Auto start and join google video hangout in chrome browser from ubuntu terminal

Question

I have been looking all over for this and I feel like this should be very straight forward.

I am setting up a conference room computer and I want to automate starting AND joining a google video hangout in google chrome from a script that I run in the terminal. Very specific to start and join from terminal because I would like to do other scripting around starting, stopping, timing, etc.

google-chrome --start-fullscreen --app=https://hangouts.google.com/hangouts/_/company_name/room_name

This will open a new google-chrome web browser and get me all the way to the goal line, however I need to hit the 'Join' button to get into it. I was wondering how I can do something similar to what I have but automatically 'Join' the hangout?

Answer 1

I have also faced same issue while automating google hangouts.. You can below work around for ubuntu.

You can use xdotool utility to send keyboard/ mouse events. As you launch hangout conference call using CLI, focus already on join button. Just use below command just after launching hangouts. xdotool key KP_Enter

Example: google-chrome --start-fullscreen --app=https://hangouts.google.com/hangouts/_/company_name/room_name; sleep 10; xdotool key KP_Enter;