Chrome 145 change leaves muted Twitch and YouTube streams pausing in the background

People have started noticing since February that YouTube videos and Twitch streams stop playing when you mute them and switch tabs in Chrome. The content stops, as if it’s paused. This change affects live streams as well as regular videos, and it’s annoying for people who multitask. It’s not just free users; YouTube Premium users report the same problem.

Chrome devs introduced this behavior in version M145. They’ve adjusted the browser so that muted media would pause whenever the tab was switched. The reason is probably battery life gains and a reduction in CPU resource usage, as per the discussion thread on the Chromium tracker.

However, users want an option to turn this feature off. People actively mute YouTube videos or Twitch streams to skip ads, or handle other tasks, and silent playback is expected to continue. Now, it’ll stop entirely and only resume once the user returns to the tab, which many people do not want.

Community members share frustration across social media platforms, also mentioning how Turbo subscribers on Twitch are facing the same issue.

There’s one simple fix, involving the tab menu. You’ll have to unmute the media player, right-click on the tab, and select Mute Site. Videos will then play silently even after you switch the tab.

Another workaround is lowering the volume to 1%. You can customize other volume sources to an adequate volume level, but also drop the volume of this video to 1%. Video playback will continue without issues when this is done.

There are other options as well, such as the Mute Tab extension for better control. You can add keyboard shortcuts to silence tabs individually. This will restore the old tab behavior without affecting other sites.

Google Chrome prioritizes system efficiency, and it may suit some people, but others are left disappointed. I hope they revert it to the old method, or add a toggle to disable it. Speaking of browsers, Firefox recently swapped its Avatar for a purple orb, signalling a design refresh. You can read about that here.

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