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Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome

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Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome

#121

Post by userbinator »

mattigames wrote: post #91
userbinator wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then maybe the solution is to also have the option turn off animated GIFs and perhaps frequent canvas repaints too; and not simply give up completely ! In any case, just leaving the option alone so at least it has some effect like it did before, would still be better than essentially a full surrender.

I agree with you in principle but is more nuanced than that, lets say an user taps a link they think goes to a gif, according to you there should be a play button over the gif? You would be killing a lot of traffic for that site because that annoys users, or imagine a site with infinite scroll (ala twitter) with funny gifs, should the user have to click each single gif they want to watch? Plus keep in mind the users…

That's why it is (or was...) an option, and ideally should be a per-site one.

Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome

#122

Post by an_opabinia »

the_pwner224 wrote: post #80
throwaway189262 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Publishers found gaping holes in their blocking and response is to give up. Firefox already has config options to disable image animations and canvas. I've had them on for ages and sites work fine. Maybe they can re-enable popup windows too since sites replaced them with interstitials long ago. Chrome's dominance needs to end, this is blatantly anti user. Google could have de-ranked sites with hostile behavior a deca…

> Google could have de-ranked sites with hostile behavior a decade ago and we wouldn't be dealing with any of this stuff. They already block what they consider to be 'bad' ads on websites. This is just them giving up because there's no strategic value in making a user-focused browser. chrome://settings/content/ads

If publishers can’t make money off subs or ads in browsers, content will simply move to Facebook.

Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome

#123

Post by Meph504 »

madeofpalk wrote: post #112
edoceo wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BigG couldn't do that (disable other user hostile media) because it would interfere with ads. Now I'm looking for a gif and canvas blocker for FF mobile. Any hints on how to tune uBO?

You can't turn off gifs or canvas because it would just break too much internet. I could imagine and equal reaction thread here if google deemed some gifs and canvas uses "unworthy" and were blockable.

Not sure how it would break the internet at all, can you say that you have ever had a user experience improved by auto playing anything?

I mean, heaven for bid, they could the user the ability to actually control the repaint rate. Or pull only the first frame of a gif, and not pull the 100+ meg gif without user consent(via touch, by site, etc..) Browsers wouldn't block popups for years because it could break legitimate use, now I don't think a single browser doesn't ship with that option not on by default.

I think the reality is, that these are features and functions that advertisers want, and google is in the business of selling ads.

This isn't a can't, its a won't.

Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome

#124

Post by gumby »

spankalee wrote: post #31

(disclaimer: I work at Google, not on Chrome) The rationale here seems to be that by blocking video autoplay, Chrome incentivized sites shipping huge animated GIFs, or decoding video in JS and painting to canvas, both of which are very suboptimal for users. Another comment points to this issue: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=106364... quote: Unfortunately, full autoplay blocking is counter prod…

Auto playing gifs are also distracting when reading text and I would love to be able to suppress them.

Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome

#126

Post by postalrat »

SXX wrote: post #42
netsharc wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, if it were my software I'd add the option of allowing 100MB GIFs or only on demand, and whether the browser should automatically stream blobs for the canvas or not...

There are ways to bypass it. You can always stream 1MB of data from 100 different domains.

Wouldn't be hard to show a prompt after 10 megs to allow any other data to be loaded.

Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome

#127

Post by vezycash »

spankalee wrote: post #31

(disclaimer: I work at Google, not on Chrome) The rationale here seems to be that by blocking video autoplay, Chrome incentivized sites shipping huge animated GIFs, or decoding video in JS and painting to canvas, both of which are very suboptimal for users. Another comment points to this issue: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=106364... quote: Unfortunately, full autoplay blocking is counter prod…

Two real reason for this:

1. Ads

2. Make the mobike web worse to shove AMP down our throats

Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome

#128

Post by vezycash »

baybal2 wrote: post #58
spankalee wrote: post #31

(disclaimer: I work at Google, not on Chrome) The rationale here seems to be that by blocking video autoplay, Chrome incentivized sites shipping huge animated GIFs, or decoding video in JS and painting to canvas, both of which are very suboptimal for users. Another comment points to this issue: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=106364... quote: Unfortunately, full autoplay blocking is counter prod…

Man, who came with that idea? I really want to know the name of that product manager. It takes only one of those 4k video ads to kill my data package within seconds, with me not even having an idea of that happening. With amount of stuff you threw at adblock before, I can not keep assuming goodwill from your side. Your explanation about "giant gifs" is so disingenuous.

If mobile web becomes significantly worse, Google will have evidence to back AMP.

Intentionally releasing a virus to sell the cure their cure.

Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome

#129

Post by judge2020 »

gruez wrote: post #62

tangentially related: what's everyone's solution for blocking autoplaying sticky videos? By that I mean the kind that usually shows up on news sites or tech blogs. It usually manifests as a "recommended" video that's totally unrelated to the article at hand, and stars playing without you clicking the play button. If you scroll past the video, many of them convert to a sticky mini player that stays around wherever you…

Disabling JS for the site works for most local news/non-newspaper sources :)
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