Google Chrome will soon stop automatically playing autoplay videos, according to a new note to its developers.
The update will make it so Google Chrome will only allow autoplay videos to play when they have already been muted by the user or when those videos don’t have any sound.
The developer notes say that “autoplay is now allowed only when either the media won’t play sound after the user clicks or taps on the site, or (on a desktop) if the user has previously shown an interest in media on the site.”
Android users can still autoplay videos if they’ve added the site they’re visiting to their device’s home screen, according to 9to5Google, a Google news and rumors website.
The new function will be available to all Chrome users soon through an automatic update. You can download it early here.
Google originally planned to add these changes with its Chrome 64 update, which arrived in January. That update included an option to mute autoplay videos but wouldn’t do it automatically, according to The Verge.
“Google’s additional steps will mean that autoplay videos with sound blasting out of your speakers should be a thing of the past, and you can always take the extra step of completely muting a site if you happen to click and interact and the sound turns on,” The Verge reported.
According to Mashable, Chrome 66 will also include a function that helps “websites better tailor media streaming resolution to capabilities of the device that’s accessing them.”
