Bug 107019

Google Hangouts probably doesn't set the media.role property to "phone" for its stream (actually the browser would have to do that, and I don't think any browsers set the media.role property). In its default configuration module-bluetooth-policy will automatically switch profiles only when media.role is set to "phone". You can pass "auto_switch=2" to module-bluetooth-policy in /etc/pulse/default.pa to make the profile switching more aggressive. Does that help?

I've tried that and I could not make it work.

The problem, as I see it, is that hangouts allow one to select output and input before the call is started - there are just dropdowns in the settings dialog that match sink/source in PA. Obviously BT mic is not there - so I cannot even start the call - and my understanding is that before call is started browser doesn't open sound devices meaning 'media.role' is not being passed.

That being said it feel odd to make browser to pass 'media.role' - browser can have all sorts of apps like video players and games and god knows what - so browser would need to somehow set that role for each individual tab - I do not think media API for web sites even provides that capability.

Does hangouts force you to select the input device? If you set "auto_switch=2" and the browser leaves the input device unspecified, then that should work.

Otherwise the options are that either the browser learns to tell hangouts about the bluetooth headset even when the current profile is a2dp, or pulseaudio starts to show "potential" sinks and sources along with "active" sinks and sources. Neither seems likely to get implemented any time soon... Showing "potential" devices is something that feels like it's probably a good idea, but implementing it is a rather big project.

Hi Tanu,

Hangouts doesn't 'force' me in a sense that I can make a call without going to settings dialogue - but in that case hangouts chooses 'default' mic which is just some different mic on the laptop, like 'embedded' one - so there is no way to leave device 'unspecified'.

From usability perspective it seems like 'bluetooth profiles' is way to technical for 'common folk'. It seems like ideally PA should handle that transparently: i.e. for bluetooth headsets it should just expose general 'mic' and general 'headphones' - and manage profile switching auto-magically.

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