How to handle "Uncaught (in promise) DOMException: play() failed because the user didn't interact with the document first." on Desktop with Chrome 66?

Question

I'm getting the error message..

Uncaught (in promise) DOMException: play() failed because the user didn't interact with the document first.

..when trying to play video on desktop using Chrome version 66.

I did find an ad that began playback automatically on a website however using the following HTML:

<video
    title="Advertisement"
    webkit-playsinline="true"
    playsinline="true"
    style="background-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); position: absolute; width: 640px; height: 360px;"
    src="http://ds.serving-sys.com/BurstingRes/Site-2500/Type-16/1ff26f6a-aa27-4b30-a264-df2173c79623.mp4"
    autoplay=""></video>

So is by-passing Chrome v66's autoplay blocker really as easy as just adding the webkit-playsinline="true", playsinline="true", and autoplay="" attributes to the <video> element? Are there any negative consequences to this?

Answer 1

To make the autoplay on html 5 elements work after the chrome 66 update you just need to add the muted property to the video element.

So your current video HTML

<video
    title="Advertisement"
    webkit-playsinline="true"
    playsinline="true"
    style="background-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); position: absolute; width: 640px; height: 360px;"
    src="http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/gtv-videos-bucket/sample/BigBuckBunny.mp4"
    autoplay=""></video>

Just needs muted="muted"

<video
    title="Advertisement"
    style="background-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); position: absolute; width: 640px; height: 360px;"
    src="http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/gtv-videos-bucket/sample/BigBuckBunny.mp4"
    autoplay="true"
    muted="muted"></video>

I believe the chrome 66 update is trying to stop tabs creating random noise on the users tabs. That's why the muted property make the autoplay work again.