diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 918cec696b..4137d754bf 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,15 @@
+# we need trusty for the chrome addon
+dist: trusty
+
+# we don't need sudo, so can run in a container, which makes startup much
+# quicker.
+sudo: false
+
 language: node_js
 node_js:
     - node # Latest stable version of nodejs.
+addons:
+    chrome: stable
 install:
     - npm install
     - (cd node_modules/matrix-js-sdk && npm install)
diff --git a/karma.conf.js b/karma.conf.js
index d544248332..d8a6c25cc6 100644
--- a/karma.conf.js
+++ b/karma.conf.js
@@ -116,11 +116,25 @@ module.exports = function (config) {
         browsers: [
             'Chrome',
             //'PhantomJS',
+            //'ChromeHeadless',
         ],
 
+        customLaunchers: {
+            'ChromeHeadless': {
+                base: 'Chrome',
+                flags: [
+                    // See https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/headless/README.md
+                    '--headless',
+                    '--disable-gpu',
+                    // Without a remote debugging port, Google Chrome exits immediately.
+                    '--remote-debugging-port=9222',
+                ],
+            }
+        },
+
         // Continuous Integration mode
         // if true, Karma captures browsers, runs the tests and exits
-        singleRun: true,
+        // singleRun: false,
 
         // Concurrency level
         // how many browser should be started simultaneous
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index ed12e6a5e4..fcdb34a596 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -41,8 +41,8 @@
     "lintall": "eslint src/ test/",
     "clean": "rimraf lib",
     "prepublish": "npm run build && git rev-parse HEAD > git-revision.txt",
-    "test": "karma start $KARMAFLAGS --browsers PhantomJS",
-    "test-multi": "karma start $KARMAFLAGS --single-run=false"
+    "test": "karma start $KARMAFLAGS --single-run=true --browsers ChromeHeadless",
+    "test-multi": "karma start $KARMAFLAGS"
   },
   "dependencies": {
     "babel-runtime": "^6.11.6",
@@ -106,12 +106,10 @@
     "karma-cli": "^0.1.2",
     "karma-junit-reporter": "^0.4.1",
     "karma-mocha": "^0.2.2",
-    "karma-phantomjs-launcher": "^1.0.0",
     "karma-sourcemap-loader": "^0.3.7",
     "karma-webpack": "^1.7.0",
     "mocha": "^2.4.5",
     "parallelshell": "^1.2.0",
-    "phantomjs-prebuilt": "^2.1.7",
     "react-addons-test-utils": "^15.4.0",
     "require-json": "0.0.1",
     "rimraf": "^2.4.3",