Google-Chat-Linux is an Electron-based client designed to provide a native desktop experience for Google Hangouts Chat on Linux systems. This software fills the gap left by Google, which did not offer an official client for Linux users.
Key Features:
Cross-platform support with tailored enhancements for Windows users.
Custom CSS injection allows users to modify themes and customize their interface according to preferences.
Integration with web browsers enables opening Google Chat URLs directly within the application.
Supports systray notifications and offers multiple icon themes (default, colored, mono) for better desktop integration.
Audience & Benefit:
Ideal for Linux users seeking a seamless desktop experience for Google Hangouts Chat, including those on Wayland environments. Windows users can also benefit from a functional alternative to the official client. The software enhances customization options and integrates smoothly with web browsers, improving productivity and user satisfaction.
Available via winget installation, this tool ensures a consistent and efficient communication experience within the Google ecosystem.
See further below if you ever need to build an AppImage for your distribution.
Windows support
Electron is cross platform. I added the minimum required tweaks to have a decently working app on Windows. You can install the Setup.exe from releases.
There will be "SmartScreen" warning about how unsafe this .exe is, Windows pretending it has detected something nasty and is protecting you. I Don't Care and won't buy a certificate.
If you're not happy with this, build from sources with npm install && npm run dist or get a proper OS with a proper distribution system.
Linux dependencies
Starting with 5.14.x, xdg-desktop-portal must be installed. It's probably already the case on most distributions. see here
Dependency is taken care of in AUR Arch package and Debian package.
Custom CSS
To inject custom CSS, create a file called custom.css in ~/.config/google-chat-linux for Linux or %APPDATA%\google-chat-linux\ for Windows.
To find out how Google Chat makes their themes, go to Developer Tools (Ctrl + Shift + I) > Sources > gtn-roster-iframe-id (world) > (no domain) > the large purple CSS file (begins with /_/scs/mss-static/_/ss/k=boq-dynamite.DynamiteWebUi...). The file is pretty scattered, but searching for terms such as
You can configure your web browser to detect Google Chat URLs and open them in the Google Chat Alt application:
Step 0: Install Google Chat Alt.
Step 1: Install a user script manager. See Step 1 on Greasy Fork for various options.
Note: the script manager must be able to cope with content security policy (CSP) headers. Tampermonkey on Firefox is known to work.
Step 2: Install the user script Google Chat Alt landing page by clicking the green install button on the user script's page, and your user script manager will ask you to confirm the install.
Step 3: Try it out by navigating e.g. to https://mail.google.com/chat/ in your web browser. If the user script is working correctly instead of Google Chat web UI your browser should ask you:
> Allow this site to open the gchat link with Google Chat Alt?
You can check the checkmark:
> Always allow [...] to open gchat links
Once you press the button Open Link, Google Chat Alt will be either started or (if you have it already running) restore its window. You can then close the tab in your browser.
Note: If navigating to Google Chat opens Google Chat web UI the user script manager might not be compatible with the user script, Google might have changed something on the web site or you might have failed to install the script properly.
Note: If navigating to Google Chat opens landing page that says "Launching Google Chat Alt" but web browser doesn't ask to open the link in the application, verify if you have installed Google Chat Alt. Running gio mime x-scheme-handler/gchat should display google-chat-linux.desktop as a default application.
On technical level this functionality works in following way: Google Chat Alt uses XDG Desktop file to claim to support URI scheme gchat://. No browser is able to handle this (made up) URI scheme but we use this to pass URI to the app. App looks for URI with this scheme and if found, it replaces gchat:// with https:// and navigates to that address. This should work for channel and direct message links out of box.
Wayland support
TL/DR;
Improved with electron 29 : declare environment variable export ELECTRON_OZONE_PLATFORM_HINT=auto (values can be auto, x11, wayland), for instance in .zshenv, no need to use --ozone-platform flag, so no need to use custom .desktop file !
Improved with electron 27 : WaylandWindowDecorations is now enabled by default.
Run with --ozone-platform=wayland.
Detailed story
Electron 20 introduced a command line to mimic chromium way to switch to Wayland if available. Simply run electron ap with --ozone-platform-hint=auto to make it use Wayland if available, Xorg else. The default value is default and does not try Wayland at all.
This has side effects on window decoration (absent on Gnome for instance, fixed with electron 27).
Another side effect is the lack of notification in systray. (Which only works already with a workaround on Gnome, see further).
So, feel free to enable both options if you want, it will work with this lmitation.
I first enforced the ozone flag in the .desktop shortcut, bad idea sorry about that ;-), forget the 5.21-18-2 version.
I didn't find a way to make this a runtime option, this setting must be taken into account very early in electron startup I'm not even sure it's possible to do that.
So, to use electron's Wayland rendering edit /usr/share/applciations/google-chat-linux.desktop and add --enable-features=WaylandWindowDecorations --ozone-platform-hint=auto.
bump electron to 29 with better wayland support. Define ELECTRON_OZONE_PLATFORM_HINT=auto to take advantage of it. Values can be auto, wayland, x11, with auto being a reasonable default.
Set it in .zshenv for instance, and logout / login again. Must be in a placed sourced when .desktop applications launchers are used, will certainly be DE dependant.
5.27.23-6 5.27.23-5 5.27.23-4 and 5.27.23-3
empty release - AUR only pkg release version
5.27.23-2
Add a menu in 'View' to change tray icon theme.
5.27.23-1
Add support for several iconThemes, to match some 'monochrome' desktop themes. 3 values are supported :
default : the good old green ones
colored : the new colored google ones
mono : an attempt at monochrome icon theme
Edit ~/.config/google-hangouts-chat-linux.json and set "iconTheme":"colored" for instance, then restart.
Add a nice pseudo-protocol support : open gchat:// urls in client instead of browser. See "Open Google Chat URLs from web browser in the app" above.
Thanks again https://github.com/pbabinca !
Some functionalities are blocked for older browsers, for instance "quoted-reply", which has finally arrived in google chat. (2023, hello guys, wake up)
instead of Ubuntu Appindicators (if in use on the distro)
Note that ... looks like it's a crappy situation (again)
Ubuntu Appindicator required for electron -> 21, wont work for 22+
Appindicator and KStatusNotifierItem required for electron 22+
AND THEN AGAIN ! Double click must be used instead of single click,
and that shit is on Gnome only, and of course poor to no wayland support
Tray F***ng Icons still failing in 2023, not like it's been around since 28 years.
Weird news though : notification on application shortcut seems to work on Gnome ... only when app is launched from sources ! (./google-chat-linux.sh)
I'm probably definitively done with this electron nightmare.
Best solution is probably hte ArchLinux packagine approach : without electron embedded/packaged. go wonder.
I've added google-chat-linux-nvm-launcher.sh that uses nvm, uses nvm use --lts, then starts ./google-chat-linux/google-chat-linux.sh,
it can be referenced in a local .desktop file, and it will work. That's hjow I personally launch it.
5.21.19-1
https://github.com/squalou/google-chat-linux/issues/51 : manually set NO_REDIRECT_URL to solve login with custom OAuth SSO providers issues. Comma separated list of urls is accepted ! (see issue in github for more details)
versioning scheme
Starting with 5.11.9-1 :
first number is internal architecture, won't change anytime soon
second is the electron version.
third is a 'feature' level
dash-number is a packaging number : same features, only minor bugfix and packaging changes : no news, only better things
support native filechooser
make sure you install xdg-desktop-portal or xdg-desktop-portal or xdg-desktop-portal-kde or xdg-desktop-portal-wlr ... depending on your DE and distrib.
logout / login and open google-chat-linux, whenever needing to use the filechooser it should use your DE default one.
Troubleshooting
in case nothing happens when needing to upload / download a file
launch from console, and check for Can't open portal file chooser: GDBus.Error. If
it is displayed, then your xdg-desktop-portal is not installed.
if the wrong filechooser is displayed (gtk on kde), make sure GTK_USE_PORTAL=1 is set. It should be set by the app itself, you may want to set it yourself and check if it works better. export GTK_USE_PORTAL=1; /opt/google-chat-linux/google-chat-linux for instance
if necessary set GTK_USE_PORTAL=1 in your login script (/etc/profile.d/custom.sh, or $HOME/.bashrc, whatever).
configure spellcheck language
After first run, quit, then edit $HOME/.config/google-hangouts-chat-linux.json, add "languages": ["fr","en-US"] in the json to override default OS locale.
auth with third party provider
If your login redirects to some OAuth provider (other than Google), login may fail.
In Menu (Alt, or systray right click), choose use third party auth mode. Login should work but you loose some features (systray related). Use the same menu after login to restore normal mode. Repeat anytime login is required.
NEW Since 5.21.19-1 you can also set NO_REDIRECT_URL environment variable to the url (or a comma separated list of urls) of the OAuth provider.
Freeze ?
If sometimes the app looks like beeing frozen, and comes back to life after a few seconds, you may want to try --disable-gpu flag when starting the app from a terminal. It is a known issue with electron, especially with intel video drivers (you may want to try modesetting driver instead by the way).
You may want to /usr/share/applciations/google-chat-linux.desktop and add the flag on the Exec line. (do it at each new version or copy the .desktop file to $HOME/.local/share/applications/)
build and run
npm install
./google-chat-linux.sh
make it work manually
npm install electron
export PATH=$HOME/node_modules/.bin:$PATH
fix the rights on sandbox executable as the error message will suggest:
export ELECTRON_DISABLE_SANDBOX=true; export NODE_OPTIONS="--no-force-async-hooks-checks"; electron .
Linux packages
Arch (Manjaro, Anarchy)
a package 'google-chat-linux-bin' is availabe on AUR for Arch Linux and derivatives.
Debian based (Ubuntu, Mint ...)
Have a look in tags section, download the relevant .deb file and install with sudo dpkg -i command. (Thank you CYOSP ;-) )
Tested on Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04, 21.04, Mint 20.1
Note some environment variables are set in index.js : GTK_USE_PORTAL, ELECTRON_DISABLE_SANDBOX and NODE_OPTIONS="--no-force-async-hooks-checks". This should work. Else, set them manually.
rpm based (Fedora)
Have a look in tags section, download the relevant .rpm file and install with sudo dnf install command.
AppImage (useful for arm64 and other distributions)
edit package.json, replace target deb by AppImage.
before
"build": {
"appId": "Google Chat Linux",
"linux": {
"desktop": {
"Name": "Google Chat Alt",
"MimeType": "x-scheme-handler/gchat;"
},
"category": "Network;InstantMessaging",
"target": "deb" // <--here remove deb and put AppImage
},
}
then npm run dist
The package will be built in dist subfolder. AppImage is fine for instance on Asahi Linux on Apple silicium.
manually build a deb package
You have two options - either install all build dependencies and then run :
npm run dist
Or install docker (or podman) container engine and then create a local container with all build dependencies :
npm run container:setup
and then create the package by running:
npm run container:build:deb
In the end you'll end up with .deb file in dist/. Run for instance sudo dkpg -i dist/google-chat-linux*.deb.
Installation of the .deb file is tested under Ubuntu, and works fine. Under Mint it installs well but react with emotes crashes the app. Go wonder.
NOTE : to run from a terminal you'll have to :
either sudo chown root:root /opt/google-chat-linux/chrome-sandbox && sudo chown 4755 /opt/google-chat-linux/chrome-sandbox after the .deb is inYYstalled
or run export ELECTRON_DISABLE_SANDBOX=true; export NODE_OPTIONS="--no-force-async-hooks-checks" before the launch of /opt/google-chat-linux/google-chat-linux
The provided .desktop file takes care of it, so running from your desktop launcher will work.
Windows package
A package is available in releases. Or else build it yourself :
npm run dist
A Setup.exe will be built under \dist\ directory.
rpm based distributions (Fedora)
Install podman (or docker) container engine and then create a local container with all build dependencies :
npm run container:setup
and then create the package by running:
npm run container:build:rpm
In the end you'll end up with .rpm file in dist/. Run for instance sudo dnf install dist/google-chat-linux*.rpm.
Systray Support
Note : from 0.5 on, electron 9 bring back Tray integration BUT "click" events are ignored.