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This is a very user-friendly feature, kudos to Apple for making the change. I hope other browsers follow in their steps. I think every time I've encountered a

This is a very user-friendly feature, kudos to Apple for making the change. I hope other browsers follow in their steps. I think every time I've encountered a website that autoplays video, it's been an annoyance. But maybe I haven't considered the topic with enough depth, what are examples of legitimate use-cases for autoplay video?

atomwaffel 9y ago
YouTube. Netflix.
- bwilliams18 9y ago
  Websites I'd certainly whitelist.
  - dgfgfdagasdfgfa 9y ago
    Not to mention it still seems much more user friendly to make this opt-in rather than opt-out.
  - atomwaffel 9y ago
    Oh, absolutely. I'd even expect them to be whitelisted by default (although that would pose the interesting problem of deciding which sites deserve the privilege of being whitelisted out of the box).
    - wapz 9y ago
      Unfortunately if there is a "default" whitelist, it will become a "whoever pays $x money gets on the defaulted list." (I'm not referring to only Apple but if Chrome, Firefox, etc come out with the feature).
- toomanybeersies 9y ago
  Youtube autoplay is the devil. If you want to open some videos in several tabs, you have to individually pause every tab. It's a real pain. I'd much prefer it if Youtube autoplayed only when you switch over to the tab.
  - ClassyJacket 9y ago
    It already does behave like that for me. Definitely in Safari but I think in Chrome too.
  - janekm 9y ago
    It does for me, using safari.
yaur 9y ago
One place I did a project for had a web based front end for a CCTV system that would autoplay video when navigating to a dvr, camera, etc. IOS was a PITA because it wouldn't autoplay and there were some significant UI tweaks around that difference. Of course since this only effects video that includes an audio track it wont impact them. I can't recall anything that auto plays video with audio that wasn't user hostile.
- rbritton 9y ago
  Ubiquiti's [0] security cameras also transmit audio, so this may affect their live interface or that of similar products. I'm far more in favor of this new option than annoyed by needing an additional action to play the video though. [0]: https://www.ubnt.com/products/#unifiVideo https://www.ubnt.com/products/#unifiVideo
  - tinus_hn 9y ago
    There is a per site permissions system so you can allow the things you want.
benologist 9y ago
It's not that there's no reasons to have them, it's that companies like CNN abuse the privilege cause their advertisers don't mind embellished numbers.
azmenak 9y ago
We use keyboard controls in our app (vidhub.co) to control media, looks like a Safari 11 user will no longer be able to just hit a key to start a video if Safari's "automatic inference engine" chooses to block us.
- dragonsky 9y ago
  I believe you can disable the restriction for particular sites if required.
- jlarocco 9y ago
  If it were up to me, they'd remove that ability altogether. Websites that screw with the keyboard are a huge pet peeve of mine.
- jernoble 9y ago
  A "keypress" event counts as a user gesture, so as long as your code looks like: document.addEventListener('keypress', event => { if (event.key === 'space') video.play(); }); ...then everything should just work fine.
deleted 9y ago
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atomwaffel 9y ago

YouTube. Netflix.

bwilliams18 9y ago
Websites I'd certainly whitelist.
- dgfgfdagasdfgfa 9y ago
  Not to mention it still seems much more user friendly to make this opt-in rather than opt-out.
- atomwaffel 9y ago
  Oh, absolutely. I'd even expect them to be whitelisted by default (although that would pose the interesting problem of deciding which sites deserve the privilege of being whitelisted out of the box).
  - wapz 9y ago
    Unfortunately if there is a "default" whitelist, it will become a "whoever pays $x money gets on the defaulted list." (I'm not referring to only Apple but if Chrome, Firefox, etc come out with the feature).
toomanybeersies 9y ago
Youtube autoplay is the devil. If you want to open some videos in several tabs, you have to individually pause every tab. It's a real pain. I'd much prefer it if Youtube autoplayed only when you switch over to the tab.
- ClassyJacket 9y ago
  It already does behave like that for me. Definitely in Safari but I think in Chrome too.
- janekm 9y ago
  It does for me, using safari.

yaur 9y ago

One place I did a project for had a web based front end for a CCTV system that would autoplay video when navigating to a dvr, camera, etc. IOS was a PITA because it wouldn't autoplay and there were some significant UI tweaks around that difference. Of course since this only effects video that includes an audio track it wont impact them. I can't recall anything that auto plays video with audio that wasn't user hostile.

rbritton 9y ago
Ubiquiti's [0] security cameras also transmit audio, so this may affect their live interface or that of similar products. I'm far more in favor of this new option than annoyed by needing an additional action to play the video though. [0]: https://www.ubnt.com/products/#unifiVideo https://www.ubnt.com/products/#unifiVideo
- tinus_hn 9y ago
  There is a per site permissions system so you can allow the things you want.

benologist 9y ago

It's not that there's no reasons to have them, it's that companies like CNN abuse the privilege cause their advertisers don't mind embellished numbers.

azmenak 9y ago

We use keyboard controls in our app (vidhub.co) to control media, looks like a Safari 11 user will no longer be able to just hit a key to start a video if Safari's "automatic inference engine" chooses to block us.

dragonsky 9y ago
I believe you can disable the restriction for particular sites if required.
jlarocco 9y ago
If it were up to me, they'd remove that ability altogether. Websites that screw with the keyboard are a huge pet peeve of mine.
jernoble 9y ago
A "keypress" event counts as a user gesture, so as long as your code looks like: document.addEventListener('keypress', event => { if (event.key === 'space') video.play(); }); ...then everything should just work fine.

deleted 9y ago

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