Bug 251436

Summary:	mp4 URLs don't respect Never Auto-Play
Product:	WebKit	Reporter:	Jeff Johnson <opendarwin>
Component:	Media	Assignee:	Nobody <webkit-unassigned>
Status:	REOPENED ---
Severity:	Normal	CC:	bugzilla, eric.carlson, jean-yves.avenard, jer.noble, webkit-bug-importer
Priority:	P2	Keywords:	InRadar
Version:	Safari 16
Hardware:	Mac (Apple Silicon)
OS:	macOS 13

Description Jeff Johnson 2023-01-31 07:26:11 PST

Testing with Safari 16.3 on macOS 13.2 and 12.6.3

Steps to reproduce:
1) Open Safari Websites Preferences
2) Set Auto-Play to Never Auto-Play
3) Open https://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/data/LATEST/current_eit_171.mp4 in a new tab

Expected results: The video does not autoplay.

Actual results: The video does autoplay.

Comment 1 Alexey Proskuryakov 2023-01-31 12:58:52 PST

As a user, I wouldn't expect this setting to apply to standalone media documents. Clearly you find otherwise, let's have experts comment on what is expected here.

Comment 2 Radar WebKit Bug Importer 2023-02-07 07:27:16 PST

<rdar://problem/105127856>

Comment 3 Eric Carlson 2023-02-07 08:14:47 PST

This behavior is by design - for better or worse - see https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=157479.

Comment 4 Jeff Johnson 2023-02-07 08:20:29 PST

(In reply to Eric Carlson from comment #3)
> This behavior is by design - for better or worse - see
> https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=157479.

Can't the "better or worse" be discussed? There's no discussion or justification in the linked bug.

Comment 5 Jeff Johnson 2023-02-07 08:25:34 PST

Serious question: How can I file bugs against a design, without getting dismissed? In general, I find the "works as designed" response extremely frustrating. It's good to know that this was intended rather than by accident, but the behavior was definitely contrary to my expectation as a user, where "Never" means literally never and not sometimes.

Comment 6 Eric Carlson 2023-02-07 11:54:39 PST

Fair enough, I should have noted that the behavior was intentional and left it open for discussion.

I will reopen this bug for consideration.

Comment 7 Jeff Johnson 2023-02-07 17:39:02 PST

(In reply to Eric Carlson from comment #6)
> Fair enough, I should have noted that the behavior was intentional and left
> it open for discussion.
> 
> I will reopen this bug for consideration.

Thank you.

What was the rationale behind the exception granted before? https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=157479

From my perspective, the considerations are as follows:
1. "Never" seems unambiguous.
2) Users don't always know what they're clicking, especially since Show Status Bar is disabled by default.
3) URLs can be opened by other apps.
4) URLs can be opened by redirects.
5) URLs can be opened by window.open().

In short, the user's intentions with regard to autoplay are explicitly revealed by their Preferences/Settings, and video URLs can come to be loaded unintentionally, so the former ought to take precedence over the latter.