Firefox/Block Playback
< Firefox
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Overview
Videos which autoplay in the background will now have their load deferred until the tab is visible for the first time -- this avoids autoplay during session restore and premature playback. This means no more "Where's that sound coming from?" moments when an ad for instance decides to autoplay in a tab you've specifically opened in the background. Resources will still be preloaded if indicated but Firefox will delay the start of playback until you actually visit the tab. Once a tab / RenderFrame has ever played media before, it's allowed to continue to autoplay/autoload indefinitely; this is to support playlist type applications. This feature prevents obviously user annoyance but also conserves power as Firefox will only consume power once the tab is foregrounded.
Issue
This mechanism will also block notification sounds from websites such as Facebook or Gmail if a user open the tab but haven’t visited it yet. There are also users who want to open new tab for music without needing to visit the tab. The mechanism will force users to visit the tab for the music to start playing.
Other Resources
MVP Scope
Meta Bug: 1308154 - (block-autoplay-media) [meta] Block autoplay media until the tab is visible at first time
| ID | Summary | Status | Target milestone | Resolution | Assigned to | Depends on | Blocks | Whiteboard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1262053 | Block playback of media until document is visible | VERIFIED | mozilla51 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1235612, 1242874, 1262358, 1300459, 1322505, 1330963, 1331317 | 1187778, 1265981, 1296163, 1298777, 1302350, 1308154 | |
| 1302350 | Refactor the block-media-element feature. | RESOLVED | mozilla52 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1262053, 1308119, 1315521, 1315551, 1315564, 1317167 | 1322384, 1244768, 1308154, 1321196 | |
| 1308153 | Implement the new UX visual mechanism for blocking autoplay media | RESOLVED | mozilla52 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1319526, 1319529, 1319771, 1320005, 1327045, 1327205, 1328058 | 1308154 | |
| 1308399 | [UX] UX Spec for Delay Autoplay | RESOLVED | --- | FIXED | Mark Liang(:mark_liang) | 1308154 | ||
| 1314220 | Add the Telemetry for blocking autoplay media | VERIFIED | mozilla53 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154 | ||
| 1319526 | Media autoplay blocking icon has the wrong tooltip | RESOLVED | --- | WORKSFORME | 1308153, 1308154 | |||
| 1319529 | The unblocking icon didn't be hided when resuming Flash | RESOLVED | mozilla53 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1330195 | 1308153, 1308154 | |
| 1319771 | If the pinned tab is the first tab in the tab list, the media won't be blocked after browser restarts | VERIFIED | mozilla54 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308153, 1308154 | ||
| 1320005 | Don't show 'play tab' icon for video without audio track | VERIFIED | mozilla53 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1309162 | 1308153, 1308154 | |
| 1322505 | Don't resume the video after calling video.pause() | VERIFIED | mozilla53 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1328058, 1341062 | 1262053, 1308154 | |
| 1328058 | Tab displays "play" button or sound indicator when the only media element is playing and has no sound | VERIFIED | mozilla54 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308153, 1308154, 1322505 | ||
| 1329170 | Play Tab indicator looks pixelated in pinned tabs | VERIFIED | mozilla54 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154 | ||
| 1329179 | Play Tab indicator is displayed on a foreground tab | VERIFIED | mozilla54 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154 | ||
| 1330195 | The audio indicator doesn't work for flash on Linux | RESOLVED | --- | DUPLICATE | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154, 1319529 | ||
| 1330232 | Blocked media was resumed with sound when user click "mute tab" in the pop-up menu | RESOLVED | mozilla53 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154, 1336309 | ||
| 1330644 | No indications that a video with no audio track is blocked | RESOLVED | --- | WONTFIX | 1308154 | |||
| 1330681 | Play tab indicator has no hover state in pinned tabs | VERIFIED | mozilla54 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154 | ||
| 1330929 | Play tab icon not displayed for certain plugins | RESOLVED | --- | WORKSFORME | 1331317 | 1308154 | ||
| 1331317 | Only enable pref "media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground" on Nightly | VERIFIED | mozilla53 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1262053, 1308154, 1330929, 1330963 | ||
| 1336309 | Modify the access key for "play tab" option | VERIFIED | Firefox 54 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1330232 | 1308154 | |
| 1337232 | Enable pref "media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground" by default | VERIFIED | mozilla54 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1345947 | 1308154 | |
| 1337704 | Flickery transition between tabs indicators (play tab -> sound) | RESOLVED | --- | WONTFIX | 1308154 | |||
| 1338137 | If the first tab is pinned and muted - media is not blocked after browser restart | VERIFIED | mozilla54 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1348859 | 1308154 | |
| 1338145 | Social media: notification inconsistent behavior (Play tab indicator + sound) | RESOLVED | --- | INVALID | 1308154 | |||
| 1343465 | The tab should show the "play tab" icon even the tab was muted. | RESOLVED | mozilla54 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1179542 | 1308154 | |
| 1345947 | The blocked autoplay media icon appears for tabs that I've seen before | RESOLVED | --- | DUPLICATE | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154, 1337232 | ||
| 1347758 | HTML5 video/audio doesn't play if node was removed in background tab | RESOLVED | mozilla55 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154, 1350869 | ||
| 1347791 | The pinned tab shows play tab icon every time when restarts browser | VERIFIED | Firefox 56 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1449022 | 1308154 | |
| 1348326 | BBC video/audio fails to load after focusing the video’s tab | RESOLVED | --- | WORKSFORME | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154, 1350869 | [platform-rel-BBC][platform-rel-BBCNews] | |
| 1348759 | The video/audio on be-at.tv is not working as expected after focusing the video's tab | RESOLVED | --- | DUPLICATE | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154, 1350869 | ||
| 1348859 | Focusing an opened Facebook game tab no longer outputs the audio | RESOLVED | --- | DUPLICATE | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154, 1338137, 1350869 | ||
| 1348879 | Playbutton not visible when opening a video from givemesport.com in a new tab | RESOLVED | --- | DUPLICATE | 1308154, 1350869 | |||
| 1348909 | Focusing the Web Skype tab while being called does not output the call audio | RESOLVED | --- | DUPLICATE | 1308154, 1350869 | |||
| 1349202 | Block Playback feature is not working as intended on several websites | RESOLVED | --- | DUPLICATE | 1308154, 1350869 | |||
| 1350947 | Postpone loading NPAPI Flash content until the tab is resumed | RESOLVED | --- | WONTFIX | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154 | ||
| 1352014 | Add the flag "RELEASE_OR_BETA" for the pref "media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground" | RESOLVED | mozilla55 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154 | ||
| 1358211 | Blocking autoplay for background tabs (bug 1308154) is breaking twitter videos | RESOLVED | --- | WORKSFORME | 1308154 | |||
| 1367356 | Add telemetry to measure how many Flash contents are blocked by blocking autoplay media | RESOLVED | --- | WONTFIX | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154 | ||
| 1378105 | Media is not blocked for previously unfocused closed tabs after restoring them from the History menu | RESOLVED | --- | WORKSFORME | 1274919, 1308154 | |||
| 1387917 | Turn on the pref "media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground" by default | RESOLVED | mozilla57 | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154 | ||
| 1394455 | [e10s] Media is unblocked while hovering an unfocused tab | VERIFIED | mozilla57 | FIXED | Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️) | 1308154, 1385453 | [photon-performance] [testcoverage] | |
| 1572798 | Video element created using document.open() doesn't work | RESOLVED | 86 Branch | FIXED | Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio] | 1578379, 1643204 | 1308154, 1582042, 1685201 | |
| 1611748 | video does not play in a dynamically created iframe (friendly) | RESOLVED | --- | WORKSFORME | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154 | ||
| 1684876 | "Mute Tab" sometimes starts playing the tab's video, with sound | RESOLVED | 95 Branch | FIXED | kz04px | 1188860, 1308154 | ||
| 1685163 | MediaStreamTrack freezes when played in opened popup (used to work if visiting fullscreen) | RESOLVED | --- | WORKSFORME | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154 | ||
| 1733902 | Autoplay fails if the player is switched in a background tab | VERIFIED | 96 Branch | FIXED | Alastor Wu [:alwu][PTO, back on 12/15] | 1308154, 1739685 |
46 Total; 0 Open (0%); 30 Resolved (65.22%); 16 Verified (34.78%);
Schedule
Targeting: Firefox 52
Team
Eng: Alastor, JW, Kaku
Program Management: Blake, Josh
UX: Mark, Morpheus
QA: SoftVision