Do you want to stop sound playing from one website while listening to something on another tab or app? No problem: Just mute the noisy tab. All major web browsers support tab muting, and it’s generally quick, simple, and similar across app versions.
How to Mute a Browser Tab in Google Chrome
The Google Chrome browser doesn’t have a clickable speaker icon in its tabs like many of the other internet browsers, but it does feature a simple menu solution: Right-click on the tab playing the sound, and select the Mute Site option.
Instructions in this article explain how to mute a browser tab in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Brave.
How to Mute A Browser Tab In Microsoft Edge
There are two methods for muting a browser tab in Microsoft Edge.
The easiest way: When a website in a tab is playing audio in the Microsoft Edge browser, a small speaker icon will appear within the tab’s header. Clicking on this icon will mute all audio coming from this tab.
The second way to stop all sound playing in a tab is to right-click on the tab with the speaker icon and click Mute tab in the menu that appears.
How to Mute A Browser Tab In Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox also has two ways to mute a tab that are almost identical to the process in Microsoft Edge.
If you hear audio but can’t see a speaker icon in any of the browser tabs, you might have aother browser window open. To view all open windows, hover your mouse over the app’s icon in the toolbar along the bottom of your screen. A small preview of all open browser windows should appear.
The easiest way: A speaker icon will appear in tabs that are playing audio. To mute the sound coming from these tabs, simply click this speaker icon. Once clicked, the icon will appear to have a line drawn through it and the sound should stop if done correctly.
The second way: You also can right-click on a tab to bring up a menu. Clicking the Mute Tab option will also stop all sound coming from the tab you right-clicked on.
You don’t need to open or switch to the tab playing sound to mute it. Muting a tab can be done entirely while viewing a website in another tab. This works in every browser.
How to Mute A Browser Tab In Safari
Apple’s Safari displays a speaker icon on tabs that are playing audio.
The easiest way to mute a Safari tab: Click the speaker icon within the tab to mute all audio coming from it. Another way: Option-click the speaker icon to mute all audio except that coming from this tab.
Safari also features a speaker icon within the Smart Search field where you type in a web address or search term. This icon will turn blue if audio is playing in your current tab or will change to white with a blue outline if audio is playing in another tab. Clicking the icon when it’s blue will mute the sound in the open tab while clicking on it when it’s white and blue will mute the sound from all of the other tabs.
Option-clicking is when you press a specific key on a keyboard at the same time as you click with a mouse to activate a secondary function. On older Mac keyboards, the Option-click key was the Option key. This is where the phrase comes from. On newer Mac keyboards and on Windows keyboards, the key used is the Alt key.
How to Mute A Browser Tab In Opera
Unlike other popular internet browsers that use a static speaker icon to identify tabs that are playing sound, Opera uses a small animation of a stereo visualizer that plays in the tab while audio is playing.
To mute audio in an Opera tab, hover your mouse over this animated icon to turn it into the common static speaker icon and then click on it.
Tabs can also be silenced in Opera by right-clicking the relevant tab and selecting Mute tab.
How to Mute A Browser Tab In Brave
The cryptocurrency and privacy-focused web browser, Brave, makes muting tabs easy by incorporating similar methods to the previously mentioned browsers.
The easiest way: Click the speaker icon that appears when a tab is making sound.
The second way: Right-click the tab and choose Mute tab from the popup menu.
Like other browsers, tabs can be muted in Brave without switching to them. The browser does render full-screen previews of tabs when you hover your mouse over them, though, which can be a bit jarring. Because of this, you may want to switch to a tab before muting it to avoid the distracting tab preview feature.
Tabs can be unmuted in any browser by simply repeating the steps done to mute them.
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