Microsoft is about to limit media autoplay by default in Edge

Soon the Redmond software giant will limit media autoplay by default in Edge. Many months ago, Microsoft Edge received the ability to manage media autoplay on different websites. Those who annoyed by the flood of automatically playing videos can disable media autoplay in Edge's settings. This feature is off by default, so users need to enable it manually. Moreover, a complete autoplay block is possible only after turning on one of the experimental flags. 

Speaking of experimental flags, Microsoft Edge Canary recently received a curious addition called "Autoplay Limit Default Setting." This flag sets autoplay control to "Limit." It is possible that in future updates, Microsoft Edge will switch from "Allow" to "Limit" by default to make the user experience more pleasing.

It is important to note that the "Limit" option does not turn off media autoplay. It will only turn off videos with audio on by default. Muted videos will still be playing automatically. Read more about how media autoplay works in Microsoft Edge here.

You will find the new flag by updating your browser to version 91.0.841.0 in the Canary channel.

Limit media autoplay by default in Edge

1. Open Microsoft Edge.
2. Enter edge://flags/#edge-media-autoplay-limit-default  into the address bar and Hit Enter.
3. Set the Autoplay Limit Default Setting option to Enabled using the drop-down menu on the right.
4. Restart the browser to apply the change.
5. Finally, open the main menu, and select Settings > Cookies and site permissions > Media Autoplay. This parameter should now be set to "Limit."

Unfortunately, the complete media autoplay blocking is still not available "out-of-box." For some reason, Microsoft keeps hiding the required option that prevents any media autoplay, whether it is muted or not.

To completely block autoplaying videos in Microsoft Edge, do the following.

Completely block autoplaying videos in Microsoft Edge

1. Open the Edge browser.
2. Type the following into the address bar: edge://flags/#edge-autoplay-user-setting-block-option.
3. Enable the "Show block option in autoplay settings" flag.
4. Restart the browser.
5. Now, enter edge://settings/content/mediaAutoplay in the address bar and press Enter.
6. Select "Block" from the drop-down menu for the Control if audio or video play automatically option.

Automatically playing videos are not the only thing that many devs abuse on their website. Another thing that annoys users is spammy or straight harmful notifications. To resolve this issue and, at the same time, prevent disabling useful notifications, Microsoft recently introduced the adaptive notification system. It is now available on all channels. You can read more about Adaptive Notifications in Microsoft Edge here.

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