Chrome 64 Will Block Noisy Autoplay Videos

Google Chrome will soon be getting a lot quieter.

Google on Thursday announced that its Web browser will soon block autoplay videos that have sound. The new policy is slated to go into effect this January as part of Chrome 64.

"Starting in Chrome 64, autoplay will be allowed when either the media won't play sound, or the user has indicated an interest in the media," Google Software Engineer Mounir Lamouri wrote in a blog post.

Google will assume you're interested in the media and the content will autoplay if you tap or click somewhere on the site during the browsing session, have added the site to the Home Screen of your mobile device, or have frequently played media on that site on your desktop in the past.

Plus, as we first heard last month, Chrome will soon let you permanently mute specific sites. This option will be available in October as part of Chrome 63.

Keep in mind that you can already silence a site in Chrome by right-clicking the offending browser tab and selecting "Mute Tab." The new Chrome 63 option will "persist between browsing sessions," so that the sound stays off every time you visit, Lamouri wrote.

Apple recently announced a similar feature for Safari, which will launch later this month as part of MacOS High Sierra. By default, Safari won't autoplay video or audio when you visit a web page. If you want to enable autoplay for specific sites, you can ctrl-click on the speaker icon in Safari's address bar or use a preference pane.

Google in its new Autoplay policy guide advises developers to "use autoplay sparingly" and consider starting with muted content and let the user unmute it if they want to.

"Autoplay can be a powerful engagement tool, but it can also annoy users if undesired sound is played or they perceive unnecessary resource usage (e.g. data, battery) as the result of unwanted video playback," the Web giant warned.

:story: PC Magazine