Firefox Will Soon Show You Which Tabs Are Making Noise, and Let You Mute Them

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Firefox Will Soon Show You Which Tabs Are Making Noise, and Let You Mute Them

Posted by Soulskill on Friday July 24, 2015 @07:20AM from the hush-little-browser-don't-say-a-word dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla is working on identifying Firefox tabs that are currently playing audio. The feature will show an icon if a tab is making sounds and let the user mute the playback. It's worth noting that while Chrome has had audio indicators for more than a year now, it still doesn't let you easily mute tabs. The option is available in Google's browser, but it's not enabled by default (you have to turn on the #enable-tab-audio-muting flag in chrome://flags/).

36 of 151 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Finally! by weilawei · 2015-07-24 07:23 · Score: 5, Insightful

Something approximating a useful feature!
1. Re:Finally! by JMJimmy · 2015-07-24 07:23 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Indeed. Now if we could only get CPU/RAM usage as well!
2. Re:Finally! by bondsbw · 2015-07-24 07:26 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  And kudos to subby for pointing out the way to do it in Chrome... didn't realize it was there.
  
  --
  All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
3. Re:Finally! by Billly+Gates · 2015-07-24 07:36 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Keep in mind Chrome had this .... then advertisers disabled it :-(
  I tried a system without adblock and it was astounding what these guys do these days. Website redirects, 15 second commercials you can't close, etc.
  My fear is as flash dies HTML 5 will make blocking this harder if they can hack and disable muting
  
  --
  http://saveie6.com/
4. Re:Finally! by alvinrod · 2015-07-24 07:49 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  For a long time I didn't mind having ads enabled on Slashdot as they tended to behave well, but recently they've been beyond annoying. They make noise and eat inordinate amounts of CPU time for no purpose. When will advertisers realize it's better to make a simple ad that's respectful to the audience than to make one that no one will ever care to look at? I don't doubt that they can get by fine in general when advertising to the unwashed masses, but this is a tech site and the users are no strangers to ad-blocking plug-ins or other means of never viewing their content.
5. Re:Finally! by Billly+Gates · 2015-07-24 08:03 · Score: 2
  
  For a long time I didn't mind having ads enabled on Slashdot as they tended to behave well, but recently they've been beyond annoying. They make noise and eat inordinate amounts of CPU time for no purpose. When will advertisers realize it's better to make a simple ad that's respectful to the audience than to make one that no one will ever care to look at? I don't doubt that they can get by fine in general when advertising to the unwashed masses, but this is a tech site and the users are no strangers to ad-blocking plug-ins or other means of never viewing their content.
  Which is why I use adblock plus. Slashdot gets paid still by ethical ads with guidelines that must be met and will lose money when these clowns get blocked. I still get 3 ad networks blocked as of right now with adblock. If Slashdot wants more money replace them with ethical ads and VIOLA.
  So to me this is the perfect solution so we can have some free stuff and profitability goes down for the unethical ones
  
  --
  http://saveie6.com/
6. Re:Finally! by weilawei · 2015-07-24 08:10 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  If Slashdot wants more money replace them with ethical ads and VIOLA.
  I prefer violin.
7. Re:Finally! by Fortran+IV · 2015-07-24 08:15 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  I'll take either as long as the audio stays muted.
  
  --
  I figure by 2030 or so my 6-digit UID will be something to brag about.
8. Re:Finally! by Fortran+IV · 2015-07-24 08:20 · Score: 2
  
  Now if we could only get CPU/RAM usage as well!
  
  Exactly what I came to say. I'd love to be able tell which tabs are pushing FF over 2GB, or carpet-bombing my CPUs when they auto-refresh, without having to close them all one by one.
  
  --
  I figure by 2030 or so my 6-digit UID will be something to brag about.
9. Re:Finally! by rwa2 · 2015-07-24 08:25 · Score: 2
  
  Yeah, I'm happy enough just closing any tab that starts sprouting unsolicited audio, either from ads or actual content that autoplays. Unfortunately, I doubt most web analytics do a good job showing people leaving their site in droves once some autoplay content starts.
  Slashdot might be a good example of this, though... I used to leave /. running in a tab all day long, but now I usually end up closing it after something autoplays nowadays and not going back. Maybe someone noticed, because I do see autoplay junk hit the page slightly less often now.
  Facebook oddly enough actually has a pretty nice system where videos autoplay muted as you scroll by them, pause once they're offscreen, unless you unmute or hit play. It would be nice to be able to give better reasons for blocking content, though, like "This link was a useless slideshow" or "The page had some stupid autoplay thing"
10. Re:Finally! by Feanturi · 2015-07-24 08:31 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  We already get lots of that.
11. Re:Finally! by ckatko · 2015-07-24 08:32 · Score: 2
  
  I've been using it for so long I didn't realize it was a special feature in Chrome.
12. Re:Finally! by Seferino · 2015-07-24 09:18 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Yep, I'm working on it. Firefox Nightly should have a usable display of CPU by the end of August. Memory usage is planned, but I have many other things to do first.
13. Re:Finally! by Seferino · 2015-07-24 09:24 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  That's not planned for the moment, but with PreferenceStats.jsm (currently in Firefox Nightly), it is already possible to write an add-on that does monitors each tab. Firefox doesn't have a feature for stopping all scripts in a page yet (that's https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/s..., if you're curious), but reloading the tab without scripts (or other features) shouldn't be too hard.
14. Re:Finally! by arglebargle_xiv · 2015-07-24 17:39 · Score: 2
  
  Now if we could only get CPU/RAM usage as well!
  On a related note, show the CPU use of scripting, and allow temporary enabling of scripting on a per tab basis (but block third party and hidden https calls in the scripting like the gew-gal code)
  An even better one would be to simply allow disabling of animations and sound and whatnot on non-visible tabs. This is one of the major CPU-sucks in Firefox (at least in my experience), the fact that it insists on animating a dozen GIFs and who-knows what else in non-visible, background tabs, with the CPU on my laptop pegged at 80% and the fan screaming away trying to keep the system from melting.
  Firefox developers, an inactive tab is, you know, inactive, not "sucking up 80% of the CPU in the system doing nothing useful". As the OP pointed out, this is, finally, an almost-useful feature added in a new release of Firefox. Not actually that useful, but almost. Just keep plugging away there, eventually a new release will finally contain something worthwhile.
  (I mean it has to, eventually, doesn't it? You can't just keep throwing random features at a browser without eventually hitting a useful one, can you? Can you?).
15. Re:Finally! by Zontar+The+Mindless · 2015-07-24 20:15 · Score: 2
  
  Breaking themes and extensions with every new release isn't a useful feature? Who could tell?
  
  --
  Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Thank the gods by m.dillon · 2015-07-24 07:27 · Score: 3

We finally get video and sound working properly and it's just been driving me BATTY when I have 30 firefox tabs open and can't figure out which one is making all the noise.
My absolute favorite is actually when a video site has video ads on the side bars that play over the video in the article. Sometimes more than one at once.
On the bright side, it finally caused me to get off my duff and map the mute and volume keys into X.
-Matt
1. Re:Thank the gods by paul_metcalfe · 2015-07-24 07:41 · Score: 2
  
  Set flash to 'click to play'. This solves almost all instances of it, and also solves supercookies etc.
  
  --
  Always read at -1, don't let others decide what you should and should not read.
2. Re:Thank the gods by amicusNYCL · 2015-07-24 07:56 · Score: 2
  
  I believe that the technology to do something like that exists, yes. But if people are listening to music through their browser they probably aren't looking at that tab also, it's just in the background.
  
  --
  "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
3. Re:Thank the gods by squiggleslash · 2015-07-24 07:57 · Score: 2
  
  HTML5 video cannot be set to "Click to play" at present.
  This idea seems to be a horrible hack to get around the fact that Mozilla, Google, et al, refuse to deal with the lack of any popular support for "autoplay" being a thing.
  
  --
  You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
4. Re:Thank the gods by Billly+Gates · 2015-07-24 08:08 · Score: 2
  
  Try adding flashblocker.
  In 2015 we still need flash like we needed IE 6 in 2005 for some websites. Flashblocker is click to play so you can watch all your HTML 5 videos and still use flash for CBT Nuggets or music from youtube.
  It is a big boost for security and it is how I have Chrome setup.
  
  --
  http://saveie6.com/
5. Re:Thank the gods by paul_metcalfe · 2015-07-24 09:07 · Score: 2
  
  That reminds me, you can actually mute the flash process separately too, at least in Windows.
  
  --
  Always read at -1, don't let others decide what you should and should not read.
Meanwhile... by Sir_Eptishous · 2015-07-24 07:47 · Score: 2

Man Invents The Wheel!

--
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
Re:Another trick by OrangeTide · 2015-07-24 07:59 · Score: 2

There is this cool new website called YouTube where you can watch videos that various random people publish.

--
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Chrome is annoying by ArcadeMan · 2015-07-24 08:00 · Score: 2

You have to turn on the #enable-tab-audio-muting flag in chrome://flags/.
This is not the type of things I expect from a company the size of Google. The same decision was made to hide plug-ins configurability from users by hiding it inside an "unknown" special URL.
The same can be said for their "developer tools", I can't even find a way to enable/disable things like CSS via either a keyboard shortcut or a menu item. I have to enable the dev tools that takes half the browser to then hunt down the CSS enable/disable switch.
What kind of idiots are in charge over there? Must be engineers or third-rate programmers.

--
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Re:A better way by roc97007 · 2015-07-24 08:22 · Score: 3, Interesting

What I want is all video, sound, script playing in all tabs to be always suspended, except when I explicitly permit them to operate. Just confining them to a tab is not sufficient, because you can be watching a video in a tab and have the sound cluttered up by one to three commercials auto-running on the same page. (And I'm not talking about pr0n sites -- certain news sites have been especially annoying lately.)

--
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Re:While they're at it, let me boost the volume. by nmb3000 · 2015-07-24 08:58 · Score: 2

I am sick and tired of videos at "max volume" capping out at around 20% of my system volume. I can't hear shit. Why does this keep happening, and why am I unable to find a more powerful volume control than the standard system one?
For Windows, if the media is coming from Flash, you might check and see if the Flash application volume got turned down. This happens to me on an irregular basis -- I will adjust it up and then at some point it gets turned way back down to around 5%.
If the Flash and Firefox application volumes are up, the system volume is up, and your physical speaker knob is up, then it could be the media was simply recorded very poorly or maybe your soundcard drivers have yet another volume you can adjust.

--
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
/)
Re:Not that Useful by KiloByte · 2015-07-24 09:04 · Score: 4, Insightful

The real problem is, why a webpage can make noise without permission.
Seriously, all video/audio should be behind a click-to-play block by default, with no way around.

--
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Re:A better way by ihtoit · 2015-07-24 09:35 · Score: 4, Interesting

what I want is each tab to be a sandbox as tight as a Virtualbox VM that I can just pause just like I can with a Virtualbox VM session, preferably to happen when I take focus off it.

--
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Re:Chrome DOES have "mute tab" button by SeaFox · 2015-07-24 09:58 · Score: 5, Funny

Chrome DOES have "mute tab" button right on the tab - I use it everyday ... Look at http://www.omgchrome.com/how-t... or just look up "enable chrome tab mute" to learn...er...what you should have researched before you wrote TFS.
You know, the summary is only four sentences long. Is your attention span too short to read the whole thing -- where in the next sentence it's mentioned it has to be enabled using the same trick you linked to?
It's about time by PPH · 2015-07-24 10:25 · Score: 4, Funny

Whenever the boss comes by, I can switch to a work related tab. But if my browser keeps making porn sounds, he gets kind of suspicious.

--
Have gnu, will travel.
The feature I really want... by Mike+Van+Pelt · 2015-07-24 10:45 · Score: 2

... when some web page blasts me with noisy ads at 2AM, is the power from the movie "Scanners" to reach through the Internet with my mind and make their server melt down into a puddle.
That's nice by overshoot · 2015-07-24 11:28 · Score: 3, Interesting

Now when can we find out which tab is sucking 80% of the CPU cycles?

--
Lacking <sarcasm> tags, /. substitutes moderation as "Troll."
It's even worse than you think by CrashNBrn · 2015-07-24 13:42 · Score: 2

uMatrix log, slashdot.org

18:20:29 script http:||slashdot.org/?source=autorefresh{inline_script}
18:20:29 cookie http:||slashdot.org/{localStorage}
18:20:28 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/classic/img/glyphish-icons-16-w.png
18:20:28 script http:||www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion.js
18:20:28 image http:||b.scorecardresearch.com/b?c1=2&c2=6035546&rn=0.18806085423619878&c7=http%3A%2F%2Fslashdot.org%2F%3Fsource%3Dautorefresh&c3=&c4=&c5=&c6=&c10=&c15=&c16=&c8=Slashdot%20(16)&c9=http%3A%2F%2Fslashdot.org%2F%3Fsource%3Dautorefresh&cv=1.7
18:20:28 css http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/font/sdicon.woff?release_20150701c
18:20:28 image https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws...
18:20:28 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/logo_w_l.png
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/medicine_64.png?refresh=now
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/government_64.png
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/news_64.png
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/internet_64.png
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/privacy_64.png
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/firefox_64.png
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/att_64.png
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/opensource_64.png
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/15/07/10/141210-1-thumblg.jpg
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/15/06/29/141209-1-thumblg.jpg
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/15/07/16/141213-1-thumblg.jpg
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/15/07/07/141210-2-thumblg.jpg
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/15/07/17/141211-1-thumblg.jpg
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/15/07/07/141208-1-thumblg.jpg
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/15/07/01/141208-1-thumblg.jpg
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/15/06/30/141210-1-thumblg.jpg
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/15/07/17/141209-1-thumblg.jpg
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/15/07/17/141210-1-thumblg.jpg
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/15/06/27/141208-1-thumblg.jpg
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/15/07/07/141209-1-thumblg.jpg
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/15/07/24/141216-1-thumblg.jpg
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/15/07/24/141214-1-thumblg.jpg
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/15/07/24/141215-1-thumblg.jpg
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/nasa_64.png
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/transportation_64.png
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/youtube_64.png
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/communications_64.png
18:20:27 image http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/android_64.png
18:20:27 script http:||www.google-analytics.com/ga.js
18:20:26 script http:||www.googletagservices.com/tag/js/gpt.js
18:20:26 script http:||s.ntv.io/serve/load.js
18:20:26 script http:||player.ooyala.com/v3/85d52cbb9c924733934b1880e9cde580
18:20:26 script http:||cdn.taboola.com/libtrc/slashdot/loader.js
18:20:26 script http:||widget-cdn.rpxnow.com/js/lib/login.slashdot.org/widget.js
18:20:26 script http:||widget-cdn.rpxnow.com/js/lib/login.slashdot.org/engage.js
18:20:25 script http:||www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion.js
18:20:25 script http:||s.ntv.io/serve/load.js
18:20:25 script http:||player.ooyala.com/v3/85d52cbb9c924733934b1880e9cde580
18:20:25 script http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/all-minified.js?release_20150714
18:20:25 script http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/autorefresh-query.js?release_20150714
18:20:25 css http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/css/app.css?release_20150714
18:20:25 css http:||a.fsdn.com/sd/classic.css?rel
#enable-tab-audio-muting .. by nickweller · 2015-07-24 21:24 · Score: 3, Informative

"The option is available in Google's browser, but it's not enabled by default

#enable-tab-audio-muting is enabled by default on this Chrome version 44.0.2403.89 beta ..
Re:Or how about ... by Useless · 2015-07-25 00:39 · Score: 2

That'd suck for me at least. Frequently listening to youtube videos in the background while reading other tabs (like right now for instance).

--
"Even Prophets don't know everything"