Where Customization Begins 

  • Enable tab audio notifiers in all versions of Chrome

  • Many Other Tutorials That Don't Belong In Any Of The Above Sections Here.
Many Other Tutorials That Don't Belong In Any Of The Above Sections Here.
 #27305  by TheAslan
 01 Aug 2013, 21:51
Back in February 2013 Google announced that it would add audio indicators to Chrome tabs so that users would know immediately where audio was coming from that is playing in the browser. This can be especially useful on start if you restore a previous session with dozens of tabs. One or some may load videos, ads with sound or other audio contents and start playing them right away, and it is a great help to quickly uncover where that audio is coming from to turn it off.

Even though the feature has been introduced in February, it has not really been enabled yet. The most likely reason for that is that Google is still tweaking the feature and not yet convinced that it can be enabled for all users.

That does not mean however that you cannot enable the feature right now in your version of Google Chrome. Let me show you how that is done.

Enable audio notifiers in Chrome

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Audio notifiers are implemented in all versions of the Chrome browser, but need to be activated via a startup parameter before it becomes available. What you do need to do is manipulate the Google Chrome shortcut on your system and add the parameter audio notifier -–enable-audible-notifications to it so that audio notifications are enabled in the browser. Let me demonstrate how you do that if you are running Windows.

1. Make sure of that your Chrome browser is closed before you go to step 2.

2. Locate the Google Chrome shortcut that you use to run the browser. The most likely location is the Start menu or the Taskbar.

3. Right-click the icon and select Properties from the Context Menu.

4. Add a space at the very end of the target line and paste the -–enable-audible-notifications afterwards.

5. Open Google Chrome and audio notifications should be enabled.

The best way to test the new feature is to head straight over to YouTube and start playing a video to make sure it is working properly. If it is, you should see an animated favicon in the tab that indicates that audio is playing in it.

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Please note that while this appears to work just fine on YouTube, it won't work on many other sites that use audio or video. I tried it on a couple of streaming sites and none did display the indicator. It is also not working for embedded YouTube videos.

While this limits the functionality significantly, it may be the reason why Google has not yet enabled the feature natively in the web browser.

It is still an interesting feature even though it relies heavily on Google's ability to make it pick up audio universally - or at least nearly that.

Original tutorial article

Edit: Slightly modified steps 1-5 to make sure of that this tutorial is clear enough and easy to follow by TheAslan