Deployment Documentation

VoiceBridge Installation & District Setup

Choose between single-user Chrome Web Store installation or automated district-wide force-deployment for managed student Chromebooks.

1 Individual Chrome Web Store Installation

For individual educators, tutors, and parents setting up VoiceBridge on a personal or unmanaged device:

Visit the VoiceBridge Chrome Web Store Listing.
Click Add to Chrome and confirm by clicking Add extension in the browser prompt.
Open Google Classroom or Google Docs.
The VoiceBridge floating recording button will automatically appear inside any Private Comment box!

2 District-Wide Google Workspace Force Deployment

District IT administrators can automatically install VoiceBridge on all managed student Chromebooks with zero action required from students or teachers:

Step A: Access Chrome App Management

Log into admin.google.com as a Super Admin and navigate to:

Menu → Devices → Chrome → Apps & extensions → Users & browsers

Step B: Select Organizational Unit

Select the target OU in the left sidebar (e.g. All Students, Grade 3-5, or Special Education Accommodations).

Step C: Set Installation Policy to "Force Install"

Click the yellow + button in the bottom right, select Add Chrome app or extension by ID, enter the VoiceBridge ID, and choose:

Installation policy: "Force install" or "Force install + pin to ChromeOS taskbar"

Step D: Pre-Grant Microphone Access (Recommended for SpEd)

To avoid confusing browser permission popups for younger or Special Education students, navigate to:

Devices → Chrome → Settings → Users & browsers → Audio input (Microphone) → Allowed URLs for audio capture: https://classroom.google.com

3 Testing Unpacked (Local Development)

To load and test VoiceBridge locally from source code:

Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions/.
Enable the Developer mode toggle in the top right.
Click Load unpacked and select the voicebridge-extension directory.
Confirm VoiceBridge appears with version 1.0.0 and all features active.