Issue 178297 in chromium: Android Chrome does not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the user

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Status: Unconfirmed
Owner: ----
Labels: Feature-Media Pri-2 Via-Wizard Type-Bug OS-Android

New issue 178297 by iangilman: Android Chrome does not allow applications
to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Example URL:
http://iangilman.com/rdio/chrome-audio/

Steps to reproduce the problem:
Android Chrome restricts playback of HTML5 audio; you need to call .play()
from within a click handler or such. This is an explicit feature, and has
been discussed in
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=138132 . The comment at
the end of that bug says to file a new bug if adding new information, so
that's what I'm doing here.

I work for http://rdio.com, and we'd like to provide mobile playback with
our new JavaScript API. Due to our relationship with the music labels, we
can't just pass out .MP3 URLs, but instead must handle playback ourselves.
For this reason (and others) our JS API creates a non-visible rdio.com
iframe on the API client's site, and we do our playback (among other
things) within that iframe.

This structure works great on desktop, but with Android Chrome it's simply
not possible for us to trigger playback from within the click handler.
Here's the sequence:

1. User clicks
2. We postMessage into the iframe
3. Inside the iframe we do an ajax call to get the MP3 url
4. Inside the iframe we play the MP3

I've mocked this up in a simplified version for testing here:

http://iangilman.com/rdio/chrome-audio/

I realize our scenario may be a bit unusual, but I think it highlights one
of the ways in which this playback restriction is a hindrance to users of
the Android Chrome browser.

What is the expected behavior?
There should be some way to play audio in this scenario. I'm in favor of
removing the restriction entirely, but even some way to keep track that the
postMessage/Ajax chain started with a click would be better than nothing.

What went wrong?
See above.

Did this work before? No

Is it a problem with Flash or HTML5? HTML5

Does this work in other browsers? Yes Opera Mobile

Chrome version: 18.0.1025469 Channel: stable
OS Version: 4.2
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Comment #5 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

According to the comment at
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=138132#c6, the
reasoning for this is to save data usage. However, I have just been
exploring how Chrome for Android handles setting the src of Audio objects
and it seems to pull down the resource at the time src is set, but noops
play for some reason.

The original reasoning for marking the previous issue "won't fix" seems to
be somewhat invalid, as you can download terabytes of images without any
user interaction.

Also, I believe this behavior is off-spec.

This is a huge hinderance for HTML5 gaming.

Another place to test correct behavior is Firefox for Android.
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Comment #6 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

We operate an online learning web site, and due to this issue we are
recommending that our customers use a different browser if they have an
Android device. Many of our users are children, and having sounds
automatically play helps keep them focused and engaged. Of course, we
could add an on-screen "play" button specifically for Android Chrome users,
but this adds unnecessary screen clutter and creates extra development
overhead.

It's only fair to point out that Apple had the same issue with Safari on
iOS 5, and they removed this limitation in iOS 6. I'm sure they had a good
reason.

If data usage is a concern, why not try an approach that is more
user-friendly? You could:

- Make this a setting.
- Display a warning when a user first visits a web page with an audio
element, then provide an option to either enable or disable automatic audio
playback.
- Automatically play audio under Wi-Fi, but not under a cellular connection.
- A combination of the above.
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Comment #7 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

So is anything here is moving forward? Or just left as unimportant issue?
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Comment #8 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Building abstractions on top of the audio api is made needlessly complex by
this - I understand that you do not want audio to be triggerable
arbitrarily by scripts, which makes sense, but there has to be a better way.
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Comment #13 on issue 178297 by ***@opera.com: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

First of all, my personal opinion is that we should honor play() requests.
Ideally we should just set the user_gesture_required_for_media_playback
flag to false for Android.

A dialog could be an option, and if so it could be implemented in a similar
way as the full screen API dialog (i.e. add an interface in the content API
for the browser to implement). But before doing that, let's consider this
scenario:

When a Web developer wishes to trigger audio playback without user
interaction (e.g. in a game or a demo), she finds that the Audio element
does not work on Android. Instead she finds that the Web Audio API does
allow non-user-initiated playback, and so goes ahead and explicitly
pre-loads all audio assets on page load (because that's the way Web Audio
works), instead of streaming them on demand.

So, if we're serious about blocking automatic audio streaming on Android,
we should probably also consider having similar mechanisms for Web Audio -
and right about here things start to get absurd IMO.
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Comment #15 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Another scenario is an instant messaging application, where a short alert
sound is played upon receiving a new message. It's possible in Safari in
iOS, and it should be possible in Chrome for Android.
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Comment #16 on issue 178297 by ***@opera.com: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

I've just discovered another situation where this is causing trouble:
getUserMedia in combination with a <video> element.

For instance, http://shinydemos.com/clock will only show a still image
instead of a moving video unless you disable the user gesture check. The
problem in this case is that video.play() does nothing (as it is blocked by
mediaPlaybackRequiresUserGesture) :-(
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Updates:
Cc: ***@chromium.org

Comment #18 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Issue 235312 has been merged into this issue.
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Updates:
Cc: ***@chromium.org

Comment #19 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Issue 280161 has been merged into this issue.
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Updates:
Owner: ***@chromium.org
Cc: ***@chromium.org

Comment #21 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

(No comment was entered for this change.)
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Comment #22 on issue 178297 by ***@madisonmethodist.com: Android
Chrome does not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit
action by the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Have the same issue with I-frame embedded audio player which presents three
different possible players flash html5 and hls (should cover every
device)Flash is set to autoplay and others are on demand. If flash is not
present html5 is presented and if neither flash or html5 then hls. All
content is hosted remotely on a cdn and the players reside on that server.
But this issue causes it not to work on android. No option but to browse to
site with flash browser such as photon or encourage people to buy anything
but android device since all other devices work flawlessly. I vote for a
fast fix to this issue! I have always loved android, however imo their
recalcitrant attitude is going to destroy what they have worked so hard to
build up over the past few years.
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Comment #23 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

per #6, would you please provide a sample webpage that autoplay works on
ios 6/7 ?

I tried the link in #1 and
http://www.w3schools.com/tags/att_audio_autoplay.asp, and none of them
works.
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Updates:
Cc: ***@chromium.org

Comment #27 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Issue 160543 has been merged into this issue.
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Updates:
Cc: ***@chromium.org

Comment #30 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

(No comment was entered for this change.)
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Comment #31 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

If keeping this restriction, can it at least not fail silently? When using
remote debugging, there is not even an error or warning in the console to
indicate that the audio isn't going to play.
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Comment #32 on issue 178297 by ***@opera.com: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Failing these restrictions originally did throw exceptions, but I don't
think going back to that's an option, it would break any script that fails
to catch the exception. Something in the error console would be OK, though.

I think that if we want to keep these restrictions, we really should
standardize the (optional) behavior, so that people don't have to reverse
engineer to figure out how it works.
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Comment #33 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Sorry for cutting in.
Do I only have to set the user_gesture_required_for_media_playback flag to
false so as to enable autoplay for Android ?
The autoplay function is needed for the device like a kiosk.
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Comment #34 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

yes
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Comment #35 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Post by c***@googlecode.com
Sorry for cutting in.
Do I only have to set the user_gesture_required_for_media_playback flag
to false so as to enable autoplay for Android ?
The autoplay function is needed for the device like a kiosk

yes

I got it. Thank you !
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Comment #36 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Any update on this topic? We are seeking for a solution that somehow the
mobile web browser could automatically start playing the movie material. It
was really frustrated since we've been searching around the internet for
weeks with no luck. Anyone who could provide any hints would be much
appreciated! Thank you!
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Comment #42 on issue 178297 by iangilman: Android Chrome does not allow
applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Seems like if someone wanted to make a patch to remove this restriction
entirely, the "gesture required" flag code might be a good starting point.
I think making a patch would be a good way to move this conversation to the
next level.
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Comment #45 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

From a pseudo-geek that builds solutions for people who are deaf or
blind....
I appreciate all the effort you guys are making to fix this annoying
problem. What Apple, Google, et al have failed to realize, is making a
requirement to click a link that many people can NOT see. I also have a
need to autoplay an mp3 in various venues, for reasons that don't only
include entertainment. The work-arounds (VoiceOver and TalkBack) are
inadequate, at best, and create other problems.
For what it's worth, my thought is to create a switch under Accessibility
options to enable autoplay.
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Comment #50 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

As mentioned previously the Web Audio API can already play without user
gesture so this does not add any security/privacy issues that are not
already possible with that. It serves only to hinder legitimate use cases
e.g. playing music in games.
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Comment #51 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297#c51

The following revision refers to this bug:
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink?view=rev&rev=178731

------------------------------------------------------------------
r178731 | ***@chromium.org | 2014-07-23T04:49:52.868403Z

Changed paths:
M
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/Source/core/html/HTMLMediaElement.cpp?r1=178731&r2=178730&pathrev=178731
D
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/media/video-capture-canvas-expected.txt?r1=178731&r2=178730&pathrev=178731
D
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/media/video-play-require-user-gesture.html?r1=178731&r2=178730&pathrev=178731
M
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/Source/web/WebSettingsImpl.cpp?r1=178731&r2=178730&pathrev=178731
M
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/public/web/WebSettings.h?r1=178731&r2=178730&pathrev=178731
M
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/Source/core/html/HTMLMediaElement.h?r1=178731&r2=178730&pathrev=178731
D
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/media/video-capture-canvas.html?r1=178731&r2=178730&pathrev=178731
D
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/media/video-capture-preview-expected.txt?r1=178731&r2=178730&pathrev=178731
D
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/media/no-autoplay-with-user-gesture-requirement-expected.txt?r1=178731&r2=178730&pathrev=178731
M
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/Source/web/WebSettingsImpl.h?r1=178731&r2=178730&pathrev=178731
D
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/media/video-play-require-user-gesture-expected.txt?r1=178731&r2=178730&pathrev=178731
M
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/Source/core/frame/Settings.in?r1=178731&r2=178730&pathrev=178731
D
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/media/video-capture-preview.html?r1=178731&r2=178730&pathrev=178731
M
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/FlakyTests?r1=178731&r2=178730&pathrev=178731
D
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/media/no-autoplay-with-user-gesture-requirement.html?r1=178731&r2=178730&pathrev=178731

Delete mediaPlaybackRequiresUserGesture

The Android framework does not require a user gesture to begin media
playback.
The web shouldn't have that restriction either.

BUG=178297

Review URL: https://codereview.chromium.org/414543002
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Comment #52 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

The fix affects android webview as setMediaPlaybackRequiresUserGesture API
now useless.
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Comment #54 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297#c54

The following revision refers to this bug:
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink?view=rev&rev=179369

------------------------------------------------------------------
r179369 | ***@chromium.org | 2014-08-01T06:19:42.893742Z

Changed paths:
A
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/media/video-play-require-user-gesture.html?r1=179369&r2=179368&pathrev=179369
M
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/Source/web/WebSettingsImpl.cpp?r1=179369&r2=179368&pathrev=179369
M
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/public/web/WebSettings.h?r1=179369&r2=179368&pathrev=179369
M
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/Source/core/html/HTMLMediaElement.h?r1=179369&r2=179368&pathrev=179369
A
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/media/video-capture-canvas.html?r1=179369&r2=179368&pathrev=179369
A
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/media/video-capture-preview-expected.txt?r1=179369&r2=179368&pathrev=179369
A
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/media/no-autoplay-with-user-gesture-requirement-expected.txt?r1=179369&r2=179368&pathrev=179369
M
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/Source/web/WebSettingsImpl.h?r1=179369&r2=179368&pathrev=179369
A
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/media/video-play-require-user-gesture-expected.txt?r1=179369&r2=179368&pathrev=179369
M
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/Source/core/frame/Settings.in?r1=179369&r2=179368&pathrev=179369
A
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/media/video-capture-preview.html?r1=179369&r2=179368&pathrev=179369
M
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/FlakyTests?r1=179369&r2=179368&pathrev=179369
A
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/media/no-autoplay-with-user-gesture-requirement.html?r1=179369&r2=179368&pathrev=179369
M
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/Source/core/html/HTMLMediaElement.cpp?r1=179369&r2=179368&pathrev=179369
A
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/LayoutTests/media/video-capture-canvas-expected.txt?r1=179369&r2=179368&pathrev=179369

Revert of Delete mediaPlaybackRequiresUserGesture
(https://codereview.chromium.org/414543002/)

Reason for revert:
We're going to gather some data about how users react to autoplaying videos
in order to decide whether to keep this restriction

Post by c***@googlecode.com
Delete mediaPlaybackRequiresUserGesture
The Android framework does not require a user gesture to begin media
playback.
The web shouldn't have that restriction either.
BUG=178297
Committed: https://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink?view=rev&revision=178731

TBR=***@chromium.org,***@opera.com
NOTREECHECKS=true
NOTRY=true
BUG=178297

Review URL: https://codereview.chromium.org/428263004
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Comment #55 on issue 178297 by ***@opera.com: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Hopefully something can be learned from that data that would help improve
the implementation if it can't simply be removed...
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Comment #63 on issue 178297 by ***@opera.com: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Does google.com depend on the restriction being in place, so that it breaks
with no restrictions? That sounds pretty odd...
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Comment #64 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Post by c***@googlecode.com
Does google.com depend on the restriction being in place, so that it
breaks with no restrictions? That sounds pretty odd...

We're going to run an A/B experiment with autoplay enabled and disabled.
In the "autoplay disabled" branch of the experiment, we need that code in
order to not break google.com, which relies upon autoplay working.
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Comment #65 on issue 178297 by ***@opera.com: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

I see, there was already an exemption for google.com, so it wasn't
depending on the default behavior but rather the exemption.

BTW, it should be possible to fix google.com to work around the restriction
by priming audio elements on any user input, which presumably has to occur
anyway before there's any sound to play.
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Comment #72 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

I'm porting a game like app to the web with emscripten. It relies on using
videos as texture animations. The game logic decides when to start a
texture animation. Works great with desktop chrome but I don't seen any way
to make it work in chrome on android.

If it's not possible to to allow all websites to play videos without user
interaction may be it could be allowed for webapps added to the start
screen. They can already request special treatment like being run
fullscreen because there is already user interaction involved
in "installing" them.
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Comment #73 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

This is an incredibly strange limitation to impose, given the Media Source
Extensions spec and the Chromium developers' eagerness to implement it.
With this API I can download an entire video via XMLHttpRequest and have it
ready, but am unable to play it until the user performs a gesture on their
device.

Furthermore, this limitation hasn't really stopped those most determined
from autoplaying videos. I work for an online ad company and have recently
been tasked with animating videos in a canvas element instead of a video
element, purely because one of our competitors has done this and our
customers are demanding it. Rather than preventing us from autoplaying
videos, the Chromium and Safari developers have instead forced us to choose
a less efficient video encoding method and actually increased the amount of
data downloaded by users, as well as increased power usage from having
JavaScript decode video frames instead of the native video decoders.
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Updates:
Labels: Cr-Security-UX

Comment #74 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

darin, klobag, felt: Where should we be on this?
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Comment #76 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

We are investigating the impact of autoplay in
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=402044.

At the same time, Firefox is considering to require user gesture even
autoplay is true for video.
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Comment #77 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Issue 410226 has been merged into this issue.
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Comment #78 on issue 178297 by ***@hicksathome.com: Android Chrome
does not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action
by the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

It's things like this that make me miss programming in COBOL.
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Comment #79 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

I doubt A/B testing will produce meaningful conclusions. You'd be
controlling the very variable that you should be observing, which is
whether or not end-users want autoplay on or off. And imo, even with valid
results, the only thing a study like this should inform is what the default
is to be for a user-configurable setting.

More generally, I think it's a bad idea to patronize one's users. Something
is obviously wrong when the outcome of a policy is exactly the opposite of
its supposed intent. Yet this is the predictable result of an approach that
presumes people incapable of acting in their own (and their own customers')
best interests.
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Comment #85 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Wouldn't it make sense to extend the bug to include HTML video too? It's
basically the same thing, isn't it?
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Comment #87 on issue 178297 by ***@sdale.org: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

I'm creating a chat HTML5 application and need to play a tiny MP3 upon new
message delivery. Please allow for this, make a user setting or whatever
you feel the need to do.
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Comment #88 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

By the way, a workaround for audio is to use the WebAudio API instead.
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Comment #91 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Can you use gamepad-control to set focus, e.g. inputbox or click a link?

We should recognize it as user gesture. If not, it is a bug we can fix.
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Comment #92 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

I don't know - for the use case of HTML5 games, it's irrelevant, since
games generally do not make use of anything focusable (canvas only).
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Comment #93 on issue 178297 by ***@samsung.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

I agree this is a bug that should be fixed. If the user starts interacting
with the gamepad on a given page than it's probably ok to allow that page
to start audio. It is far from trivial what would be an appropriate
behavior considering both UX and security though.
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Updates:
Cc: -***@chromium.org

Comment #94 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

(No comment was entered for this change.)
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Comment #95 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Recognizing gamepad actions as user gestures is not sufficient for in-game
sounds which are not triggered by the user's character.

Per the original report, something that would make this a lot better would
be keeping track of event chains having started with a user gesture. That
would enable one sound to play after another, at least.
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Comment #96 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Alternatively, allowing DataURL sounds to play would remove the hindrance
for many webapps & games, but without additional data usage.
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Updates:
Cc: ***@chromium.org

Comment #97 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

(No comment was entered for this change.)
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Comment #98 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

This is unbelievable. Whoever took the design decision to implement this
limitation was a RETARDED.

First of all, there's no reason this should be applied when connected via
wifi, it only makes sense when connected via mobile data.

Secondly, the "only if started by user action" paradigm is STUPID. It
doesn't fulfil the purpose of protecting the user from playing unwanted
audio in the first place, and the limitations are unacceptable, because it
would require a user interaction for EVERY single adio that needs to be
played (I have verified: even if the user triggers an audio by a click, any
other subsequent audio that needs to play automatically cannot).

How is it possible that you don't see the OBVIOUS and only correct way to
do this, if you really want to protect the user from undesired streaming of
media??
Just issue a popup prompt the first time a page wants to play some media
without user interaction. Ask for user confirmation and give the user the
option to check "don't show this message again" (or "allow future media
streamings from this page" or whatever). That's the ONLY acceptable way of
limiting playing media, if it has to be limited at all.

This is ridiculous, never seen anything this stupid.
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Comment #102 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

#99: this functionality is already possible on iOS, albeit with a little
doing. On the first touch event, you can call a .play() method and have it
take, and _all_ subsequent ,play()'s will work. On Android Chrome, there is
a 1-touch-1-play requirement for <audio> . This, in combination with Issue
424174, make Android Chrome almost unusable for any kind of multimedia
experience at the moment.
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Updates:
Cc: -***@opera.com -***@chromium.org

Comment #103 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

#102, there is non 1-touch-1-play requirement for <audio>.

If a user gesture is involved in calling play() or load(), the media
element no longer requires any user gesture for subsequent play() calls.
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Comment #104 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

#103, can you elaborate? What you are saying seems to contradict Issue
350645.

Are the Android limitations on this documented anywhere other than this
issue and the chromium code?

More broadly, it seems as though Chrome has a whole bunch of (afaik)
undocumented limitations and quirks. I know it's broader than this specific
issue, but I would like to urge the Chrome team to please start documenting
this stuff.
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Comment #106 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Changing the src attribute on the same element seems to only work for video.

Video (working on desktop & android):
https://jsfiddle.net/es339cht/1/

Audio (working on desktop, not working on android):
https://jsfiddle.net/es339cht/2/

Do you have an example that works with audio?
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Comment #107 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

#106, it looks like an issue with your audio file. The ended event is never
fired, possibly some format issue with the mp3 file.

I tried http://www.w3schools.com/htmL/horse.mp3, and the ended event is
fired.
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Comment #110 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

#109: That's excellent, thank you so much for the lead on this.
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Comment #112 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Hi, I want to play audio right after my game is loaded. Here is a little
demo (see the source code) http://www.ivank.net/veci/sound .
It works in Firefox for Android, but not in Chrome for Android.

I can play audio right after page is loaded in Chrome for Android using Web
Audio API. But it requires decompressing the whole audio file into raw
data, my 20min will take 400 MB of RAM.

Isn't it just stupid to restrict HTML5 Audio, but not Web Audio API?
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Comment #113 on issue 178297 by ***@knoblach.de: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Dudes, please just fix this. I just wasted 2 hours of lifetime searching
for a bug in my code. Even fracking Internet Explorer works, this is
unbelievable...

Many greets from Germany,
Peter
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Comment #114 on issue 178297 by ***@gmail.com: Android Chrome does
not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by
the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

I/chromium(11922): [INFO:CONSOLE(0)] "Failed to execute 'play'
on 'HTMLMediaElement': API can only be initiated by a user gesture."

I'm getting this error from my new HTML5 web app for the blind running on
Google Chrome on Android 5.01 (HTC One M8) when trying to play sounds that
are automatically generated from live camera frames. Requiring a user
gesture is not acceptable here (or at most once at program start, but
certainly not every few seconds). Why does this restrictive API invocation
policy exist? Enabling the "Disable gesture requirement for media playback"
in chrome://flags is a workaround that fixes the problem, but is too much
hassle for the average (blind) user of my web app. Moreover, the "save
data" argument does not apply at all in my case, because I am playing a URI
resource that is being generated on-the-fly in memory, with zero external
communication.

BTW, Firefox on Android does not give this problem and works as intended
(by me) out-of-the-box.

Thanks
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Comment #115 on issue 178297 by ***@opera.com: Android Chrome does not
allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action by the
user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Issue 462859 has been merged into this issue.
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Comment #119 on issue 178297 by ***@chromium.org: Android Chrome
does not allow applications to play HTML5 audio without an explicit action
by the user
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=178297

Issue 558372 has been merged into this issue.
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