This is because their click-to-play approach generally does not resume a Javascript audio interface - something most games never needed to do until Chrome decided to press the mute button. So much so, in fact, that Chrome is apparently preventing some web-based games from playing sound. While this feature certainly seemed like a boon, some users began noting that it’s working a bit too well.

On the other hand, if you’re alright with the videos that are triggered automatically on some other websites, Chrome will allow those to keep playing undeterred. With this new update, if you were to stop an autoplay video on a website, Chrome will remember this preference, and block any subsequent autoplay videos the next time you visit the site. This demonstrated to Google that many Chrome users have absolutely no use for videos that begin unannounced and unwanted, and consequently, the search giant has addressed the issue. In a recent blog post, Google Chrome product manager John Pallett wrote that “a significant number” of autoplay videos are axed by users who don’t want them - either by muting, pausing, or closing out of the tabs altogether - within only six seconds of the videos’ start.

In its most recent update (which brings us to Google Chrome 66), Google Chrome had begun to automatically block autoplay videos based on your preferences, which could cut down on the number of times you have to frantically mute your computer while trying to determine where that infernal noise is coming from. Your days of being startled by a video that seems to begin playing out of nowhere on your browser were about to come to an end, until the Chrome team realized that this update impinged upon users’ abilities to play games and build art projects.

Google chrome autoplay video blocker