The Internet learned a lot from using Flash all of this time, and now moved and embraced HTML5 as the new ruler of multimedia content. However, this doesn’t make it less annoying when it suddenly starts to play as soon as you land on a specific page.
Although creators of a website intended for that particular one video to start playing whenever it’s in sight, it puts considerable pressure on bandwidth usage, and might even scare your headphones off because of sudden sound.
Popular web browsers give you the possibility to handle when plugins get triggered, but with Flash out of the way, there’s little left to be done. However, the workaround here doesn’t actually prevent the video from buffering, which means it’s only going to stay on pause until further notice, but still being downloaded in the background.
Unfortunately, none of the browsers Microsoft delivers as a default way of accessing the information superhighway can be tweaked in this regard. Internet Explorer can be configured, but doing so disables media content completely, without providing any playback options. As for Edge, it still lacks support for extensions as promised, but updates are on their way, and there’s hopefully going to be one to stop autoplay, in case you haven’t given up on it yet.
As such, we’re only going to cover the required steps to stop autoplay features for other popular browsers. The process is easy, and mostly requires you to download and install a specific extension.
Stop HTML5 Videos from automatically playing
| In Google Chrome |
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The Chrome extension to disable video autoplay feature was originally intended for YouTube videos. Truth be told, it did get a bit frustrating having to pause every video opened in a new tab. Luckily, the extension you need doesn’t affect YouTube alone, but many other websites that consider you want to watch the video above all else.
The extension in question is Stop Autoplay for Youtube and you can get it here. You’ll be happy to know that there is also an extended version that keeps the video on pause until focus is on the specific tab. Download Stop Autoplay for Youtube Extended here.
| In Mozilla Firefox |
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Things get a bit different when it comes to Firefox. A recent update brought about the option to disable the autoplay feature, or at least keep it under control. However, it does not affect YouTube videos, and you’ll have to look for an add-on if this is what interests you. Here’s what you need to do:
Launch Firefox and write down “about:config” in the address field. You immediately get prompted by a warning message, stating that stability is put at risk if any options are changed beyond this point. Kindly acknowledge the warning through the “I’ll be careful, I promise!” button, and write down “autoplay” in the upper search field. When you spot the “media.autoplay.enabled” preference, double-click it so that its value turns to False.
| In Opera |
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Stopping videos from automatically playing while using Opera takes you through similar steps as for Google Chrome. In other words, the Disable HTML5 Autoplay extension needs to be downloaded and integrated in Opera for things to work.
After it’s deployed, a small icon is added next to the address field, where you can view a number of attempts, and function toggle. Blocking rate is impressive, and even manages to stop YouTube videos from playing.
In conclusion
The Internet has become the primary source of entertainment, which automatically attracted ads and other intrusions that most individuals find frustrating. However, more and more websites tend to bully you with content that automatically triggers, but now you know there’s a way to guard yourself from this forced playback.