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How does YouTube unmute ads? Can this be disabled?

7 points by qnleigh ↗ HN
I noticed this evening that YouTube has started unmuting my MacBook during ads. I mute the first ad, but then the second one starts playing out loud. I didn't know that Chrome had permission to control volume, and I can't find anything about this online. When did it start happening, and is there any way to disable this permission for certain apps?

10 comments

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qnleigh
It seems like turning down the volume to zero instead of muting prevents this, at least for now. Hopefully they don't work around this work-around.

It's crazy to me that apps have this access. This could lead to a lot of embarrassment in the certain settings.

RGamma
> my MacBook

Hahaha

jakabia
Why are you laughing on this?
RGamma
It's yours to the degree IP law and lawyers say it is. Your particular problem may or may not stem from that fact, but the direction things (DRM) are going in have been clear for a long time now.
hnthrowaway0328
Basically my No.1 rule about Ads is that I don't buy any brand in the Ads and I tell my family and friends about this too.

Of course occasionally it's a brand pretty tough to avoid and then I wonder why they need the Ads anyway...

RainbowL
YouTube may automatically unmute ads if it detects user interaction, such as clicking on the video or scrolling within the YouTube interface. This practice is intended to grab attention and ensure ads are heard when the viewer shows active interest.

Unfortunately, this behavior is controlled by YouTube, and there’s no direct way to disable it. However, you can:

-Mute System Audio: Keep your device’s audio muted when browsing YouTube. -Ad Blockers: Use browser extensions to block ads entirely, though this may violate YouTube’s terms of service. -Premium Subscription: Subscribe to YouTube Premium to enjoy an ad-free experience.

qnleigh
It's unmuting system audio though! Unless I'm misunderstood what the hardware "mute" button does on my MacBook (and I'm pretty sure I'm not).
qnleigh
Also, out of curiosity, did you use an LLM to write this answer, or to edit it? It reads like you might have, but I'm not sure how good I am at picking up on this sort of thing.
hack_fraud13
Wow that is unbelievably user-hostile design. I'm not able to recreate this behavior on my Mac (Ventura 13.6.3) or Chrome (Version 130.0.6723.117). Are you running a different OS/version of Chrome?

Anyway if I can get it to trigger the unmute I think I'd try the following:

> userscript in Chrome that blocks access to system settings

> userscript that automatically mutes volume when new page is loaded

> (lame GUI way) check system settings in mac for app restrictions

> (super hacky) write a bash script that perpetually mutes volume

This is a bit of a tangent but it's odd you're having this problem since Mac's tend to be pretty locked down with 3rd party permissions. I'm having trouble write now writing a bash script just to toggle the natural scrolling setting on a mouse.