Windows 10: Enable or Disable Tab Audio Muting in Google Chrome

How to: Enable or Disable Tab Audio Muting in Google Chrome

How to Enable or Disable Tab Audio Muting in Google Chrome in Windows


In Google Chrome, you can enable or disable a flag for an experimental feature to be able to quickly mute or unmute a tab by clicking on the speaker icon (audio indicator) directly on the tab instead of having to right click on the tab and click on "Mute site" or "Unmute site".

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable being able to quickly mute and unmute a tab playing audio in Google Chrome by clicking on the speaker icon on the tab for your account in Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10.



Warning This flag setting is no longer available starting with Google Chrome 71.




EXAMPLE: Mute tab in Google Chrome








Here's How:

1. Open Google Chrome.

2. Copy and paste the link below into the address bar of Chrome, and press Enter.
*Arrow chrome://flags/#enable-tab-audio-muting
3. Select Disabled (default) or Enabled for the Tab audio muting UI control setting you want. (see screenshot below)



4. Click/tap on the RELAUNCH NOW button at the bottom to apply. (see screenshot below)




That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Manage Audio Focus Across Tabs in Google Chrome in Windows
• How to Mute and Unmute a Tab in Microsoft Edge in Windows 10
• How to Allow or Block Sites to Play Sound in Google Chrome in Windows
• How to Add or Remove Close Buttons on Inactive Tabs in Google Chrome
• How to Enable or Disable Chrome.exe Volume Control and Hardware Media Key Handling in Google Chrome

:)

 

Enable or Disable Tab Audio Muting in Google Chrome  

Things have changed as of v71, inexplicably:
Enable or Disable Tab Audio Muting in Google Chrome | Tutorials

 

Enable or Disable Tab Audio Muting in Google Chrome  

It seems they've abandoned the Tab Audio Muting experiment, for whatever reason, and are focusing on a new experiment - Manage audio focus across tabs...
where audio/media from a previous tab is auto-muted, in the background, when opening another...





You have to enable the experiment, though

 

Enable or Disable Tab Audio Muting in Google Chrome  

That actually sounds like a very nice idea ... that should've been implemented in Chrome a long time ago. What took so long?
But removing the clickable sound icon to Mute/Unmute tabs is a downgrade and is going towards a negative direction. Very inconvenient that I have to now Right Click > Mute on the tab. It was easier and more efficient by using the left click instead. Google employees had a brain glitch. Hopefully they can fix the brain glitch so we can get this option back again.

 

Enable or Disable Tab Audio Muting in Google Chrome  

Sad to see such a useful feature being replaced with something more complex and useless!

I think the Chrome Devs just want to p*ss around with new ideas!

The top reasons for abandoning the experiment:

Reason:
Potential dataloss risk/behavioral complexity having an actionable surface so close to a tab close button.
Solution:
Enable hiding of close buttons, everybody knows you can close a tab with a wheel-click.

Reason:
Confusing interactions with mute-whole-site capabilities.
Solution:
Leave site muting in the Site Exceptions list only.

Reason:
Code complexity.
Solution:
Suck it up! To enable/disable a feature with a quick switch of a flag, can't be that complex!!!

 

Enable or Disable Tab Audio Muting in Google Chrome  

Let me elaborate...

First, you'll need to disable the Sound content setting flag, so that you have Mute tab when you right click instead of Mute site...

More to come......