed into the functionality that this device provides. I rarely have a need for the numeric keys so if I have to tolerate the big-slab-i-ness of a huge keyboard on my desk I'd prefer that the extra real estate it consumes provide a lot more benefit than simply a numeric keypad. My accountant partner would disagree, but both of our needs could be met if the extra part of the keyboard did what these devices do.
    I love this idea. Though, being a right-handed artist using a Wacom tablet, I'd love it MORE if the Streamdeck/Number Pad could be tacked on to the LEFT side of the keyboard so I could use my left hand to operate Streamdeck controls while drawing with my right hand.
    The military UI consoles that use this type of display (the ones I’ve used and seen) have the panel mounted either vertically or at a steep angle. 

    The universal downside of this UI paradigm imho, which includes Apples Touch Bar, is having to look down to see the controls. A good keyboard shortcut kicks the crap out of anything that requires you to look down to see a control. 
    edited June 2021
  • Reply 18 of 18
    rundhvidrundhvid Posts: 127member
    A Mac accessory you didn't realize you need

    … Perhaps one should take a moment to reflect on the headline?

    —this piece is about a device most of us will dismiss and evaluate as irrelevant, but maybe it is not? 🙄👀🤭
    muthuk_vanalingamwatto_cobra
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