handle Chrome's autoplay policy for WebRTC audio/video playback
domain: developer.chrome.com · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Attempt to attach the remote MediaStream to an audio/video element or AudioContext as soon as it's available.
Detect blocked autoplay by checking AudioContext.state (it stays 'suspended' instead of moving to 'running' if blocked) or by catching the play() promise rejection on media elements.
Fall back to a muted state initially if unmuted playback is blocked — muted autoplay is always allowed.
Prompt for, or wait on, a user gesture (click/tap) and call resume()/play() again inside that gesture handler to unblock audio.
Account for per-domain Media Engagement Index behavior — a user who has previously played audio with sound on your domain may not hit the restriction at all.
Known gotchas
The autoplay restriction applies to WebRTC-sourced MediaStreamTracks the same as any other media — teams sometimes assume WebRTC is exempt because it's 'real-time,' but Chrome treats it like any other audio/video autoplay.
Calling play() speculatively without checking the returned promise/state means failures happen silently — always handle the rejection/suspended state explicitly rather than assume playback succeeded.
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