Finally, Chrome Lets You Mute Autoplay Audio on Websites for Good

Maggie Rossetti/Thrillist
Maggie Rossetti/Thrillist

The internet can be a beautiful place filled with wondrous entertainment and feasts of knowledge, but it's also filled with digital landmines that can go off unexpectedly anytime you click on a link. We're referring, of course, to the dreaded autoplay audio many websites employ, which will without-fail, startle you (and occasionally embarrass you in public). 

Fortunately, Google's delivered a godsend by adding a new feature to its Chrome browser that finally allows you to disable autoplay audio for entire sites. That means you can practically banish unwanted screeching ads forever. This is big.

google chrome mute
Screenshot via Google Chrome

While Chrome users have been able to mute individual tabs for a while, the new update that rolled out Wednesday adds the ability to mute an entire website. That means that once you mute a particular site in one tab, it automatically mutes any subsequent tabs of that website you may open. In a word, it's genius.

To take advantage of it, you simply right click the tab in question and select "Mute Site" from the dropdown. If and when you want to turn the audio on a page back on, just right click and select "Unmute."

Your muting preferences will only last as long as you keep the browser open, and things will reset when you quit and restart Chrome.

Now go forth, and browse without fear of being unexpectedly blasted by the sound of rogue autoplay ads when you just wanted to read the news.

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Joe McGauley is a senior writer for Thrillist. Follow him @jwmcgauley.