Disable Autoplay Videos With Latest Chrome Update
Chrome 66 is out, and if you’re the type of person who doesn’t care when a new update hits your web browser, you might want to revisit that approach for this release. While your browser will automatically update to Chrome 66 (technically 66.0.3359.117), you should manually run this update right now for some extra peace of mind.
Although it was originally slated to debut in Chrome 64, Google has finally launched the anticipated “auto mute” feature in Chrome 66. By that, we mean your browser – after an update – will automatically prevent sites from playing loud, annoying videos. without your consent. Now you can go back to browsing almost every news site on the Internet without feeling like you have to mute your speakers to keep up with the day.
However, there are a few caveats regarding Chrome’s cone of silence. First, Chrome doesn’t block all autoplay videos. If the publisher has muted the video by default, it will play; if it doesn’t, Chrome only prevents noise while browsing the web. If the publisher did such an annoying thing when they pinned the video to the bottom of the browser window (or sidebar on the site), you will still see it. He will simply remain silent, which we believe is better than nothing.
Why are videos still playing?
Chrome will allow video autoplay with sound if the browser has determined that you are actually interacting with the site. If you click or tap anywhere on the site’s domain, you will start getting videos with sound. To borrow Google’s example :
“LocalNewsSite.com contains both text and video content. Most people visit the site through the home page and then click on news articles. Autoplay on news article pages will be allowed due to user interaction with the domain. Care should be taken, however, to ensure that users are not surprised by the automatic playback of the content. “
If you’re using Chrome mobile, adding the website to your home screen will automatically play the video with audio. And if you’re browsing on your desktop, Google will also use a slightly more sophisticated algorithm to figure out if you’re interacting enough with the site to enable auto-play without sound:
“The [Media Engagement Index] measures a person’s propensity to consume media on a website. Chrome’s current approach is to rate visits to significant media playback events for each source: media consumption (audio / video) must be greater than 7 seconds; Sound must be present and enabled; Video tab is active; The video size (in pixels ) must be larger than 200×140 .
Based on this, Chrome calculates a media engagement rate, which is the highest on sites where media is played on a regular basis. When it is high enough, media playback is only allowed to automatically play on the desktop. “
You can check your Media Engagement Index at this address . To reset sites that allow automatic video playback with sound, clear the cookies and site data in your browser (Settings> Advanced> Privacy & Security> Clear Browsing Data).