
Google Chrome’s next update will finally block autoplay videos that have sound - john58
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/22/17150870/google-chrome-autoplay-videos-sound-mute-update
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rainbowmverse
I don't want _any_ auto-playing videos, sound or not. They always seem to pop
up next to the text I came there to read. I can't focus with that.

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idonotknowwhy
Then use Firefox :)

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JoshMnem
Firefox also lets you mute a tab without switching to the tab.

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positr0n
Chrome does too. Just right click on it and "Mute site" will mute the domain.
Forever I think.

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ordinaryperson
I don't see them turning off auto-playing videos on YouTube (after finishing
watching one) -- seems a little hypocritical.

Netflix is now in this game too, auto-playing trailers as you scroll titles
with no way to turn the feature off.

Clearly force-feeding users videos boosts traffic (or they wouldn't do it) but
it annoys, what? At least 50% of users?

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loeg
They have a reasonably coherent generalization planned for this[0].

Chrome will track a user's actual video consumption habits per origin, and
compare it to the user's total visits to that origin. Video consumption is
judged to be intentional if play is longer than 7 seconds, audio is unmuted,
the tab is active, and the video is bigger than 200x140 px.

Then, if the ratio of actual video consumption to visits is high enough,
Chrome desktop will allow autoplay. (My read is that Chrome mobile will wholly
disable autoplay.)

If you always pause / mute playback on news sites but let Youtube autoplay,
Chrome will learn to allow Youtube to autoplay.

If you always pause/mute playback on Youtube, Chrome will learn not to
autoplay Youtube.

You can see what inferences Chrome has made at chrome://media-engagement .

(I'm not a Google employee nor a Chrome developer and may be accidentally
misrepresenting this policy, but I've attempted to describe it accurately.)

[0]:
[https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-p...](https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-
policy-changes)

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ordinaryperson
How about just off by default? Seems pretty basic.

There are Chrome plugins that purport to do this but I still get auto-playing
videos.

I don't want to train Chrome. I don't even bother turning off auto-playing
videos b/c it's a hassle, I just stay on mute.

Don't ad buyers complain about all these fake views from auto-playing videos?
I guess not, or if they do Google doesn't care.

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loeg
Off-by-default is an option now for advanced users (such as might be reading
HN). On the same page I linked in my earlier comment you are responding to,
see:

> You can try out these new policies by setting the experimental flag
> chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy to "Document user activation is required."
> in Chrome 64.

Like you, that is my preference as well, and I have set the flag.

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ordinaryperson
Doesn't work. Have you tried it?

1\. Go to chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy

2\. The options in the drop down are:

A. Default

B. No User Gesture is Required

C. User gesture is required for cross-origin frames

D. Document user activation is required

Select D. Relaunch. Go to ABC News. Autoplays videos.

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dawnerd
And you just know someone will find a workaround because annoying site
visitors is SO in right now.

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FreeFull
Maybe have a separate autoplaying <audio> element, if it won't be blocked too

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dawnerd
Worst case put it on click after a full screen signup modal that the same
sites usually show anyways.

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jehlakj
Higher priority should be to mute websites that don't have media content.

Two ideas: Either make it permission based like location, or have a master
volume setting for sounds like rely on javascript (excluding html5, flash,
etc.). I'm not 100% sure about the details for the latter, but that'd be very
convenient.

I'm almost always caught off guard when a customer service widget pops up on
the bottom right corner of the screen with an annoying bell sound.

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lostmsu
Perhaps browsers just need to ask users if they want audio before letting
sites play it. Like a permission.

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aiCeivi9
Doesn't scale. Firefox is already introducing option to block "notification
permission" requests as all sites spam with it, even when it makes little to
none sense.

