There are some sites out there that autoplay videos when you load the page, which means that if you’re juggling multiple tabs at once, this can be rather jarring and annoying when suddenly you hear audio blasting at you and you have to hunt that tab down. However Google is making some changes on that front.
In the latest version of the Chrome Beta (via 9to5Google), one of the features that is currently being tested is autoplay-muting. This feature will allow users to choose the behavior of audio site-wide, and whether or not to allow it to play by default, or to disable it which means that audio is automatically muted and can only be unmuted at the user’s discretion.
In addition to this feature, Google will also be introducing improved popup blocking. While Chrome already blocks popups, this improved feature means that Chrome will be able to detect popups that disguise themselves as play buttons, or where a “X” button to close actually launches more popups instead.
All of these features will be part of the Chrome Beta which means that you’ll have to participate in it if you’re looking to take advantage of it. However we expect that Google will eventually roll out those features to users, so do keep an eye out for it in the near future.