Apple, earlier this year announced that it has added an auto-play-video-blocking feature to the new Safari browser. Now, following its footsteps, Google has announced that a similar feature will soon be available for its Chrome browser on desktop. The search giant said that the feature will arrive as an update in January 2018.
Google in a post explains how video auto-play is one of the most frequent concerns that it receives from users. These unexpected media playback end up consuming a lot of data and power, and at the same time makes unwanted noise while browsing too. The update will arrive from Chrome 64 in which, auto video playback will only be allowed if the sound isn’t played or if the user has shown interest in the clip.
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“This will allow autoplay to occur when users want media to play, and respect users’ wishes when they don’t,” Google said in a statement. “These changes will also unify desktop and mobile web behavior, making web media development more predictable across platforms and browsers,” Google says that the video on the site will auto-play only if the user taps or click on the site while browsing.
Keeping in mind user preferences, Google has also made some changes to Chrome 63 in which, the search-giant will add a new user option to completely disable audio for individual sites that will persist between browsing sessions.
However, as of now, if the auto-play videos are too annoying to handle, here’s a quick tip to follow to stop the auto-play on Chrome browser. Click the menu icon on the upper-right corner and select Settings. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the Show advanced settings link. Scroll down further until you find the Privacy section. Click the Content settings button. In the Content Settings dialog box, scroll down to the Plug-ins section. Select ‘Click to play,’ then click the Done button in the right corner.
Google recently also announced that it will introduce an in-built ad blocker for Chrome next year with an aim to stop the annoying, unwanted ads. Google will automatically block such ads starting next year. The update will allow users to see lesser pop-ups and auto-playing audio ads. As of now, tools like Adblock and Adblock Plus are among the most popular Chrome extensions for the purpose. For now, that might help.
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