Chrome 54: background HTML5 video play on Android
Google Chrome 54 for Android introduces new background video playback capabilities to the web browser if HTML5 video elements are played in it.
If you use Chrome on Android, you may have noticed that the browser stops playing videos automatically when you switch to another application, tab in the browser, or lock the device.
While that is desired sometimes, it may irritate you at other times. Maybe you want to turn off the display to save battery while the video, a music video or playlist perhaps, continues to play in the background.
This was not possible up until now, but changes with the release of Chrome 54 for Android.
The browser is currently available on the beta channel. If you run the beta version of Chrome on Android, then you may take advantage of the new feature right away.
First thing you may want to do is check whether you are running Chrome 54 on your Android device.
- Open Chrome on your Android device.
- Tap on the menu icon in the top right corner of the Chrome browser (the three dots).
- Select Help & Feedback from the menu that opens (it is the last entry, you may need to scroll).
- On the page that opens, tap on the menu icon again.
- Select "version info" on the page".
- This displays the version of Google Chrome on the device.
Now, to make use of the new background video playback feature in Chrome, do the following:
- Visit a video page and start to play a video there. You may do this on YouTube, TED, and any other site on the Internet that supports streaming video using HTML5 video (Basically, if the video plays, it should work).
- Open a new tab, switch to another app, or the launcher area of your device.
- Swipe down to display the notifications area.
- There you find a new listing for the video that you started to play. Android lists the name and url, and may display other information such as the application the video is open in.
- Click on the play icon to continue playback of the video. You may tap on pause at any time to pause playback again.
The video starts to play again when you hit the play button. It continues to play regardless of what you do now: lock the phone, open another app, or keep the launcher area open.
Here is a video by Google that demonstrates the functionality:
Google notes that developers can take advantage of background video playback by using the Page Visibility API.
In addition to fullscreen improvements, Chrome on Android now persists the media notification of a backgrounded HTMLVideoElement, allowing a user to continue playing videos while they aren’t visible. Developers can detect background video playback by using the Page Visibility API.
So how is Firefox for Android handling video playback? Better I guess. If you use the browser to play videos on YouTube for instance, playback will continue if you switch to another app or lock the device.
Now You: Does your mobile browser support background playback?
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?