Chrome's update out today will not start a video with sound until the visitor has interacted with the site. Muted autoplay still works; a promo that relied on sound now sits still.

The video that used to start by itself

The home page opens with a video: music, a voiceover, aerial footage, all starting on its own the moment the page loads.

From today, most first-time visitors using the new version of Chrome on a computer will see it sit still instead. Chrome 66 no longer lets video start with sound until the visitor has interacted with the site.

Phones have required a tap before playing sound for years, and Safari on the Mac began blocking autoplay with sound last year.

Chrome on desktop computers was the large exception. As its users update over the coming days and weeks, it no longer is.

What Chrome now allows

The third is why your own testing may mislead you. Chrome keeps a score for each site, based on how often that person plays video with sound there.

So a site where you often watch your own promo may still autoplay for you, while a new visitor sees nothing move.

What happens to a promo with sound

When a page asks Chrome to start a video with sound and Chrome says no, what the visitor sees depends on how the page was built.

Some players show their poster image and a play button, which is the good outcome. Some show a frozen first frame. Some, designed only for autoplay with their controls hidden, show a box with no obvious way to start it.

A few players are coded to fall back to playing muted. That keeps the picture moving, but a video whose message was the voiceover now plays as silent footage with nothing to explain it.

Whichever applies, the assumption that the video would simply start has stopped being true for most first-time visitors on a computer.

Background videos

The silent loop behind a heading, waves or a workshop or a skyline, keeps playing, because muted autoplay is still allowed.

That holds only if the code tells the browser the video is muted. A background video added with its soundtrack still attached, and nothing marking it muted, may now stop with the rest.

The fix is small: mark it muted in the code and, better, remove the audio track from the file altogether, which also makes the file smaller.

And smaller matters. A background video is often the heaviest thing on the page, downloaded before anything else becomes useful, on phones as well as computers.

Why browsers are doing this

People dislike pages that start making noise without being asked, in open offices, on buses, and late at night in a quiet house. Safari moved first, and Chrome has now followed.

Chrome's ad filter, which started in February, already counts autoplaying video ads with sound among the formats that get a site's ads blocked. This extends the same thinking to every video, not just ads.

The direction is unlikely to reverse. Building a page that depends on sound starting by itself now means building against the browsers.

A worked example

A dog sledding tour company opened its home page with a two-minute film: music, the owner's voice over aerial shots of a team crossing a frozen lake. It played automatically, with sound, its controls hidden for a cleaner look.

On the owner's computer it still played, since she had watched it there dozens of times. Tested ahead of today's release in a fresh Chrome profile, it showed a still frame of snow and nothing to press.

The company now uses a short silent loop, dogs pulling at their lines before a run, behind its opening heading and booking button. The film sits further down, with a poster image, a visible play button and its length.

Captions run with it, so anybody who plays it in an office with the sound off still gets the owner's description. Starting the film has become the visitor's choice, which is the position Chrome now expects.

Testing it properly

Your usual browser is the wrong place to test, for the reason above: Chrome remembers how you use your own site.

Open a private window, which starts without that history, or ask somebody who has never visited to open the page on their own computer.

Check every page with video, not only the home page. Embedded players from video sites follow the same rules, so an embedded promo set to autoplay with sound will now wait for a click like any other.

Then check on a phone, where these rules have applied for years and the same video may never have played by itself at all.

Better ways to use video

Let people choose. A clear poster image, a play button that looks like one, and the length shown beside it tell a visitor what they are signing up for.

Caption anything that depends on speech. Many people keep the sound off by choice, and captions make the video work for visitors who cannot hear it at all.

Put video where it answers a question: how a job is done, what a space looks like, what happens at a first appointment. A video that answers something gets played; one that introduces the brand gets scrolled past.

And keep the essential message in text, above or beside any video, so the page works whether anything plays or not.

The counter-case

Some sites exist to show video: a production company, a band, a venue's highlights. Their visitors arrive intending to watch, click within seconds, and Chrome learns that they play media there.

For those sites the change matters less, though the first visit still starts silent, and the page should still look complete before anything plays.

Light, muted background video also remains a legitimate design choice, provided it carries no message the page cannot do without.

Do not build anything that depends on sound starting by itself.

Today

  1. Open your site in a private window.
  2. Note every video that stays still.
  3. Add a poster image and a visible play button.
  4. Caption anything that depends on speech.
  5. Mark background videos as muted.
  6. Remove audio tracks from silent loops.
  7. Put the main message in text.

Step seven protects everything else. A page whose message survives with every video stopped is unaffected by this change, and by whatever the browsers decide next.

What a heavy video at the top of the page does to visitors arriving from an ad is covered in how fast the page is after an ad click.

Frequently asked questions

What did Chrome change today?

Chrome 66 no longer lets video start with sound until the visitor has interacted with the site, or has often played media with sound there before. Muted autoplay is still allowed.

What happens to my autoplaying promo video?

It stays still on most first visits, showing a poster, a frozen frame, or a box with no controls, depending on how it was built. Some players fall back to silent playback.

Do background videos still play?

Yes, if the code marks them as muted. A background video with its soundtrack attached and nothing marking it muted may stop, so mark it muted and remove the audio track.

Why does my video still autoplay for me?

Chrome scores each site by how often you play media with sound there. If you watch your own video often, Chrome may allow it for you while new visitors see nothing move.

How should I test my site?

Open it in a private window, where Chrome has no record of your visits, and note every video that stays still. Check embedded players and background videos too.

What is a better way to use video?

Let visitors choose to play it, with a poster image, a visible play button and its length. Caption anything spoken, and keep the essential message in text beside it.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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