Soon You’ll Be Able to Mute Annoying Autoplay Videos

The estimated reading time for this post is 3 minutes

You’re back at your office desk after a long meeting, wanting to take a quick mental break. You click on a link to open a website when suddenly a video starts playing and the sound starts blaring.

One of the most annoying things about the Internet is autoplay videos. These videos start playing automatically, as soon as you arrive at a website, complete with sound. Some even follow you as you scroll down the page, like an unwanted suitor. The noise can be annoying and embarrassing.

Whether you’re at the office and risk losing your job, in bed late at night and risk bothering your partner, or in a nursery and risk waking a sleeping baby, you may suffer an unwanted fate when autoplay videos intrude into the quiet.

The good news is that Chrome and Safari web browsers will soon silence autoplay videos. With updated browsers on the horizon, you’ll be able to click on a link and maintain peace and quiet without fear of noisy autoplay intrusion.

[note] The Wonder of Tech has no autoplay videos on this website, so feel free to click on any Wonder of Tech link! [/note]

Chrome Browser

Google announced on Thursday that a new version of its Chrome browser, Chrome 64, will block the sound on autoplay videos. Beginning with Chrome 64, when you click on a link to a site with an autoplay video, sound will not play. This new feature works in Chrome on your computer, cell phone and tablet.

However, Chrome 64 will allow autoplay videos in limited circumstances. Videos will be able to autoplay when a website is opened if that video won’t play sound, or if you have expressed an interest in the media.

How does Chrome know whether you have an interest in the media?

Chrome will allow the video to autoplay with sound if:

• You tap or click on the website while the screen is open
• You have added the website to the home screen of your Android phone or tablet
• You have frequently played media from that website in the past (computer only)

[tip] So if you are watching Netflix in Chrome 64 and want videos to autoplay, click or tap on the screen to enable autoplay. [/tip]

Chrome 64 is scheduled to be released in January 2018.

Until then, you can right-click on the tab and choose “Mute Tab” to silence a website.

That preference will be remembered the next time you visit that website beginning with Chrome 63, due to be released in October 2017.

You can read more about Chrome 64 blocking autoplay video sound at Google’s blog post.

Safari Browser

Apple is due to release its latest version of Safari on September 25. That release is the same day as it releases High Sierra, its newest operating system for Mac computers.

With the new Safari, users will be able to choose to mute autoplay videos for any website in Settings. Once that option has been chosen, autoplay videos will be muted any time you visit that website using Safari.

You will also be able to use Setting to block all autoplay videos across the Internet in the new version of Safari.

Apple first announced this feature during its WWDC conference in June 2017.

For more information, check out: The Apple News You Need to Know from WWDC 2017.

Poll

How do you feel about autoplay videos? Vote in today’s Wonder of Tech poll:

Your Thoughts

Do you find autoplay videos annoying? Would you turn off autoplay across the Internet? Have you ever been annoyed or embarrassed by autoplay videos?

Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!

*Quiet photo (edited) courtesy of Kristina Flour via Unsplash and Creative Commons

**Lego photo courtesy of Kenny Louie via Flickr and Creative Commons