Chrome will no longer autoplay videos with sound starting from January 2018
Here's Why You Should Be Worried Ryan Whitwam / ExtremeTech : Google Chrome Will Block Autoplaying Video With Sound Next Year David Matthews / TechSpot : Chrome is finally doing something about those autoplaying videos Zach Epstein / BGR : The best news you'll get all day: Chrome is about to murder autoplay videos Usama Jawad / Neowin : You'll soon be able to disable autoplay videos in Google Chrome Eric Abent / SlashGear : Chrome wages war on autoplay videos Brad Chacos / PCWorld : Google Chrome will start blocking noisy autoplay videos in January Stephanie Mlot / Geek.com : Google Knows You Hate Chrome Autoplay Videos Usman / iPhone in Canada Blog : Google Chrome to Start Blocking Autoplaying Web Videos Brian Fagioli / BetaNews : Google Chrome will finally let you fight back against those annoying autoplay videos Chris Merriman / Inquirer : Google Updates: Autoplay block, antitrust fight and Android flagship launch Jan Dawson / Tech Narratives : Google, Like Apple, to Disable Autoplay Videos in its Browser Wayne Manion / The Tech Report : Google Chrome 64 will limit autoplay videos early next year Eric David / SiliconANGLE : Google Chrome will ditch annoying autoplay videos in January Brandy Betz / Seeking Alpha : Google Chrome autoplay blocks coming in December Sarah Perez / TechCrunch : Upcoming versions of Google Chrome will let you permanently mute sites, block autoplaying videos Chromium Blog : Unified autoplay — Users watch and listen to a lot of media … David Meyer / Fortune : Google Chrome Will Offer Relief From Noisy Autoplay Videos Daniel Van Boom / CNET : Google Chrome to block autoplay videos from January Thuy Ong / The Verge : Chrome will get better at stopping those annoying autoplay videos starting in January Mariella Moon / Engadget : Chrome will make autoplay videos less annoying in 2018 Tim Hardwick / MacRumors : Google Chrome Desktop Browser to Introduce Autoplay Blocking Features Gianluca Mezzofiore / Mashable : Google Chrome will turn off autoplay videos with sound to improve your browsing experience Abner Li / 9to5Google : Chrome 64 will enforce more consistent media autoplay behavior as version 63 adds sitewide audio muting Carly Page / Inquirer : Chrome 64 will put an end to autoplay videos on the web Silviu Stahie / Softpedia News : Google Chrome to Mute Autoplay Videos Starting January 2018 Scott Scrivens / Android Police : Google will unify mobile and desktop autoplay behavior in Chrome 64 Abhimanyu Ghoshal / The Next Web : Rejoice: Chrome won't embarrass you by autoplaying videos with sound from January Tweets: Will Wilson / @wawilsoniv : Alright, now this is my kind of Safari vs. Chrome arms race: http://arstechnica.com/... Barry Petchesky / @barry : This is no-s**t going to cripple all the fake/inflated video metrics http://venturebeat.com/... Dave Zatz / @davezatz : We can read Time and CNET again! http://twitter.com/... Shane Morris / @iamshanemorris : Media companies: “We're cutting our editorial staff and switching to video content!” Google: “Oh word?” http://arstechnica.com/... Robert McMillan / @bobmcmillan : The web is becoming what email was about 15 years ago, but now and then someone lands a blow for the good guys. http://venturebeat.com/... Ben / @sangster : In which Google subtweets the Facebook revenue team http://twitter.com/... @altnickrad : Best technological advance since color TV http://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
This announcement caps a summer of quiet groundwork: weeks earlier, the Chrome team was already experimenting with an option to permanently mute sound on specific websites, so the January 2018 deadline reads as that experiment hardened into a default. The move puts Google's browser squarely against the autoplay-video ad format that publishers and networks had baked into their pages.
What followed validates both halves of the story: when the block shipped in Chrome 66, it did suppress autoplaying content with sound by default — but also broke audio for many web-based games, forcing a partial rollback and an October deadline for developers to update.
First-order effects
- Publishers and ad networks relying on autoplay video with sound lose that inventory in Chrome from January 2018, since the browser now blocks it by default rather than playing it on page load.
- Users gain a browser-enforced mute on noisy pages, extending the per-site muting option Chrome had been testing into a default behavior.
Second-order effects
- Web game developers become collateral damage: Chrome 66's autoplay block disabled audio for many browser games, pushing Google into a partial rollback and pressuring studios to rework how they trigger sound before its October cutoff.
- Rival browsers face pressure to match the default, since advertisers can no longer assume autoplay-with-sound works across the dominant browser — making muted-by-default the de facto web standard rather than a Chrome quirk.
Third-order effects
- Browsers are consolidating power as de facto regulators of web media behavior: a default toggle in one vendor's release cycle now reshapes publisher formats and developer code faster than any standards process or ad-industry self-regulation.
- If the pattern holds, web development shifts toward permission-based media — audio and video that must earn playback through user intent — with platform owners like Google absorbing the backlash (as the Chrome 66 rollback shows) each time a default change breaks someone's product.
The trend: Browser vendors are using default settings, not standards bodies, to police web media behavior — and developers are left chasing each default change through breakage-and-rollback cycles like Chrome 66's.