Have you ever had multiple tabs open and out of nowhere you hear annoying sounds coming from your speakers? Just 2 years ago we used to have to install an add-on to our browsers to eliminate and block sounds from playing on tabs that are open in the background. One of the great things about modern browsers is the fact that we can now mute our tabs without a lot of effort.
If you are using Chrome:
It should be enabled by default and all you should have to do is right click on the tab in question (you’ll see a speaker to the left of the x button on the tab if it is making sound) and select “Mute Tab”. Conversely if you would like to reinstate sound to the tab you can right click and select “Unmute Tab”.
If you are using Firefox:
If you have the latest version of Firefox then it’s very similar to Chrome. Tabs that are making noise will have a speaker icon on them to the left of the X button, much like Chrome. All you need to do is click on the speaker icon to mute that tab.
If you are using Internet Explorer:
To disable the sound in Internet Explorer perform the following: Go to Internet options > Advanced tab >Multimedia > Uncheck Play sounds in webpages. It’s important to note that this process will disable all sound from playing. It is not selective like the previous two browsers were.
If you are using Edge:
Edge does not offer a way to mute a tab as of right now. However, it does show a speaker on tabs that are playing sound allowing you to zero in on the problem tab to mute or close the part making the sounds. Just another thing that Edge will need to work on for their list of improvements to be made.
If you are using Safari:
Safari lets you mute audio in any open tabs much like the first two browsers listed. For Safari you do not need to navigate through the tabs to mute the audio all you need to do is click and hold the audio button in the “Smart Search field” at the top and you can mute either the current tab that is open, or the other tabs that you have available. To mute any tab you can click the audio button on the right side of the tab in the tab bar. To unmute just click the muted Audio button and you’ll be good to go!
