Firefox 66 to Block Audible Sound from Autoplay Video and Audio by Default

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Mozilla has announced that Firefox 66 will automatically block audible audio and video initiated by autoplay media on websites. As this is the default behavior for Firefox 66, users will have to interact with the website to initiate the audio such as hitting the "Play" button. Firefox users will be able to override this behavior by clicking on an icon in the URL bar and changing the settings for individual websites. Firefox for Android will incorporate the same behavior as the desktop version. Firefox 66 has a scheduled release date of March 19, 2019.

There are some sites on which users want audible autoplay audio and video to be allowed. When Firefox for Desktop blocks autoplay audio or video, an icon appears in the URL bar. Users can click on the icon to access the site information panel, where they can change the "Autoplay sound" permission for that site from the default setting of "Block" to "Allow". Firefox will then allow that site to autoplay audibly. This allows users to easily curate their own whitelist of sites that they trust to autoplay audibly.
 
Terrible for so many reasons. Chrome did it first, and now Firefox wants to follow in its footsteps (as usual - Google sets web standards now, and Mozilla rolls over and says we better do it too). There are so many use-cases where auto play sound and video are legit and valid. Yes, some sites and platforms abuse this, but a lot don't. We're being punished for bad apples again, and that's not the way to run society. Common sense is gone.

This should have been implemented as a user preference that by default isn't enabled. Instead, they just force their will by default on everyone when a standard existed allowing for the auto play of audio and video. Great way to break a lot of applications. Especially for the deaf and blind (when it comes to voice to text and text to voice). Now they have to "interact" with the page before the media will play. Lots of games and other things will be broken from these changes. Great job guys! Let's continue to break things that used to work. Great way to develop applications. This used to work, but now doesn't. Thanks Google for your BS. Read how many people developers were unhappy about Google's changes here:

https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-policy-changes

How embarrassing.
 
Way to go! Not a FireFox or Chrome user, but I like that they are doing this.
 
earnolmartin said:
Terrible for so many reasons. Chrome did it first, and now Firefox wants to follow in its footsteps (as usual - Google sets web standards now, and Mozilla rolls over and says we better do it too). There are so many use-cases where auto play sound and video are legit and valid. Yes, some sites and platforms abuse this, but a lot don't. We're being punished for bad apples again, and that's not the way to run society. Common sense is gone.

This should have been implemented as a user preference that by default isn't enabled. Instead, they just force their will by default on everyone when a standard existed allowing for the auto play of audio and video. Great way to break a lot of applications. Especially for the deaf and blind (when it comes to voice to text and text to voice). Now they have to "interact" with the page before the media will play. Lots of games and other things will be broken from these changes. Great job guys! Let's continue to break things that used to work. Great way to develop applications. This used to work, but now doesn't. Thanks Google for your BS. Read how many people developers were unhappy about Google's changes here:

https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-policy-changes

How embarrassing.
Click to expand...

Disagree completely: autoplay should be disabled by default. Even for legit uses of autoplay, there's too many reasons, varying from bothering others in public spaces to bandwith usage to have audio/video streaming from sites without specific user approval. Even for the deaf and blind this will be better since the new default will reduce abuse of autoplay for those who have it enabled.

Whoever thaught autoplay was a good idea must have forgotten the age of Pop-ups.
 
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earnolmartin said:
Terrible for so many reasons. Chrome did it first, and now Firefox wants to follow in its footsteps (as usual - Google sets web standards now, and Mozilla rolls over and says we better do it too). There are so many use-cases where auto play sound and video are legit and valid. Yes, some sites and platforms abuse this, but a lot don't. We're being punished for bad apples again, and that's not the way to run society. Common sense is gone.

This should have been implemented as a user preference that by default isn't enabled. Instead, they just force their will by default on everyone when a standard existed allowing for the auto play of audio and video. Great way to break a lot of applications. Especially for the deaf and blind (when it comes to voice to text and text to voice). Now they have to "interact" with the page before the media will play. Lots of games and other things will be broken from these changes. Great job guys! Let's continue to break things that used to work. Great way to develop applications. This used to work, but now doesn't. Thanks Google for your BS. Read how many people developers were unhappy about Google's changes here:

https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-policy-changes

How embarrassing.
Click to expand...
Troll harder next time. This won't break screen readers as they are not part of the browser.
 
earnolmartin said:
Terrible for so many reasons. Chrome did it first, and now Firefox wants to follow in its footsteps (as usual - Google sets web standards now, and Mozilla rolls over and says we better do it too). There are so many use-cases where auto play sound and video are legit and valid. Yes, some sites and platforms abuse this, but a lot don't. We're being punished for bad apples again, and that's not the way to run society. Common sense is gone.

This should have been implemented as a user preference that by default isn't enabled. Instead, they just force their will by default on everyone when a standard existed allowing for the auto play of audio and video. Great way to break a lot of applications. Especially for the deaf and blind (when it comes to voice to text and text to voice). Now they have to "interact" with the page before the media will play. Lots of games and other things will be broken from these changes. Great job guys! Let's continue to break things that used to work. Great way to develop applications. This used to work, but now doesn't. Thanks Google for your BS. Read how many people developers were unhappy about Google's changes here:

https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-policy-changes

How embarrassing.
Click to expand...


Hardly embarrassing, this is a major improvement to user experience. Besides, I'm sure there will be a way for users to easily confirm they want to hear something play back.

The "games and other things" argument doesn't make sense either. Games on the web were broken FAR worse in the past - perfect example, when NPAPI was phased out and every Untiy game using the old web player stop working.
 
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emphy said:
Disagree completely: autoplay should be disabled by default. Even for legit uses of autoplay, there's too many reasons, varying from bothering others in public spaces to bandwith usage to have audio/video streaming from sites without specific user approval. Even for the deaf and blind this will be better since the new default will reduce abuse of autoplay for those who have it enabled.

Whoever thaught autoplay was a good idea must have forgotten the age of Pop-ups.
Click to expand...

So don't use Firefox?
 
emphy said:
Disagree completely: autoplay should be disabled by default. Even for legit uses of autoplay, there's too many reasons, varying from bothering others in public spaces to bandwith usage to have audio/video streaming from sites without specific user approval. Even for the deaf and blind this will be better since the new default will reduce abuse of autoplay for those who have it enabled.

Whoever thaught autoplay was a good idea must have forgotten the age of Pop-ups.
Click to expand...

Get off my lawn!


In all seriousness I can’t think of a single instance where enabling audio on auto play video is useful. For my use case and many others, zero use for auto play video on mobile or the desktop.

I will miss auto play audio about as much as I do pop ups.
 
horskh said:
If they can mute auto play video, why not just not auto-play it?
Click to expand...

I think Firefox are trying to offer a fix that allows users some control without completely screwing website owners. The sites and content producers have to allow advertisers the opportunity to show ads / videos (and pay them money). Advertising on the web is an arms race anyway, aggressively block one thing and advertisements / annoyances will just get piled on somewhere else.
 
I just pause a movie in Jriver that plays via HDMI, then all those stupid things just error out while I'm browsing. :ninja:
 
Halle-fucking-lujah... I've been waiting for this on Chrome for eternity... There will be a switch to Firefox in my immediate future.
 
So not gonna lie I thought this had already made it to stable FF along time ago.

Ironically, or maybe not, I find this to be most useful on major news sites. They all seem to have a stupid 1-2 min video at the top of their articles that just starts auto playing and blasting sound the second the page loads.
 
Now there's something that could potentially persuade me to switch to Firefox.

Don't get me wrong. I hate some of their recent developments. I hate the cloud BS, the data collection and Pocket.

I wonder if this feature will make its way to Waterfox. I've heard Waterfox is much better in this regard.
 
This seems solid auto play can be quite annoying and since you can toggle it on or off on a site by site basis seems entirely appropriate.
 
ohhh you mean like give us back what things used to be like before autoplay was an option that developer could set? about time. disable that crap. if I want to play it, I'll CLICK play.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Now there's something that could potentially persuade me to switch to Firefox.

Don't get me wrong. I hate some of their recent developments. I hate the cloud BS, the data collection and Pocket.

I wonder if this feature will make its way to Waterfox. I've heard Waterfox is much better in this regard.
Click to expand...
Waterfox has settings in about:config for media.autoplay.* , media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground and there's mute tab functionality. I switched from Firefox and ESR to Waterfox and Pale Moon a while ago with no reason to look back.
 
earnolmartin said:
Terrible for so many reasons. Chrome did it first, and now Firefox wants to follow in its footsteps (as usual - Google sets web standards now, and Mozilla rolls over and says we better do it too). There are so many use-cases where auto play sound and video are legit and valid. Yes, some sites and platforms abuse this, but a lot don't. We're being punished for bad apples again, and that's not the way to run society. Common sense is gone.

This should have been implemented as a user preference that by default isn't enabled. Instead, they just force their will by default on everyone when a standard existed allowing for the auto play of audio and video. Great way to break a lot of applications. Especially for the deaf and blind (when it comes to voice to text and text to voice). Now they have to "interact" with the page before the media will play. Lots of games and other things will be broken from these changes. Great job guys! Let's continue to break things that used to work. Great way to develop applications. This used to work, but now doesn't. Thanks Google for your BS. Read how many people developers were unhappy about Google's changes here:

https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-policy-changes

How embarrassing.
Click to expand...

What are you even talking about? "So many use cases?" Name more than 5.

And the deaf and blind? They don't have to use Firefox lmfao. They are probably less than 5% of all users.

I'm switching to Firefox today because fuck autoplay.
 
Soulmetzger said:
No more spending time trying to figure out where the hell that sound is coming from when multi-tabbing.
Click to expand...
As it is, FF puts speaker icons on tabs where audio is played, and you can one-click mute those. Don't know if Chrome has that. I really feel FF is putting a ton of effort into end-user experience, more so than perhaps 3-4 years ago. The rendering back-end is first class and super fast, features like the one subject to the article are fantastic.

What's really not good in FF anymore? Memory usage still a thing? Memory is plentiful and that's the least of my concerns.
 
earnolmartin said:
Terrible for so many reasons. Chrome did it first, and now Firefox wants to follow in its footsteps (as usual - Google sets web standards now, and Mozilla rolls over and says we better do it too). There are so many use-cases where auto play sound and video are legit and valid. Yes, some sites and platforms abuse this, but a lot don't. We're being punished for bad apples again, and that's not the way to run society. Common sense is gone.

This should have been implemented as a user preference that by default isn't enabled. Instead, they just force their will by default on everyone when a standard existed allowing for the auto play of audio and video. Great way to break a lot of applications. Especially for the deaf and blind (when it comes to voice to text and text to voice). Now they have to "interact" with the page before the media will play. Lots of games and other things will be broken from these changes. Great job guys! Let's continue to break things that used to work. Great way to develop applications. This used to work, but now doesn't. Thanks Google for your BS. Read how many people developers were unhappy about Google's changes here:

https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-policy-changes

How embarrassing.
Click to expand...

I’m curious about these use cases you’re referring to.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Now there's something that could potentially persuade me to switch to Firefox.

Don't get me wrong. I hate some of their recent developments. I hate the cloud BS, the data collection and Pocket.

I wonder if this feature will make its way to Waterfox. I've heard Waterfox is much better in this regard.
Click to expand...

Pocket is quite literally the most useful tool for figuring out how much tracking all the ISPs and internet companies do on you. Seriously... I recently made a comment on this website about how millennials can't keep up with old tripe traditions like "an engagement ring should cost 2 months of your salary" and guess what shows up on Firefox homepage with pocket a few hours later...
190307_aiscam.jpg


Its basically a daily reminder that ones in control only view you as a number with a dollar sign in front of it.
 
Technically every youtube video is an autoplay video, so will it block the sound of those too?
 
Wiffle said:
Pocket is quite literally the most useful tool for figuring out how much tracking all the ISPs and internet companies do on you. Seriously... I recently made a comment on this website about how millennials can't keep up with old tripe traditions like "an engagement ring should cost 2 months of your salary" and guess what shows up on Firefox homepage with pocket a few hours later...
Click to expand...
I don't know how is that related to pocket? What is pocket anyway? I'm a firefox(waterfox) user and I have no idea.
 
M76 said:
I don't know how is that related to pocket? What is pocket anyway? I'm a firefox(waterfox) user and I have no idea.
Click to expand...

"Pocket is a part of the Mozilla family, like Firefox. Pocket makes it easy to discover high quality content that’s worthy of your attention and to save content so you can return to it when you have the time.

Pocket and Mozilla both share a passion for protecting the openness of the web and creating a content platform built around trust and privacy. That’s why we worked with Firefox to put Pocket Recommendations on your new tab page. These recommendations give you direct access to the best content on the web, curated by Pocket’s 30+ million users."

Taken from Pocket itself on the "how it works" link...

Basically its no different than what Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and the like do. The feed changes based on what you say/view. I just find it jarring whenever I see advertising trying to be relevant to me... it never is relevant. But I also grew up in an age that blasted me with irrelevant advertising my whole life. The only reason I know about Prudential Financial and Metlife is because I had to suffer through those inane jingles so I could get back to watching my saturday morning cartoons. Do you have a piece of the Rock?

The majority of the articles Pocket recommends are usually paywall BS newage "journalism" clickbait pieces.
 
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There was autoplay video with sound even on HardOCP. Theyre especially stupid when the video starts to play and you're not even seeing that part of the page.
 
Wiffle said:
"Pocket is a part of the Mozilla family, like Firefox. Pocket makes it easy to discover high quality content that’s worthy of your attention and to save content so you can return to it when you have the time.

Pocket and Mozilla both share a passion for protecting the openness of the web and creating a content platform built around trust and privacy. That’s why we worked with Firefox to put Pocket Recommendations on your new tab page. These recommendations give you direct access to the best content on the web, curated by Pocket’s 30+ million users."

Taken from Pocket itself on the "how it works" link...

Basically its no different than what Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and the like do. The feed changes based on what you say/view. I just find it jarring whenever I see advertising trying to be relevant to me... it never is relevant. But I also grew up in an age that blasted me with irrelevant advertising my whole life. The only reason I know about Prudential Financial and Metlife is because I had to suffer through those inane jingles so I could get back to watching my saturday morning cartoons. Do you have a piece of the Rock?

The majority of the articles Pocket recommends are usually paywall BS newage "journalism" clickbait pieces.
Click to expand...
I see dead people, not adverts.
 
Firefox seems to be on a winning streak. I have not had any reason to regret going back to it since Quantum dropped.

I strongly advise others to do the same. It has its flaws, but they're minor, and all in all it is a better browser than Chrome.
 
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