Firefox 66 will automatically block audible auto-play video and audio

Posted on Wednesday, February 06 2019 @ 10:28 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Firefox logo
Starting with the release of Firefox 66, Mozilla's browser will no longer allow websites to automatically play audible video or audio. With this new autoplay blocking feature, users will need to interact with the page via a mouse click, a key press, or a touch event, before the autoplay can be executed. Muted autoplay is still allowed.
Starting with the release of Firefox 66 for desktop and Firefox for Android, Firefox will block audible audio and video by default. We only allow a site to play audio or video aloud via the HTMLMediaElement API once a web page has had user interaction to initiate the audio, such as the user clicking on a “play” button.

Any playback that happens before the user has interacted with a page via a mouse click, printable key press, or touch event, is deemed to be autoplay and will be blocked if it is potentially audible.
Users will also be able to whitelist sites, for example if you want YouTube or other sites to continue to autoplay sound, you will be able to configure these permissions via the site information panel.

Firefox 66 is scheduled to be released on March 19, 2019. Overall, this is a great move as it's very annoying to open a couple of links and suddenly hear music or someone speaking.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



Loading Comments