Automatically Mute Chrome Tabs When Active Tab Plays Audio

If there are multiple tabs that play audio in Chrome, you might be confused by the source tab of the audio. You will have to go through all the tabs of this type that read the audio and pause all others. Then only you could go back to your active tab to play the desired audio, otherwise, all the audios would overlap. But it turns out that Chrome also has a feature to handle this. You can automatically turn off audio from all other tabs in Chrome when the active tab starts to play. There is also a Chrome extension for the same. We will make a comparison between the two, including their advantages and disadvantages. Let's start with the guide.

Disable other Chrome tabs when the active tab reads audio

To disable other tabs in Chrome, we will use two different Chrome flags. If you're not aware, these are hidden experimental features for normal users. To get your hands on these features, you will first have to activate the different hidden indicators. In this guide, the two Google Chrome flags that are about to be used are Audio Focus Application and Multimedia Session Service. Follow the steps below to activate them. In addition, the latest stable version of Chrome 78 has purchased the password leak detection feature. Refer to the guide for more information.

Cut tabs in Chrome via flags

1. On your Chrome browser, type chrome: // flags.
2. Use the search bar to find the audio focus and multimedia session service flags.
3. Click on fault keyword and select enabled in the drop-down menu. Do the same for both flags.
4. Now you will have to restart the Chrome browser. Click on Now restart button present at the bottom.

That's it. Here are the steps to disabling other tabs in Chrome when active tabs are reading audio. However, if you do not want to perform the steps above, you can also call on Smart Mute Chrome Extension. This also performs a task quite similar to the one mentioned above, but not exactly the same thing. See the next section below for more information on this topic, as well as its advantages and disadvantages.

Extension or Chrome Flag?

The biggest difference between the two is that the extension simply mutes the audio from other Chrome tabs. This would not pause the audio. The sound will continue to be broadcast, but without sound. On the other hand, Chrome flags pause audio on all other tabs. This gives you the ability to read audio directly from the point where you stopped when you finished with the current tab. So in this case, the flags have the advantage over the extension.

On the other hand, a feature that I find very useful in the extension is the ability to blacklist sites. Some websites automatically start playing ads and videos in the background. Follow these tips to block ads on Android devices. In these cases, you can add these websites to the blacklist. But you will also end up allowing this third-party extension to read your browsing history. So, make your decision accordingly.

With this, we conclude the guide on how to disable other tabs in Chrome when active tabs play audio. Let us know which of the two methods you prefer. In addition, if you have problems with this guide, ask your questions in the comments section below.

Read more: Install DTS: X Ultra and DTS: X headphones on any Android device

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