Mute individual Tabs in Google Chrome

Martin Brinkmann
Apr 27, 2019
Google Chrome, Google Chrome extensions
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Tab Muter is a browser extension for the Google Chrome web browser that restores tab muting functionality in the browser.

Google removed options to mute individual tabs in Chrome in recent versions. While the browser still offers controls to mute audio playback in Chrome, muting audio in any tab mutes it for the entire site automatically; this may not be much of an issue for most Chrome users, as it is rare that multiple pages of a site are opened that all play audio.

There are circumstances, however, where this may be useful. Maybe you are playing multiple browser games at once, watch multiple videos but need audio in just one of them, or just want a video to buffer in a tab while watching another.

Several other browsers, for example Firefox, support the muting of individual tabs.

You may mute any site in Chrome by clicking on the icon in front of its address in the user interface. Select Site Settings from the context menu and locate the Sound permission on the page that opens. Set it to Mute to block that particular site from playing audio automatically.

Tab Muter

Tab Muter is a browser extension for Google Chrome that reintroduces tab muting capabilities in the browser. The extension adds its icon to Chrome's main toolbar when you install it. You activate the extension icon to toggle audio functionality of the site in the active tab.

A click mutes audio of the tab, another unmutes it again. A quick test on YouTube revealed that the extension works just fine for the purpose. I used it to mute one YouTube video while audio playback of another was not affected by the muting.

The functionality works for other sites as well. Tab Muter should work for any site that Chrome's own site-wide audio muting works for.

The muting is applied to the tab and not the site. You may notice this when you load another website in the tab that tries to play audio. Any audio content is muted by Tab Muter in the tab regardless of site.

Closing Words

Tab Muter is a well designed extension that restores tab muting functionality in the Chrome browser. Chrome users who miss the functionality may install the browser extension to restore it.

Now You: do you prefer audio muting or site muting? (via Caschy)

Summary
Author Rating
2.5 based on 22 votes
Software Name
Tab Muter
Software Category
Browser
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Comments

  1. Anonymous said on April 28, 2019 at 4:59 pm
    Reply

    The ideal case would be to click on the audio button in the tab, not on the extension button. Still, it’s better that muting the site.

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