Google Chrome Will Soon Stop Videos from Autoplaying

Have you ever opened up a link and been immediately blasted with sound coming from an autoplay video? It's an annoying tactic used by many sites and ads across the web, and it's almost universally loathed by internet users. Google decided to do something about it.

Google is set to release its latest version of the popular web browser, Chrome 66. With this update comes several new features, including specific criteria that can dictate when a video autoplays, according to Engadget. Unless the video is muted or doesn't have audio at all, it won't play automatically. Additionally, videos won't autoplay unless the user has also clicked on the site while browsing or the user has frequently played media on the site previously.

This new version of Google Chrome also hopes to reduce the number of times it crashes. To do that, the browser will display warnings following a crash caused by third-party software injecting code into the browser. The warning will recommend that users remove the offending software.

Chrome 66 is currently in beta but expect it to be fully released in the next few weeks.