Google Chrome Audio not working in VDI session.

Chris Hahn sent over this quick tip on how to correct sound issues occurring in a Citrix ICA session running Google Chrome.

Today at a client, we had an issue with a published application that had Google Chrome in it. If the user went to a website that had media (i.e. YouTube), the sound would be broken. No audio sound would play on the endpoint via ICA.

After a little digging around on Google, it seems that this is an issue with Google Chrome version 79 or later. The newest versions of Chrome have an Audio Sandbox feature enabled by default which breaks sound on XenApp. 

In order to resolve this issue, you can do one of three workarounds:
Edit the registry on the XenApp server (or Horizon/XenDesktop Desktop):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome
reg:dword AudioSandboxEnabled = 0

or editing the shortcut that launches Google Chrome to add the following arguments.

"–disable-features=AudioServiceSandbox"

or disable the feature using Group Policy. You can download the Google Chrome ADMX templates here. Then navigate to Google -> Google Chrome -> Allow the audio sandbox to run setting. Set the option to Disabled.

These workarounds will effectively disable the AudioSandbox for Google Chrome on the XenApp Server. This will most likely also affect VMware Horizon sessions too since the audio is being trapped in the sandbox and not relayed via the VDI protocols to the endpoint.

Enjoy the Music!
– Carlo