Autoplay is only allowed when approved by the user, the site is activated by the user, or media is muted.

While there are plenty of things online that can break your concentration or focus on a task, autoplaying video or audio surely is at the top of "don't like" list for many Internet users.

One has to distinguish between autoplaying media with and without sound, as that makes a difference. While you can ignore videos that play automatically if they are silent for the most part, it is impossible to do so if sound is enabled by default.

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Autoplay is beneficial on some sites. Say, you are on YouTube and click on a video. Chance is very high that you want to play the video so that configuring the site to play videos automatically may make sense.

My main objections to autoplaying content on the Internet are that this is distracting, that it may slow down the loading of a service or page, and that you have to interact with these elements to stop them.

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Update 2: Google removed the option from Android and from desktop Chrome. You can try one of the third-party extensions to block autoplaying media in Chrome but your success may vary depending on the sites you visit. Other browsers, Firefox for example, support blocking autoplaying video and/or audio still End

Update: Time has passed and the experiments described below are no longer available. Chrome users on Android may still block autoplay in the following way:

1. Select Menu > Settings.
2. Activate Site Settings [under Privacy and Security] and select Media on the page that opens.
3. Tap on Auto-play.
4. Toggle the status so that it is off.

Doing so should prevent auto-play on most sites. Note that the option is not available anymore on desktop versions of Chrome.End

Google Chrome: control audio and video playback

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Google introduced a new flag in Chrome 61 which gives users of the web browser control over the browser's autoplay behavior.

Flags are experimental features of Chrome that may be pulled or integrated natively in the browser at any time.

Autoplay policy is "used when deciding if audio or video is allowed to autoplay". It is available for Chrome on the desktop, Chrome OS and also Android.

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Here is how you configure the setting:

1. Load chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy in the Chrome browser. Note that you do need Chrome 61 or newer on any of the supported operating systems to access the flag.
2. Click on the menu next to it, and select one of the available options:
   1. Default -- autoplay is enabled.
   2. No user gesture is required -- Users don't need to interact with the document for video or audio sources to start playing automatically.
   3. User gesture is required for cross-origin iFrames -- Same as "no user gesture is required" but only for same-origin media content. Audio or video content loaded from other sites require user interaction.
   4. Document user activation is required -- Users need to interact with the document before audio or video content is played automatically.
3. Restart the Chrome browser.

If you want to limit autoplay, select "Document user activation is required".  Note that this won't block autoplaying media completely, as media starts to play as soon as you interact with the page. It helps with opening pages in the background that play audio or video content automatically though.

Now You: What's your take on autoplaying media on the Internet?

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Summary

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Some browsers block the autoplay feature of some videos. Learn more about how to troubleshoot and resolve this.

Modern browser behavior have recently changed policies regarding autoplaying videos on your site.

The below policies relate to the Video Element and the Section Element's Background Video.

• Muted autoplay videos are allowed

• Autoplay with sound is allowed if: the user has interacted with the site; on desktop, if they have previously played a video with sound on the site, or; on mobile, if the user has added the site to their home screen.

• Muted autoplay videos are allowed

• Muted videos will not play if they are off-screen or hidden in the background tab

This can be disabled by the user, please go to Settings > Advanced and ensure that 'Media autoplay' is set to allow.

If you are having issues with your videos not playing, please ensure that you do not have multiple videos with autoplay and sound enabled as your browser could be blocking these from playing. We would also recommend avoiding sound in your autoplay videos so that the browser does not block the playing of these.

Whether a video will auto-play on mobile will depend on the device on which the page is being viewed. Most mobile browsers will disable auto-playing videos in order to preserve bandwidth & battery and to prevent performance issues.

Mobile visitors will still be able to view the video through the embedded player's Play button.

If you have any questions, please reach out to us at and we will be happy to help.

This information is subject to change and is correct as of November 2018.

Autoplay [with sound] can especially trigger resistance if it’s unexpected. On the other hand, an autoplay video can be considered helpful when a viewer anticipates the video, such as when the viewer clicks on the video in an email or on a special landing page. In this situation, autoplay ensures that there is no need to click again to play the video and helps the user get to the content quicker.

It’s also important to take into account that using autoplay increases the loading time of your page. Depending on the other content on your page this does not have to be a problem, but it can affect your SEO and is something you should consider.

The most effective way to use autoplay

As mentioned before, there is a chance that autoplay triggers resistance in the viewer. To get the most out of autoplay, you can do several things.

Allow viewers to pause the video

As previously mentioned, it is important to keep people's initial reaction as positive as possible. It can therefore be counterproductive when a viewer does not expect the video to autoplay, and doesn’t have the possibility to pause it.

Grab the viewer's attention

With autoplay videos it is important to grab the viewer's attention as soon as possible. In general you could say that this applies to every video, but with Autoplay this becomes even more important because they play unprompted.

When using autoplay, the first few seconds of your video are very important. This is when you need to grab the viewer's attention and minimize the chance of resistance. Treat the first few seconds like a silent teaser to watch the video. This way you motivate the viewer to keep his attention. Make it intriguing and fire your biggest guns first.

Use subtitles

Currently, in most browsers and for most devices,  muting the sound for autoplay is the default. Autoplay videos that are muted depend on subtitles or clear visuals. This allows  your viewers to understand your video even when it’s muted.

Keep in mind the different browsers and their autoplay policies

It varies how different browsers deal with autoplay videos with sound, so whether an autoplay video works or not will vary per viewer and means that there is always the possibility of your video not being able to autoplay. That is why it’s important that you create a good thumbnail for your video.

Even with some browsers not allowing autoplay, most do give their users the option to whitelist.  A 'white list' is a list of IP addresses or servers from which the playback of autoplay videos is always accepted.

Take a look at the overview below to see how specific browsers currently deal with autoplay.