Google Chrome Will Make It Much Easier To Mute Tabs

Google is making it easier to mute tabs in Chrome. It is placing the mute button right on the tab strip, allowing you to mute audio from that tab with a single click.

In its current form, Google Chrome displays a speaker icon on the tab strip. It appears when that tab starts playing audio. This serves as an indicator of where the sound is coming from. You can right-click on the tab and select “Mute site” to stop the sound. Alternatively, you can visit the browser’s Global Media Controls to pause the audio or video that’s playing.

But both of these methods require two. Google wants to simplify this process. Going forward, it will replace the aforementioned speaker icon on the tab strip with a mute button. Well, it’s still the same icon but with added functionality. It is now responsive and lets you mute/unmute audio from that tab with just a click.

First spotted by Chrome Story, this new mute button is currently available in the Canary version of Chrome on all major platforms, including Windows, Chrome OS, Mac, Fuchsia, and Linux. However, it isn’t enabled by default. You will need to manually turn it on from the chrome://flags page. You need to enable the following flag:

Tab audio muting UI control: When enabled, the audio indicators in the tab strip double as tab audio mute controls. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, Fuchsia

Now restart Chrome, open a tab, and play some audio. You should see the mute button on the tab strip up top. Clicking it will mute the audio.

Google is testing a one-click mute button for Chrome

You might have come across numerous websites on the internet that automatically play videos or ads. This could be annoying and at times, distracting too. Thankfully, Google Chrome offers several features to help you in this situation. The aforementioned speaker icon as well as the Global Media Controls let you quickly pause or mute those videos or ads.

Now, with the upcoming one-click mute button, the company is making things simpler. Of course, this feature is still in the early stages of development. Google could change how it works after hearing feedback from early users. Perhaps it could put the button in the Global Media Controls as well. We will keep a close eye on it and let you know as and when we have more information, or when the public rollout begins.