Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

PSA: Google Chrome Now Lets You Permanently Mute Websites That Autoplay Videos (independent.co.uk)

Posted by BeauHD on from the sanity-saving-features dept.

Google is releasing a new version of Chrome this week and it includes a number of new features, such as an improved ad blocker and Spectre mitigations. The best new feature in Chrome 64 is the ability to permanently mute websites that autoplay videos. This feature was teased for several months, but now it's finally here. The Independent reports: To mute a site that automatically plays videos, users will need click the View Site Information symbol, which may look like a green padlock, on the left-hand edge of the omnibar -- the address bar combined with the Google search box. Then they will need to select Sound. Once the website is muted, it will not automatically play videos with sound again until you unmute it.

4 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Mute? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How about not loading the videos, period? Why waste my bandwidth for something I don't want to see in the first place?

    Videos should be like Flash: click to play.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
    1. Re:Mute? by h4ck7h3p14n37 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The cynic in me says that Google is taking money from someone to leave autoplay enabled. Whomever at W3C dreamt that "feature" up should be tarred and feathered.

    2. Re:Mute? by Koby77 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Similar to muting sound from a tab, there ought to be a button to cutoff the tab from consuming any more bandwidth. This would shut down unwanted videos, gifs, advertisements, and other undesirable content from loading.

  2. Re:Click-to-run by markdavis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    >"Because then advertisers would fall back to using hacks and gifs rather than video."

    And then you disallow animated GIF and PNG (like Firefox allows with user control) and then endlessly running scripts. Yes, it is a war, but one that needs to be fought.