Chrome is making big changes to autoplay videos

Hallelujah. Starting in January 2018, Chrome is going to save us from autoplay videos. There are few things in life more annoying than a video you never wanted to watch blaring audio out of your speakers when you least expect it.

We’ll see two separate changes the coming months. Starting in October of this year, Chrome 63 will give users the ability to mute entire websites. Muting a site will persist even if you end your session, so you don’t have to mute a site every time you open it. Then when Chrome 64 rolls out in January 2018, videos will no longer auto-play unless they’re muted. The one caveat to this is that if you’ve shown interest in watching the video, Chrome will unmute it and it’ll automatically play.

So, what does Google define as showing interest? For desktop users, that means its a site you’re currently looking at. This means you won’t have to search through your other tabs hunting for videos that might be playing in the background. For mobile, only sites that you’ve saved to your home screen will auto-play video.

For everyone on a limited data plan or those who just don’t want to get blasted by random video noise at 2 AM while they’re browsing in bed, this is amazing news. Google plans the rollout for January, but you’ll be able to get into the action beginning in December if you download the Chrome 64 Beta. Hit the link down below for the Play Store or Desktop listing of Chrome Beta.