The most popular browser today with over 60% share of the pie is chrome. Chrome has updated their default autoplay policy affecting websites which autoplay videos with sound.
In the new policy affecting Chrome browsers version 71+, auto playing video with sound has been disabled by default. This is mainly done to stop all those annoying sites which autoplay videos typically ads whenever you visit their site.
Chrome has different policies for desktop and mobile. On mobile, autoplaying videos is allowed only if the user has interacted with the site before the video starts playing, or if the site has been added to the users home screen.
On desktop, Chrome has a slightly more detailed policy, autoplay is blocked if any of the following conditions are meet:
- User hasn’t interacted with the site
- The site has a Low Media Engagement Index (MEI)
Sites have a low MEI if the user has not previously played video with sound for atleast 7 seconds recently. You can find more information about MEI here.
Handle new policy
To comply with the new policy, here are a few things you can do.
Remove autoplay and add a play button
If your usecase can do without autoplaying, its best to remove the autoplay attribute and let the user decide when they want to play your video.
Autoplay with sound muted
The simplest change you can make is to mute your auto playing videos, so that the user can unmute the video when they want.
Start video after user interaction
You can also have an detect user interaction with your site and then start the video.
Start sound only after user interaction
You could play the video muted initially and unmute the video when the user interacts with your site but this might irate users and should be avoided