Google Chrome users can now mute annoying websites forcing noisy auto-playing video on every visit and making the browsing experience nasty. It’s a great step towards websites or video portals forcing auto-playing ad videos and earning money. To be more clear on the topic, these web pages are consuming your device’s data, power, and annoying you and in return earning money.
Google will implement this latest feature in its upcoming version of Chrome web browser (Chrome 64) limiting the ability of sites to autoplay videos. Autoplay will only be allowed when the media itself has no sound or muted by default or the user has indicated an interest in the media by tapping or clicking somewhere on the site during a browsing session. There are other factors under user interest condition such as if the user has frequently played the media on the site using a desktop or added the site as a shortcut to the home screen on mobile.
To make “muted autoplay” more reliable, Google is removing currently available ‘block autoplay’ feature from Chrome on Android and also autoplay blocking on mobile when data saver mode is enabled.
The silicon valley giant will make the new site muting option available in place of the removed feature that will allow users to completely mute sites they want, individually. “This site muting option will persist between browsing sessions, allowing users to customize when and where audio will play.” Your settings will be saved to Chrome so you don’t have to mute every time you browse. This new site muting feature will arrive in October in the stable version of Chrome 63.
On the other hand, the autoplay policies will be implemented in the stable version of Chrome 64 in January 2018. “These changes will give users greater control over media playing in their browser while making it easier for publishers to implement autoplay where it benefits the user,” reads company’s blog post.
In addition, Google is also working on an ad filter which will block those annoying ads that keep popping up repeatedly or the ads that prevent users from seeing content until a countdown timer completes. “The ad filter is also set to arrive next year,” reported TechCrunch.