7 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Elgato Stream Deck

The Elgato Stream Deck—not to be confused with Valve's Steam Deck—is an incredibly popular tool for Twitch streamers. It lets you automate basic tasks—like switching scenes and going live—but that same platform is useful even if you don't play games for an audience. I'm a huge fan of using gaming peripherals for work, so it was only a matter of time before the Stream Deck joined the productivity party.

Updated December 2022: We added information about new Stream Deck devices.

There used to only be a few Stream Decks, which mostly varied by the number of buttons that were available. The main Stream Deck ($150) is a 15-key panel of programmable buttons that can be loaded up with actions like launching websites, entering blocks of text, and controlling features of apps like OBS Studio. Each key is also a tiny, full-color LCD display that can be customized with application icons, a library of symbols, or any other image you want.

Then there was the Stream Deck Mini ($80), with a mere 6 buttons, and the positively massive Stream Deck XL ($250) with 32 keys. All of these devices work the same way and use the same proprietary software to customize the keys. You can also download extra plug-ins to add new functionality or connect third-party apps, and even get icon packs to customize your keys further.

More recently, Elgato has introduced two new, much different products. First, there's the Stream Deck Pedal. This hands-free controller has three separate pedal buttons that can be customized just like other Stream Deck keys with functions like muting your mic, playing a track, or even hitting undo in whatever application you're using.

Finally, there's the Stream Deck+ ($200). This is probably the most elaborate panel Elgato has put out. In addition to eight customizable LCD keys, it has a touchscreen panel and four physical dials. These can be handy for displaying useful information like volume levels or camera controls, but the dials make it easy to adjust things that might be harder to do with the mouse, such as tweaking color settings in DaVinci Resolve.

Here are some ideas to get you started on turning these devices into productivity powerhouses.