Inquiry Regarding Autoplay Pre-Seeding Conditions in Chromium

51 views

Skip to first unread message

videoplayer dev

unread,

Oct 1, 2025, 11:34:18 AM (7 days ago) Oct 1

to Chromium-discuss

Hello,

I'm writing to seek clarification on the video autoplay policy in the Chrome browser.

We are currently investigating differences in how video autoplay functionality behaves across various websites. We've observed that when attempting to autoplay a video without a prior user gesture, some sites can play with audio unmuted, while others require the video to be muted for autoplay to work.

Sites that can autoplay without mute:

youtube.com, coupangplay.com, etc.

Sites that require mute for autoplay:

twitch.tv, etc.

In our research, we've learned that Chrome's "Autoplay Pre-Seeding" policy allows unmuted autoplay for domains that meet certain conditions.

Based on our analysis of these sites, we hypothesize that a key condition for being included in this allowlist is related to the user experience following a failed unmuted autoplay attempt. Specifically, we believe the policy favors sites where, after an unmuted autoplay fails, the player pauses and waits for a user click to resume playback, rather than proceeding with further automatic logic.

For context, our service is currently implemented to immediately retry autoplay in a muted state if the initial unmuted attempt fails.

We would like to confirm if our hypothesis is correct and if this behavior (pausing after a failed attempt and waiting for a user click) aligns with the conditions for the "Autoplay Pre-Seeding" policy.

If our understanding is correct, we are considering changing our service logic to align with this policy.