[Webkit-unassigned] [Bug 178120] New: Audio autoplay restrictions favor abusive content

[bugzilla-daemon at webkit.org]

https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=178120

            Bug ID: 178120
           Summary: Audio autoplay restrictions favor abusive content
           Product: WebKit
           Version: Safari 11
          Hardware: Unspecified
                OS: Unspecified
            Status: NEW
          Severity: Normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: Media Elements
          Assignee: webkit-unassigned at lists.webkit.org
          Reporter: ashley at scirra.com

In Safari 11, by default web content cannot play an Audio element outside of a user gesture. However after the first user gesture, web content can play audio at any time with the Web Audio API.

Therefore beyond the first input, any abusive web content that wants to annoy the user can do so with the Web Audio API. However playback of Audio elements continues to be restricted. This restriction only impedes legitimate use cases. For example in our HTML5 game engine, we want to play long music tracks with Audio elements, since it can stream them. (The Web Audio API requires tracks to be fully downloaded and decompressed before playback starts, which has much longer latency and much higher memory usage.) However we continue to be limited by audio element restrictions even after the first user gesture. We can circumvent this with the Web Audio API, but it's inefficient.

Therefore we have to choose between: efficient playback with restrictions, or inefficient playback with no restrictions. We shouldn't have to make this choice. Safari should unblock playback of audio-only media elements after the first input - the same as AudioContext.

-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are the assignee for the bug.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.webkit.org/pipermail/webkit-unassigned/attachments/20171010/76de95a6/attachment.html>