How to use Microsoft Teams on a Chromebook
If you need Microsoft Teams for work yet use a Chromebook as your primary device, you’re in luck. Microsoft Teams has a Linux app, enabling Linux support and installing the latest Microsoft Teams on a Chromebook is possible.
Before we begin
In this guide, we’ll be focusing on the unofficial Microsoft Teams app for Linux. Why? Microsoft is retiring the official app for Linux very soon. The unofficial one works great on Chrome OS and has all the Teams features you need. For more information, head over to the project’s website.
How to enable Linux on your Chromebook
Assuming you have a compatible Chromebook, you can use Linux apps on Chrome OS. You can enable Linux support on your Chromebook by opening up the settings area. Click on the click, then click on the gear button to open up the Chrome OS settings.
Once inside the Chrome settings area, find the “Advanced” section, and click on the down arrow next to it. This option will allow viewing advanced Chrome OS settings like the “Developers” options.
Select the “Developers” option, which will reveal the Linux settings. Then, locate “Linux development environment” and click on it. Finally, select the “Turn on” button with the mouse to set up the Linux LXC container that allows you to run Linux apps on Chrome OS.
With Linux support open, launch the Chrome OS dash on your Chromebook. Then, search for “Terminal” and open it. Once it is open, find “Penguin” and click on it to load up the command-line interface for the Linux container.
In the terminal window, run the apt update and upgrade commands. These commands will update the Linux container, giving you the freshest packages.
sudo apt update
The Linux container will quickly check for software updates when you run the update command. It will also refresh your software sources.
After running the update command, it is time to run the upgrade command. This command will install all available packages that have updates. Keep in mind the upgrade process may take a bit to complete.
sudo apt upgrade -y
How to enable Flatpak on Chrome OS
You must have Flatpak set up to use the Microsoft Teams app in the Flathub store. To set up Flatpak, ensure you have the terminal open. Then, use the apt install command to set up the “flatpak” package, as well as the “gnome-software” package and “gnome-software-plugin-flatpak.”
sudo apt install flatpak gnome-software gnome-software-plugin-flatpak
Once the packages are installed on your Chromebook, you must set up the Flathub app store. This app store has a wide variety of apps, including Microsoft Teams. To enable the Flathub app store, enter the following command.
flatpak --user remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
Flatpak will be enabled on your Chromebook after running the command above.
How to install Microsoft Teams on Chrome OS
There are several ways you can install Microsoft Teams on Chrome OS. This guide will focus on the Flatpak and DEB installations. However, first, you must open up a terminal window, as all three installation instructions require the command line.
To open up a terminal on Chrome OS, launch the app menu. Once it is open, search for “Terminal” and launch it. Then, find “penguin” and click on it to launch the Chrome OS Linux container’s command line.
Flatpak installation instructions
The Flatpak version of Microsoft Teams works quite well on Chrome OS. To install it on your system, use the following flatpak install command in the terminal window.
flatpak install flathub com.github.IsmaelMartinez.teams_for_linux
Once the command above is entered, Flatpak will search for the program to install it. You’ll then be asked to press the Y key to confirm you wish to install Microsoft Teams for Linux as a Flatpak.
When you open the Microsoft Teams app and log in, select “Use the web app instead.” You must select this option to load the UI in the Microsoft Teams app for Linux.
Deb package installation instructions
Another way to get Microsoft Teams working on your Chromebook is installing the DEB package from the developer’s GitHub. While it isn’t as convenient as installing via Flatpak, setting it up as a DEB package allows it to better integrate with Chrome OS, as it will use the Chrome OS theme settings set up in the container.
To download the DEB package to your Chromebook, go to the terminal and use the following wget command. This command will download the DEB package directly to the Chrome OS Linux container.
wget https://github.com/IsmaelMartinez/teams-for-linux/releases/download/v1.0.45/teams-for-linux_1.0.45_amd64.deb
After downloading the package to your Chromebook, use the apt install command to install the Microsoft Teams DEB package.
sudo apt install ./teams-for-linux_1.0.45_amd64.deb
Once installed, you can launch Microsoft Teams on your Chromebook. Be sure to select “Use the web app instead.”
