Anyone find a MS Teams for Linux headset combo that works?

Question

I have seen a lot of posts and queries on the Internet with users trying to figure out what hardware works with MS Teams client for Linux. Has anyone found hardware that works with the Linux MS Teams client? I either need a wireless solution or a wired USB solution that can reach at least 10ft/3m. 15ft/4.5m would certainly reach.

Answer 1

I'm running Teams for Linux preview 1.3 in openSUSE Tumbleweed (not officially supported, I'm fairly certain).

I have a Jabra Speak 400 and a Polycom (really old) speakerphone device. Both "work" -- as in -- Tumbleweed finds it, it can be used as a mic/speaker and it performs fine. I'm not sure if audio quality is affected, but it sounds as good as my laptop's audio which has always sounded excellent (ThinkPad p52s) and it has a web-cam which works out-of-the-box.

Outside of speaker/mic, none of the buttons integrate with Teams like they do on Windows (and did on Lync/Skype for Business which both of my devices were certified for when they were purchased a lifetime ago).

If you go wired and not USB, beware of the connector. My laptop has a 4-pole 3.5mm jack like most mobile phones these days. The jack is wired using the OMTP standard. I had plugged in an Xbox One headset that appeared identical. Unfortunately, there are two standards for 4-pole headsets (at least), OMTP and CTIA. Every other 4-pole headset appears to be OMTP. Xbox One is CTIA (you can buy an adapter if you make this mistake/really like your Xbox One headset -- look for old camcorder adapters -- similar problem). Otherwise you may get a variety of "I can hear but nobody can hear me or can hear me very poorly" to "the laptop switches to speakers b/c it doesn't see headphones plugged in" (the latter might be unrelated).

For USB, I love my Jabra Speak 400 -- it's a speaker phone but it has a headphone jack (I think it's 4-pole but don't hold me to that). I plug in a pair of noise cancelling headphones when I don't feel like using the speaker and the mic on the speaker handles voice/audio "wherever you put it in the room" and generally sounds great. I've used many consumer bluetooth devices in Windows in the past and they worked great; I'd imagine they'd work similarly in Linux though I've never tried it.

Unfortunately, I haven't found any that allow call control from the device (perhaps Bluetooth?) -- certified headsets AFAIK do not enable that functionality in the Linux preview.