HTML5 Audio: Chrome on Android doesn't automatically play song vs Chrome on PC does

Question

I've made an HTML5 iPod.

You can try it here.

On a PC, while using Chrome. If I navigate to a song, it starts playing automatically. But while using Chrome on Android it doesn't play the song. I have to hit the play/pause button again to play the audio.

Here is the code which runs, when you select the song to play:

audioPlayer.src=songurl[number];
audioPlayer.oncanplaythrough = "isAppLoaded";
audioPlayer.autoplay = "autoplay";
audioPlayer.addEventListener('ended',nextSong,false);
document.getElementById("player").appendChild(audioPlayer);

and here is the play/pause code.

        if (audioPlayer.paused)
        {
        audioPlayer.play();
        $("#pauseindicator").hide();
        $("#playindicator").show();
        }
        else
        {
        audioPlayer.pause();
        $("#pauseindicator").show();
        $("#playindicator").hide();
        }

Could it have some thing to do with the 'autoplay' variable? The default browser in Android plays the song immediately.

Thanks.

Kamil Szadkowski Kamil Szadkowski · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-19T15:51:18

In case someone bumps into this - Android version of Chrome in fact blocks autoplay function, but you can change settings of the browser. To do this, you have to enter chrome://flags and set Disable gesture requirement for media playback to on. It's impossible to force this setting via web, but if you're writing a dedicated web app like I did, you can use it.

HTML5 Audio: Chrome on Android doesn't automatically play song vs Chrome on PC does

5 Answers