Google Chrome to Get Audio Indicator For Noisy Tabs

I am a multiple tab user, I have multiple tabs open constantly that I use on a daily basis. One thing that annoys me when having multiple tabs open is sounds coming randomly from the tab, whether it’s a notification sound from Facebook or a YouTube video that may autoplay in the background. I always rush to find what tab is making the noise to quickly stop it.

I’m an avid user of Google Chrome, and because I live on the edge I am using the beta version of Google Chrome. Depending on what version of Google Chrome you’re using this feature will be rolling out really soon to you. In the latest Chromium build, you’ll find a quirky new feature that is suppose to help you identify tabs that are currently playing sound.

For those who may not know, Chromium is the open-source project that Google Chrome is so closely related to. To be clear, these are two separate browsers with one being open-source and one being managed by Google with more closed code.

The following is a short video posted up on YouTube by a user who spotted the new feature and is sharing what this new feature looks like and how it works:

We also have another indicator that this feature is still being developed and all of the bugs worked out. This means that it could be a couple months before we see this feature being implemented by Google Chrome and maybe a couple weeks before we start seeing it on the beta versions of Google Chrome.

There was a bug code submitted recently to the Chromium issue center that further strengthens this claim:

Audio indicator in each tab

Basically a throbber animation that cycles over a number of
frames on a bitmap. Currently only 6 frames, which is too little
but good enough for testing.

Note that the tab.cc logic should make it so that the audio indicator
is low on the priority. That is, if the tab is recording or broadcasting and
playing sounds that should show instead of the audio animation.

So, I’m very happy to see this on builds on Chromium and hope to see it come very soon to Google Chrome. As always, Google Chrome keeps innovating and adding features that makes it one of the best web browsers on the market today.