Chrome OS Flex — Tip #2: Microsoft Teams

Many companies are using Teams, and here are simple steps to take to run Teams on Chrome OS Flex.

Side notes regarding the desktop application

I have spent a few hours trying to get the native app (Debian package) to run correctly on Chrome OS Flex. Microsoft provides a Linux version of Teams that is very straight forward to install (download and run the .deb package).

I faced two issues:

• Blank screen at startup: To mitigate this problem, you simply need to run Teams in “no sandbox” mode.

usr/bin/teams --no-sandbox

• Camera is not working: This is actually a known limitation from Chrome OS for Linux applications. It will hopefully be fixed soon.

The first issue is not so bad since there is a workaround. But honestly, the camera is not an option for me and this is a show stopper for the desktop application.

Web version to the rescue

Lucky enough there is an not so bad alternative: the web version.

• Open Chrome browser and naviguate to https://teams.microsoft.com
• Quickly while it is loading, click Chrome’s menu, then “more tools”, and “create shortcut”. You’ll see a small popup. Click the checkbox “Open as window”:

Teams will no open up pretty much like a desktop application, making it smooth to use. Microphone and camera are both working fine.

Conclusion

It is not ideal, but the web app does the job. When installed “as a shortcut”, it makes it super convenient and feels almost like a desktop app.