Background Video Alternatives?

Hi All -

I understand Chrome (and others) have deliberately configured themselves to block autoplay of videos. I have several client sites that are full of background videos, none of which function properly these days, which makes little sense considering EVERYTHING is now video driven online, though I understand they can be annoying to visitors. Those same site videos work on mobile devices, however.

I’ve been hunting through various coding options, which may or may not work, certainly not across all platforms and browsers, so I’m wondering what other developers are doing to remedy this issue?

I can always go back in and replace background vids with stills, not nearly as engaging or appealing, but I need to address the lack of functionality they’ve enjoyed.

I’m wondering if it would be possible to code a query to present to the user up front via a pop-up asking for approval to run vids, then setting a site-wide script, widget or cookie to enable playback on all subsequently visited pages by the user.

What are others doing to address or work around the background video issue?

Thanks in advance!

hi @ludozici you have missunderstanding browsers rules about background video elements. They can play but without sound. To play a sound requires user interaction.

You should revisit why there are issues with playing background videos when there is no sound as playing bg video has no restriction in any browser.

Mobile browsers are different applications that’s is why they work slightly different way. BTW running bg videos on mobile is:

  1. wasting visitors money (big data transfer)
  2. have impact on page accessibility and/or interaction on slow networks.

As you can read in documentation sound need user interaction so universal agreement pop-up doesn’t make sense.

Most of developers follow the rules not to harm clients website ranking.