Hangouts Chrome extension adds a button inside the browser to start it as a separate window. But I don't find a way to start that window without opening a Chrome window. (I use Firefox as default, rarely use Hangouts, don't want it in Firefox, and when I do use it I want only that window, not Chrome's.)
I want a way to start the Hangouts window while Chrome is NOT already running — in background or otherwise (without another Chrome window becoming visible):chrome-browser would start of course, but the Hangouts window should be the only Chrome window.
I know this would happen with the Hangouts App instead of the extension, but that would soon be deprecated it seems, as starting it shows a banner that links to the extension page:
In all respects the two Hangouts windows (that of the extension and that off the app) look identical - have the same options and are the same thing. The only difference is that the extension window cannot be started with a launcher, that is: a command within a .desktop file. Installing the app creates the file ~/.local/share/applications/chrome-knipolnnllmklapflnccelgolnpehhpl-Profile_1.desktop with the content:
#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Name=Google Hangouts
Exec=/usr/bin/chromium-browser "--profile-directory=Default" --app-id=knipolnnllmklapflnccelgolnpehhpl
Icon=chrome-knipolnnllmklapflnccelgolnpehhpl-Default
StartupWMClass=crx_knipolnnllmklapflnccelgolnpehhplThe idea would be to modify the Exec line so that it directs to the extension instead of the app. I can get the id of the extension: it is the one in the path where that extension is installed: ~.config/chromium/Default/Extensions/nckgahadagoaajjgafhacjanaoiihapd; and I can confirm that with xprop applied to the window: WM_CLASS(STRING) = "crx_nckgahadagoaajjgafhacjanaoiihapd", "Chromium-browser"
But simply replacing that ID would not work: the command /usr/bin/chromium-browser "--profile-directory=Default" --app-id=nckgahadagoaajjgafhacjanaoiihapd would open the pagechrome://extensions/ instead of the extension window.
It seems the extension cannot be started with the --app-id argument (although Chrome installs applications and extensions at the same location: ~.config/chromium/Default/Extensions/.)
The extension-specific argument that I found here is --load-extension, but that is just meant to specify the extension to be "loaded" (enabled, I imagine) when the browser is started.
1 Answer
As a workaround that I will not mark as the definitive answer: looking at chrome-browser --help I see no options for "extension", but there is this:
--app=URL Runs URL in "app mode": with no browser toolbars.As there is a web page for Hangouts, one could access that page in Chrome but without browser toolbars with the command:
google-chrome --profile-directory=Default --app=But this is not going to run that extension, and, as it is just a new no-tabs no-toolbars Chrome window, it looks differently too. Some might say it even looks better.
On the other hand, using a web page instead of the extension is far from what is asked above. (I can do that in Firefox, etc).
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