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Up until this week, I was able to share my microphone in Firefox to facilitate Google Voice calls via Gmail.

I run Kubuntu 19.10 and Firefox 73. My question at AskUbuntu (addressing the client-side of this matter), isn't seeming to get much response.

I'm hoping someone here might know of a server-side reason for the fact that Firefox doesn't seem to realize that mic-sharing is necessary to facility a Google Voice based phone call.

This all worked fine until Monday. Even with a freshly installed Firefox (with a freshly generated profile), Firefox seems to be oblivious to the fact that it must share the microphone to facilitate calls.

I'm thinking that maybe Google has updated gmail and google voice this week to some modern standard that Firefox hasn't yet implemented. Before Monday, each time I'd make a call, Firefox would prompt me to share the microphone.

I know of nothing that was changed client-side. Are any of you aware of something that changed server-side this week in Gmail, Google Voice, and Google Hangouts?

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  • After almost a week of this not working, it began working again yesterday. I don't know the reason it stopped working, nor why it started working again. The only thing I know for sure, is that I couldn't get it to work no matter what I tried (all week last week) and yesterday it just automatically began working like it is supposed to.
    – Lonnie Best
    Feb 22, 2020 at 19:32
  • It stopped working again yesterday; no fix so far.
    – Lonnie Best
    Mar 13, 2020 at 2:26
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    I have a similar problem with Firefox 75. Seems to be a bug of firefox.
    – Yichao Zhou
    Apr 21, 2020 at 1:46
  • I’m voting to close this question because this question is obsolete. Among other things Google Hangouts was retired.
    – Rubén ♦
    Nov 24 at 21:14

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Similar issues here; stopped working and started again. Now not working with Firefox 74.0.1. I've gone back to Firefox 73.0.1. Watch that your system doesn't auto-update you to Firefox 74.

I dual-boot Kubuntu 18.04 LTS and Windows 10 Home. Firefox 73.0.1 works in both for calling from Gmail, prompt for mic, etc. Firefox 74 now gives me the problem and I've put Firefox updates temporarily on hold since going back to 73.0.1. Firefox 74 does get the mic prompt and dial from Hangouts and Voice.

What the problem may be is Firefox not catching the web address of the dialer in gmail which is Hangouts. Also, gotta watch extensions when they auto-update or when switching Firefox versions. Sometimes they don't keep your configuration info. I needed to reconfigure Disable HTML5 Autoplay and Adblock plus when switching.

Two sites I've found useful. The first is for downloading any Firefox version, release or beta: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/ The Linux versions are in .tar.bz2 format

The second is: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozilla-security/+archive/ubuntu/ppa?field.series_filter= I added the deb to /etc/apt/sources.list and use with Muon Package Manager for upgrading / downgrading Firefox.

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  • Mine stopped working too (again) yesterday.
    – Lonnie Best
    Mar 13, 2020 at 2:25
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    I believe the 73 version has been deleted from the ppa I mentioned. If you find yourself in need of rolling back a version, check your /var/cache/apt/archives/ which is where apt keeps the deb of installs. Don't forget the corresponding language pack which should also be in that directory.
    – WebNurse
    Mar 18, 2020 at 1:22

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