A second hangout also used the external monitor as the speaker, so it seems it did not persist my choice.  The speaker name is "HDMI2" and is the default speaker on this device.  The chrome settings page has options for setting the default camera and mic but I did not find where to set the default speaker.

This is not restricted to hangouts.  If I play a video or live stream with audio, I cannot make it play from the chromebook speakers.  Unlike hangouts though, I cannot find any controls in settings to change the speaker.

Note that some monitors have an audio out jack, so it might make sense to redirect the audio to the monitor over the USB-C connection.  However, in this case LG 27ud88-w does not have an audio out jack.  I think this is a good reason to have a default speaker choice in the OS itself and not depend on each app to implement it.

The default speaker choice does happen at the OS level. HDMI devices should not be selected automatically, many of them report in EDID that they support audio even though there aren't speakers or an audio jack.

However, hangout is free to play to a particular device, overriding the system default.  Is that what is happening here?

The expected result should look like:

1.Chrome selects speaker by default.
2.You plug in USB-C. LG27ud88 device reports that it has audio capability in EDID.
3.Chrome selects HDMI because it has higher priority.
4.You select speaker to be active in audio selection menu.
5.Chrome should remember this preference. So the next time you plug in USB-C with the same monitor, Chrome should know that you prefer speaker over HDMI.

Hi Dylan, are you suggesting that we should not let HDMI has a higher priority than speaker?
I think we should let it as it is since this priority logic is there for a long time.
User still has option to select the preferred device.
As long as Chrome preference works right, it should not cause too much trouble for user as user only needs to select it once.

Hi Rogerta,
Could you please point out which steps (1~5) you found not right in your use case ?
It will be useful if you can file a feedback with alt+shift+i and mention this bug number so we can query it and check the logs.

Thanks!

Hi Jimmy,

I have a problem at step 4: I don't see a speaker selection UI or menu.  To be clear, I do see a speaker selection UI in hangouts, and it does work.  However, when I open a tab to play a youtube video for example, I don't see such an option and the I don't hear the audio of this tab.

If you are saying that at the chromeos level there is a speaker selection UI, and that the choice I make is persisted, then that solves my problem.  I must have missed that UI, can you tell me where to find it?

rogerta@ you can set the system-wide audio devices using the system tray. Click on the system clock in the lower right, there should be a selection button next to the volume slider.