Creator Micro 2: combined microphone layout ignores ACT11, so push-to-talk does nothing

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

26.908.40834 (build 8881), read from the installed ChatGPT.app bundle metadata.

What subscription do you have?

Not included; this report concerns hardware input mapping.

What platform is your computer?

macOS 26.6.2 (25G83), Apple Silicon (arm64).

What issue are you seeing?

On a Work Louder Creator Micro 2 with firmware 0.6.2, the physical microphone key does nothing with the combined/wide microphone layout. The device preview visibly responds to the key, agent navigation works, and the bottom-right Send button works. Clicking the on-screen dictation microphone records and transcribes successfully.

A temporary, read-only, nonexclusive HID monitor captured valid microphone press/release notifications. Both tested mic holds reported ACT11:

{"m":"v.oai.hid","p":{"k":"ACT11","act":1}}
{"m":"v.oai.hid","p":{"k":"ACT11","act":0}}

The working bottom-right button reported:

{"m":"v.oai.hid","p":{"k":"ACT12","act":1}}
{"m":"v.oai.hid","p":{"k":"ACT12","act":0}}

Inspection of the installed renderer bundle found that the combined microphone action resolver returns no action for ACT11 when separateMicrophoneKeys is false. The relevant condition in the bundled function is:

if (n == null || !t.separateMicrophoneKeys && e.key === `ACT11`) return null;

This explains the observed input arriving and the preview reacting without dictation starting. The confirmed workaround below bypasses that condition. This report does not establish whether the underlying correction belongs in model-specific layout defaults, device event normalization, or combined-switch handling.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Connect a Creator Micro 2 (observed firmware: 0.6.2; VID/PID: 0x303A:0x8298).
2. In Settings → Creator Micro, use the combined/wide microphone key layout with Push to talk assigned and Use separate microphone keys disabled.
3. Open a task, focus its message composer, and hold/release the physical microphone key.
4. On the affected device, the mic sends ACT11 press/release events but dictation never starts. Pressing either side of the physical wide key did not resolve it.
5. Confirm that the on-screen dictation microphone works and the hardware Send button works.
6. Enable Use separate microphone keys and assign Push to talk to the right-hand position of the newly separated pair (ACT11).
7. Return to the composer and hold the same physical microphone key: dictation now works. The user verified successful transcription with this configuration.

What is the expected behavior?

The combined microphone layout should work with the microphone events emitted by a supported Creator Micro 2. Users should not need to split the key and remap ACT11 to enable basic push-to-talk. If ignoring one switch is necessary to avoid duplicate events on other hardware, handling should account for the device model or actual switch reporting.

Additional information

• The failure persisted with Work Louder Input and Superwhisper fully quit.
• Work Louder Input version observed during troubleshooting: 0.18.4.
• No app bundle or firmware changes were made. The successful workaround used the app's settings.
• The temporary monitor was stopped after capturing the events.
• Searched open and closed issues for Creator Micro, ACT11, microphone, and related terms; no exact match was found. Related but distinct: #34812 (global dictation mapping) and #43520 (Creator Micro dial actions on Windows).
• Device serial numbers, local filesystem paths, task content, and audio are omitted.

Start by locating the combined microphone action resolver in the installed renderer bundle and tracing how Creator Micro 2 ACT11 and ACT12 events reach it. Reproduce the combined-layout case with Push to talk, then verify that ACT11 starts dictation without requiring separate microphone keys while preserving the working ACT12 behavior.